In Mindful Christianity, we learn how to pay attention to what we are thinking to settle and quiet the mind down. In seeking God, we desire to experience a sense of calmness and the peace and presence of Christ in our hearts. We recognize our thoughts are self-talk, consisting of images, fantasies, memories, and plans for life, which spin around in our heads as uninvited guests. We understand our thoughts arise moment by moment in our minds while others are passing away simultaneously. The problem is they grab hold and gain control over us without us being aware of it. (Calming My Restless Mind)
Today our minds are in constant turmoil; a common disorder is I can’t stop thinking. When you can’t stop thinking, it reveals an underlying problem is troubling you in your spirit. The more you try to control your thinking, the more stress you create and become less peaceful. It is because our minds are live streaming thinking machines. They write in our heads what needs to get done and the instructions on how to solve our problems.
Contemplative practice teaches us how to loosen the grip our thoughts have on us in our minds. Instead of holding on to them, we let them come in and then let them go out. Don’t let your mind become attached to any thoughts any longer than being aware of the idea and then letting them go. They will not stay long if you practice letting them go and not letting them bother you. (Silent Prayer Centers our Heart in the Presence of God)
The key as you quiet your thoughts; you can observe and evaluate in the silence what the underlying issues are in your life. We spend an enormous amount of time thinking about ourselves. However, we seldom become still enough to gain any real insight into what is happening in our life. It is in the silence when our minds become quiet that our hearts can speak to us.
The goal of Mindful Christianity is to focus our thoughts upon Christ. In the silence, we gain a distinctly different insight into what is happening in the details of our conscious life. It clears our mind of the hay wood and stubble of our thinking to lay a new foundation of unique thought, providing new answers to our questions. Finally, we let go of all the thoughts to experience the one thought of the peace and presence of Christ in our hearts.
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