Don’t Allow Others to Live In Your Head

by

Pastor B.J. Knefley

Don’t allow others to live in your head. What does that mean? Do you? Have you done it? Are you doing it now?

Allowing others to live in your head is simply allowing another person’s words, behavior, or thoughts to occupy your thoughts, emotions, and general well-being. We do this by letting their words etc. eat away at our peace, joy, serenity, and general well-being. Perhaps it was a critical word or look. Maybe it wasn’t what was said, but rather what was implied. We allow it to run around the inside of our heads. Then think of how we could comeback in a response. We rehearse the event over and over without finding a resolution or peace. Instead of having peace and joy, all fruits of the Spirit, we instead have restlessness, self-doubt and find that life is being sucked out of our being. How does this happen and how do we stop the merry-go-round? I wish I had a simple answer.

Recently I realized that I was allowing the comments of another to take up residence in my head. Their words seemed to echo with increasing loudness, interrupting every part of my day. Even my sleep was being interrupted by their nagging words. Everything I tried didn’t seem to work. I didn’t have peace; I wasn’t finding joy. Why was I allowing this to happen? If I was going to survive this bombardment of what felt like a constant intrusion of thought, I needed to do something. Without getting spooky spiritual let me say that the first thing I did was tell the intrusive thoughts to leave me alone and yes, I did it out loud. Why? Because those intrusive thoughts came to me through either the written word or the spoken word, I wasn’t going to drive them out by thought alone. Mental gymnastics means I allow something to go around and around in my head. It doesn’t make me stronger, instead it makes me weaker. Another thing I’ve learned to do is flood my hearing with music. I don’t use head banging music but rather music that is soft, relaxing and has a calming effect. In the end I’m trying to practice what Jesus said, “Resist the devil and he will flee.” It doesn’t take long for those thoughts to leave. Think about it.