Part Five of a Ten-Part Series

The Creator instills in each one of us both the desire and the ability to find meaning and joy in life. Yet many, youth in particular, struggle to make sense of the drama of everyday living, to make a place for themselves, to feel of real value and to make a contribution.  There is something in each of us that seeks daily to find at least a small positive measure we can add to our storehouse of living.  The ingredients for a meaningful life are all around us: good music, the birth of a child, a walk on a spring day, prayer and quiet reflection, time with friends. 

Yet, we see discouragement, despair and destructive behaviors all around us.  The battle is not here-and-now politics.  It began with the preexistence and the war in heaven when we fought for the right to choose.  It continues today not in the streets, media and tabloids but in our minds.  Imprinted in the brains of so many is a confused compilation of wrongs that seem right that lead to destructive and abhorrent behavior.

Put simply, our attitudes, ideas, responses and experiences can be exalting.  Or not.  We can counter the wasted living of drugs, sex, violence, suicide, gender confusion, the occult, abortion being flaunted as up and coming, upscale, upbeat and politically correct by what we call, Inner Speech.

There is truth to the ancient scripture, “As a man thinketh, so is he.”

Study in the past two decades has revealed that by an incredibly complex physiological mechanism, a joint effort of body, brain and “mind,” we become the living results of our own thoughts. We become what we think about most.  That thinking programs what we say when we engage in inner speech — like talking to ourselves.  The brain believes what we tell it most. And what we tell it most about us, it will create. It has choice.

The location and function of inner speech, neuro-scientists tell us, is found in the uniquely human prefrontal cortex of the brain. Everything about us — our memory, our judgment, our attitude, our fears, our creativity, logic and spirit — is controlled by the switches in our mental central room.  Within the brain, a network of 200 billion neurons, each having the potential of 185,000 electrochemical switches, called neuro-transmitters, turns part of us “on” and part of us “off.”

The brain’s infinitesimally small chemical receiving centers respond to almost imperceptible electrochemical signals which deliver nearly immeasurable but highly potent chemical substances to our brain and to our other organs - which in turn control or affect everything we do.

Whatever thoughts or behaviors you have imprinted yourself, or have allowed others to imprint on your brain, are affecting, directing or controlling everything about you.

The obvious are those comments, questions and statements we hear and receive directly.  Every day each of us receives an endless stream of commands, directives, controls, inducements and expectations from others. Everything around us nudges, demands or persuades. We are met with a torrent of influences, which imprint our brains.  Good or bad, they are put in place and they act as directional signs to future behavior.

Most of us juggle positive and negative imprints.  Can we override the programs in ours mind that still work against us, and replace them with refreshing new imprints of true beliefs. Can you undo the shackles of bad habits, old conditioning, and self-doubt?  Can the brain be freed — imprinted anew —- to self-direct as God intended?

Yes.  With inner speech.

Inner speech is a remarkable level of brain functioning found only in the human mind.  As long as the prefrontal lobes are performing — unencumbered by addictive patterns — they are directing our conversations within.

With inner speech we give new direction to our minds by talking to ourselves in a different way. We can consciously re-program our prefrontal cortex with words and statements that are more effective and help with improving ourselves and creating new imprints. Inner conversation can paint a new internal picture of us:  What we would like to be, we can be.

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We can put off the old self and become a different better self, a self no longer the product of conditioned or addictive responses. We can be governed, anew, by personal freedom of choice.  We can activate or reactivate our souls to communicate and receive the influences from Him who gave us our free agency. A “mighty change” is not a hollow promise.

 “Negative speak” can plague inner speech.  Self-conversation can “speak” to poor acceptance. Negative talk can become a compulsion representing “instructions” from our simplest misgivings to loss of control of the brain and spirit to a primitively driven addiction to all types of agency destroying behavior. In the beginning of negative inner directions there is no way to estimate the amount of havoc and misdirection that such talk wreaks in our lives. It cripples our best intentions and seduces us to become satisfied or compelled to indulge in debased behaviors.  Rid yourself of the negative and its evil direction and you rid yourself of your greatest foe. 

It takes help from God.  We must see ourselves as he sees us, as he talks to us, as he listens.  We must see beyond the artificial barriers constructed by living out our days with no spiritual infusion, no strength from the Savior’s atonement.

Our commitment to change must involve confessing or acknowledging to ourselves, and others, regret of past behaviors and the need for change. The inner speech should then move us the decision to change and then evolve for the level of faith that there can be a better you. The final level of inner speech is reaching the level of universal affirmation. This level has been spoken for thousands of years. It is as old as the ancient to modern religion that inspired it.

Inner speech can provide “oneness” with God. It can speak of a unity of spirit, a divine and timeless affinity, and, through the love of the Lord, transcends all worldly things and gives meaning to our being.

The concept of positive thinking is a good start. Unfortunately, such help is temporary unless we have programmed our minds to go beyond just condemning the negative. Making a decision to never again think negatively, and for the rest of our lives think positively, while it may work for a time, cannot last. Why? Because the mental imprints still sit deep in our minds.  They have to be replaced my new imprints, new ways of seeing and saying things.  If we tell ourselves that from today onward we will never again think negatively, without at the same time giving ourselves a specific, new word vocabulary of the positive things to say to ourselves, we will soon slip back to the old habit of thinking negatively. 

We must identify our inner speech. Write down all of your experiences of negative moods, situations, self -labels you use to stereotype and depress yourself. Number how frequently they occur and how often they make you feel guilty, gloomy and pessimistic.

In their place, substitute written hopeful statements and avoid dwelling on past and forgiven problems.  Blaming talk that constantly reviews past hurts will keep you experiencing pain, depression and often anger. You may have to command yourself to stop! Then switch your thoughts to a pre-planned more pleasant or even neutral subject. Add images to your mind that are positive for ideas or memory. Reinforce your command by saying to yourself:  “These recurring thoughts are making me feel guilty, hurt, angry, anxious, worried and depressed, and I absolutely refuse to continue these downgrading feelings.”

Wanting to be a positive thinker is not enough. Making the decision to have a positive attitude is not enough. Our mind says: “Give me more, give me the words, give me the directions, the commands, the picture, the schedule, and the results you want.  Where do you go?  “Feast upon the words of Christ” and He will give you the “words.” Educate and program your mind by searching the scriptures. Although often very helpful no one else can replace the “words of Christ”. No one else has that right.