Breaking the negative cycle

Sometimes we tend to look back at our faults and failures instead of looking forward. While it isn’t bad to look back to look for solutions to fix a problem, it can become a problem when we become fixated on our faults or failures and start to degrade ourselves.

We start to question ourselves and why the scenario played out that way. We start to compare ourselves to others, become angry, upset or even shameful of the things we have done. Next thing you know your on this negative loop that keeps playing the same track over and over again.

I know for me personally the best thing I have done to stop this negative cycle is to pray. I will pray that I will not fix my heart on the issue but rather let God take the hurt and shame and start looking for the positive things the situation has to teach me.

Next if I can’t accomplish overcoming this negative cycle by myself, I will reach out to my husband, someone I trust, or a leader in my church to help me break this negative pattern of degrading myself. This usually help me find why I’m focusing on this thought and we pray that the negative hold will break. This usually breaks the pattern and I feel free from the never ending negative cycle.

Sometimes the negative thought will try to come back a few days later but I will rebuke it which means it puts an end to it through Jesus name. Once I have done that, the negative thought doesn’t have a hold over me because I have found the truth to why I was feeling that way. Instead I acknowledge it was something I had done but I no longer need to feel shame and regret. I start to speak life into the situation and my heart instead of failure, shame and regret.

I have personally found out that every situation that I have tried to fix on my own never works. But every time I lean on God to help me He never fails. God says once we have been forgiven we have been forgiven. There is no need to punish ourselves or think badly of ourselves.

When I was a new Christian this was so hard for me to believe because I grew up in a home that loved to look at shame and faults instead of positive encouragement. I know I don’t have to live that way and I can focus on the positive aspects of my life and I hope that you will to. Life is to short to focus on our shame, especially if we know we have been forgiven.

“as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

Psalms 103:12

If you need prayer please reach out. You don’t need to do this on your own. If you don’t believe in God or the Christian faith, I still encourage you to reach out for prayer. Even if you may not feel or hear anything it’s always nice to have someone care about you and understand where you are coming from.