Bright blue beam of light descending into a dark, jagged mountain valley with glowing flora.
Tetelestai Recovery

Harnessing Positive Energy to Overpower Cognitive Distortions

To pull down these internal strongholds of cognitive distortion, we speak words of life, newness, clean slate, fresh start, and positive energy. We claim power and healing in the promises of God. We absorb life-giving, life-sustaining words from our spiritual siblings. We notice words of life all around us, electrifying the atmosphere with sparks of light. We generate spiritual energy when we speak these words to ourselves and our fellow travelers. Our power intensifies as we receive words of life from Sacred Text, songs of praise, prayer, and uplifting conversations.

These energy producing words are breaking through the barriers and exposing the enemy’s hiding places. Our strongholds are crumbling like the walls of Jericho as we shout praise to God. These vibrations from our vocal cords pulverize the enemy’s garrison like a jackhammer.

The simplicity of using words of life to break down strongholds and fight spiritual battles is a major breakthrough. We speak hope and healing to ourselves and each other, then watch in anticipation as the walls begin to crumble…

A brick wall exploding from the center with bright golden light and flying debris.
Tetelestai Recovery

Overcoming Fear and Despair: The Power of Vocal Vibrations

We fight our battles in the spirit realm through vocal vibrations. We speak the words of God to pull down cognitive distortions that produce fear, despair, discouragement, and low self-esteem. These are the strongholds of the enemy.

Strongholds are the enemy’s Trojan horse. They are the mental constructs where the forces of darkness hide, staging attacks from within. These forts are constructed, brick by brick, through words and phrases heard over the course of a lifetime. Some of the words come from others, some come from ourselves. But ultimately, each brick in the stronghold originates from the enemy.

As we level up, we can sense that strongholds in our minds are slowly being dismantled. Some of the bricks fall and roll away.

However, some of the bricks are slung back at us. Some of these bricks are used by the enemy to build new strongholds in a different area of our lives. Often, these bricks come in the form of specific trigger words that catch us off guard. These words describe our old selves or suggest we have not really changed. The words are like bricks from the old strongholds landing hard and causing us to question our progress…

Tetelestai Recovery

Using PREPLANT to Combat Negative Thoughts

When comparing our cognitive distortions against the eight descriptive words in Philippians 4:8, we find our solution. With these eight guardrails in place, we can choose which thoughts to keep and which ones to set aside.

  • Pure
  • Right
  • Excellent
  • Praiseworthy
  • Lovely
  • Admirable
  • Noble
  • True

Using the acronym, PREPLANT, we can check ourselves regularly throughout the day to make sure the thoughts running through our heads line up with at least one on the list.

If a thought does not meet the criteria, it is deemed unhealthy and carries the potential to make us sick. We cannot level up until we let go of the thoughts that don’t measure up.

Tetelestai Recovery

Cognitive Distortions

Examine the magnified photo of a scratched vinyl record (see visual aid 1).  Imagine the circular grooves in the album as healthy neuropathways of the brain.  The impact of living in an imperfect world inflicts wounds and distorts our thought processes; much like a scratch in the album distorts the quality of sound it produces. 

A scratched record will not produce the same quality of sound as the non-scratched original.  A vinyl album is fragile and can be easily scarred. If mishandled, it will become lined with grooves which go against the grain of its original design. Once this happens, the needle will frequently slip into the scratch-lines rather than gliding smoothly along the original sound wave channels. This creates audible effects and creates chaos for the listener.

  • Visual Aid 1: Scratched record album; magnified.
  • Visual Aid 2: A coin placed on the headshell above the needle. The purpose is to provide extra weight on the needle, so it doesn’t bounce out of the sound wave channel and follow the groove created from a scratch.
  • Visual Aid 3: Sound wave grooves magnified 1000 times.

The Takeaway

 By placing the weight of the Word on our cognitive distortions, the electrical impulses in our brains began to follow the original pathways designed by our Creator. The Word guides our thought processes and helps us stop jumping from distortion to distortion.

Tetelestai Recovery Volume 2 – Our New Normal; Chapter 3, Brainwashed

https://a.co/d/7q67TdX

Tetelestai Recovery

A Contaminated Mind

Although our spirits were reborn and our bodies were clean from mood altering substances, our minds were contaminated with cognitive distortions. Our thought processes had become corroded with bitterness and disappointment. The original shine of innocence had been dulled by the storms of rage and the heat of humiliation. Our minds were splattered with the dirt and grime of the past. The good memories were cluttered with grief over what we ruined or what we lost. The bad memories made us cringe and flooded us with waves of nausea. Our heads were filled with regrets, resentments, and realities that we wished we could change.

Our minds, once fresh and innocent, had gradually become a gurgling caldron of foul emotions, which continued to bubble up at the worst possible times. Most of us couldn’t even remember what a fresh, clean mind was, nor could we identify exactly when we lost ours. Clever coping mechanisms had served their purposes for a time, but we were tired of being covered in the dirt and grime of resentment, guilt, failure, fear, intimidation, and regret.

Our minds needed to be scrubbed clean if we were ever going to have the confidence and clarity to move into our destiny. So, we looked for answers in our Sacred Text…

Tetelestai Recovery Volume 2 – Our New Normal

Chapter Three – Brainwashed

https://a.co/d/5BARYRi