St. Augustine once said, “The battle for the soul is waged in the mind.”

How true it is.  Our capacity to…

• be a rational actor in the moment
• be mindfully aware of our experience and the choices available to us
• be capable of choosing what is healthy, and good, and true despite discouraging thoughts and feelings

is the key to emotional, relational and spiritual health.

But those things are easier said than done.  It’s one thing for St Paul to tell us to “hold every thought captive in obedience to Christ” and to develop our ability to “demolish every argument and pretension that sets itself against the Truth” (2Cor 10:5), it’s quite another thing to pull it off.  What’s a faithful mental dragon-slayer to do?

Listening to Iggy Pop(Psych)

Cognitive therapists have done fantastic work in this regard by identifying the “cognitive distortions” that is, the lies we tell ourselves. The degree to which we buy these lies tends to be directly related to how miserable, lonely, and conflicted we are in life.  PsychCentral’s own Dear Leader  Dr. John Grohol, offers a list of the most common distortions here.

But memorizing 15 distortions and checking your reality against them on an ongoing basis can be a bit daunting.  Fortunately, St. Ignatius of Loyola, offers some ways to make cognitive thought checking a little simpler in his, Spiritual Exercises (written in 1535 and STILL outselling me on Amazon)

Consolations v. Desolations

In his Spiritual Exercises, Iggy (he told me I can call him that), asked his readers to consider whether a thought was a “consolation” or a “desolation.”  For simplicity’s sake, a consolation is a thought that the Holy Spirit whispers in our spiritual ear (as it were) which allows us to soberly regard the seriousness of the problem in front of us, but still feel a sense of hope, confidence, and clarity of direction despite how bad it may be.

Sure, we feel awful about what we’ve done or what’s happenned to us, but almost simultaneously we have a plan, a sense of hope, an idea of what could be in spite of it all. Instead of getting all twisted up in the negative experience and feelings, we throw ourselves into working  to make that healthy plan a reality.  The consolation (what cognitive-behavioral shrinks would call a rational thought or behavior plan) enables us to take the our negative experiences and transform them into opportunities for meaningfulness (defined as “using my gifts in ways that benefit BOTH myself and others), intimacy (defined as “taking steps to gain support from others and/or make my relationships safer, healthier, and deeper”), and virtue (defined as “using what life throws at me to become a stronger, healthier person”).

By contrast, a desolation is a thought or inspiration that Satan (or one of his subcontractors) whispers in our spiritual ear in an attempt to separate us both from God’s love and the power of that love to transform our messes into something wonderful.  Desolations cause us to become fixated on our problems.  Instead of meaningfulness, intimacy and virtue, desolations lead to powerlessness, isolation, and self-pity/self-indulgence.  Where consolations lead us to a more abundant life (by making us more effective in the face of hardship) desolations lead us to a smaller and more suffocating life, causing us to make choices that cause us to feel stuck, alone, and self-destructive.

Winning the Battle for Your Mind:  4 Steps

Now that you have the basic concepts down, here are 4 steps you can take to employ what I like to call Ignatian Cognitive Therapy in your life.

1. Write down the thought you want to “hold captive.”

-Writing it out is absolutely essential.  You can’t analyze your thoughts while they’re still rattling around in your head. Write them down so you can think and not just ruminate.

2. Ask, “Does this thought lead me to make a meaningful, intimate, or virtuous response?”

-If “YES”… the thought is a CONSOLATION.  Make a plan and act on it.

-If “NO”…the thought is a DESOLATION.  Go to step three.

3.  Ask, “If I COULD think of a thought that would lead to a meaningful, intimate, or virtuous response (as defined above) to this problem what would I say to myself?”   WRITE IT DOWN.

-Helpful hint.  You won’t FEEL like this consolation is true.  Feelings follow action.  The point of the exercise is to develop an argument that is compelling enough to make you act DESPITE the feelings that are trying to hold you back. Once you act, THEN your feelings will change.

4.   MAKE A PLAN and ACT!   Even though you’re still struggling with those negative feelings, step out in faith and do the things  your consolations are pointing you toward, confident that God is giving you the grace to make all things work to your good (Rom. 8:28).

(Of course, a little prayer to guide you through the process wouldn’t hurt either!)

Doing battle against your desolations by actively cultivating  and acting on consolations can enable you to find the “peace beyond all understanding” St Paul talks about; that peace that helps you know how to make it alright, not in spite of everything, but because of it. 

For more ideas on how to get out of your own way, check out God Help Me, This STRESS is Driving Me Crazy!  Finding Balance through God’s Grace  (Popcak-Crossroads)

Garden path photo available from Shutterstock.

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    Last reviewed: 14 Feb 2012