Solitary Refinement Discussion Forum

I’m Starving! Not enough Soul-Food!

2010-06-28T21:52:56-05:00

Day 1 for me....Big Shocker. I couldn’t really come up with answers to those questions. I really don’t read many books as I work 6 days a week, have two small children & many idle hobbies I delve into when I can’t sleep at night. I go to church & sing in the choir on Sunday mornings before I have to bee-line it into work. I try not to miss choir practice and always try to lend a helping hand to others in need. I don’t have time for TV and I love to sing in the car. I work out 5 days per week and eat very clean..physically. Life’s busy but it’s ok. Or is it? Why couldn’t I answer question #1 then. Is anyone or anything really influencing me negatively? Guess not...so that must mean that I am my own worst enemy. I am a negative influence on myself. I do not pass blame on anybody or anything else but myself. Thus the big shocker. So “Who am I allowing to influence my thoughts?”. Myself. Now that’s pitiful. I am a Christian but I am human. Why in the world would I not the power of the Divine have more influence over me than my own stupid self. Questions #2 & #3 are relative to #1 so they were shot also. Now for question #4. How much of what I do take in (of whatever is on the Menu for the week) is nutritious for me? I feel like somebody filling out a Weight Watchers Questionnaire. Yes I know what got me into this prediciment but I don’t want to fess up because then I’d have to give up my vices. I have enough nutrition to blow on fumes I guess. I spend more time worrying about how nutritious my next meal is for my body and not worrying enough about the nutrition of the next meal for my soul. I don’t feed my soul 3 meals per day. If I physically ate like I soulfully ate, I’d be a bag of bones right about now. Now if that doesn’t shock you into next week nothing will. Except for...who am I influencing? Wow. That’s enough to make me cry. I would never intentionally hurt anyone, it’s the subconscious influence that is passed like the flu germ...silently. I feel totally oblivious at this point. I worked for a man once that said “If you have a complaint you’d better have a solution”. I do have a complaint now. I’m starving my own soul and therefore inflicting malnutrition on those around me. My solution to this complaint is to start feeding my soul every time I feed my mouth. When I sit down to a meal, I need to bring a good book with me and eat with my mouth and eyes at the same time. That should then fix the flu bug epidemic as well. I will hopefully be infectious in a “Better” way!

What’s in your brain?

2010-01-04T19:25:15-05:00

Reading Day 1 of Solitary Refinement really made me stop and think about all of the things that I allow to influence my life on a daily basis. The end of the chapter posed several interesting questions.

If any, what type of books are you reading right now? I am currently reading a spiritual rich book, but then I started thinking about the percentage of time I spend reading those types of books versus the percentage of time I spend doing other things that have an influence on me. Can 30 minutes of reading a book about God undue an hour or two of brain-rotting television? How many hours of thinking valuable, meaningful thoughts does it take to replace hours of selfish, useless thoughts? For all of the thoughts in my head, how many are prayers and how many are just meaningless regurgitations of the world around me? It is sickening to think what the percentages might be.

Questions 2 and 3 also made me think about the type of content that I allow in my brain. The questions state: “How fresh is the information that you are consuming? How nutritious is it?” These are interesting questions that I think could be rephrased, “How relevant or valuable is the content you are reading or exposing yourself to on a daily basis? Does it stimulate your mind or make it go to mush?” I may be watching a fresh, new episode of a TV show, but that doesn’t mean it will do my brain more good than picking up a 100 year-old book of prayers. I think these are important questions to ask because I know my brain does not operate at peak performance when I am not exposed to deep, challenging ideas that make me think and grow. I don’t want to waste any more of my life thinking about things that don’t matter, but I know it is not easy to change my thinking.

The GPS of Life

2010-01-04T10:01:38-05:00

For the majority of my life, my response to my disability was disconfirming. I grew up thinking my disability made me less than the next person, partly because of soci-ety. Society was an infectious disease that caused me to vomit on myself time and time again. I am learning that it’s very important to separate fact from opinion when defining who you are based on someone else’s definition. I heard far too often, “You’re handicapped, you can’t do that, you shouldn’t do that.” I now live with an Internal-Ego-Conflict. What I believe about myself contradicts the opinions of oth-ers. As a result my self-esteem and perspective are seriously damaged.

My mental digestive system got so accustomed to digesting junk that I rejected any nutritious substance someone may have tried to put into my mind. I rejected a lot of things that were good for me because I did not believe I deserved them. Certain people’s opinion of me really affects my thoughts. A lot of these people have turned out to be negative-minded.

My perspective was my GPS that led me to believe I was an inconvenience to my family and friends. I labeled myself as a problem for everyone. Hearing things like, “You take him… Because it is raining, he should not go… Start putting him in the car…. It is your turn to dress or feed him… Get him out of the way,” makes me think people see me as a nuisance. Now I am realizing that my family and friends are often doing what may be best for me. It wasn’t that I was an inconvenience. They did not want to inconvenience me. My family and friends at that time simply wanted to make sure they kept me in an environment that was accessible for my situation.

Over the last ten years, I have been diligently working on flushing out and cleaning my mind of all the negativity. Sometimes it feels like I am trying to be who I am not, even though everything in me says, “This is who you are.” My belief in the Bible has been the key for me to begin putting those negative thoughts aside. I’ve come to believe that every word of the Bible is truly accurate, and I am grateful that many characters in the Bible are in situations similar to mine. Yet they are still able to use their lives to glorify God.

Thoughts

2008-10-17T10:10:49-05:00

I’ve always grown up worrying about what I thought others thought about me. I felt the same as all the other girls in middle school yet I was the one who got made fun of or the boys didn’t like. My defense was to kick them in the shins if the boys were mean to me. I couldn’t deal with feeling different, but now see God has made me specially me. I’ve never been eloquent with words and have always lacked self esteem because of that. My journey has consisted of learning to love who God made me, even if I’m not like what I think I want to be. As an adult I’m in a healthy work environment where people aren’t afraid to tell you that you’re doing a great job or this area is really where you flourish. Even so, I have that mental garbage that sits and stinks up my thought life.

Who am I allowing to influence my thoughts? I have some really strong Christian friends I look to to influence my thoughts. I listen to them and what God has to say about such and such. I also look to people who are in a stage of life that would be next for me and watch, take note and just think about the things they say or do. In a way I’m learning what it means to be a christian wife, and hopefully soon what it means to be a mom.

What types of books am I reading? I’m in several books/magazines. I’m obviously reading Solitary Refinement, Mere Christianity with my husband, classical devotions with a small group, a biography about Beatrix Potter, and Mental Floss Magazine. I try to read things that will further my mind. I feel cheated from high school and am trying to make up for lost time of not reading and expanding my horizons through books.

How fresh is the information? Some of it is tried and true, some new thoughts and some just discovered. Being well rounded is how I want to be, but was never taught.

Is there nutritional value? I would have to say yes. The christian books are furthering my faith and the others are so I can learn something new about some one or something else. Something outside of my self or this very small world I live in.

What would people think if I did speak my mind? Well, I’m pretty good about speaking my mind. People call me Sassy sometimes because of it. It’s not that I want to offend, I just when I have a strong opinion you’ll know it. But in the same respect if I have no opinion, I’m not going to rattle off just to be heard.

I love the verse Christopher gives at the end. It is one of my life verses. What so ever things are true, honest, just, lovely, pure and of a good report think on these things. I know I have battles waging on in my thoughts and have tried to use this single verse to control them. My problem has been I’ve never wanted to deal or confront those thoughts. Often times I say to myself well that thought is nothing I should think about so I’ll just not think about it and yet it pushes and pushes until I can no longer not think about it, and yet I still won’t deal with it. So my desire from this book would be to learn how to deal with the garbage and take it to the curb and allow God to cleanse me rather than me trying to cover the stench with perfume!

Need Help…!

2011-08-28T13:04:10-05:00

hi everyone..... i have tablet PC, & it has portable CD ROM, i don’t use it often, so i just dis-attached my CD ROM, & when i attach it, it usually don’t install it automatically, i have to restart my PC sometimes… i just want to know, is there any solution related to my query???… i am using windows vista, business edition..... please let me know it, if i can solve this problem
i’ll wait for your response......

brain difference between a frog and a human

2011-07-30T12:58:59-05:00

what is difference between a frog and a human brain? Have you any idea ?

Are You Killing Your Brain?

2011-07-17T06:50:48-05:00

Hello everyone,

How Poor Nutrition Can Impact Your Memory, Focus And Concentration And What You Can Do About It

When it comes to nutrition, what your parents and grandparents told you had more basis in fact than you may realize. Everything you consume affects the systems of your body, including your brain. When it does not get the nutrition it needs each day, your memory and ability to concentrate and focus will suffer. It is time to assess your eating habits, and begin changing unhealthy choices to healthier choices.

Web developement

2011-07-08T13:39:24-05:00

Hello everyone,
what is the difference between static and dynamic sites?

Did anyone have cosmetic surgery?

2011-05-05T10:17:38-05:00

Did anyone have cosmetic surgery and find it helped or relieved how they felt?
Has anyone had cosmetic surgery (of anykind, nose/chin/cheek’s/face/body etc.... and found it’s actually helped ? or lessened their bdd a bit ?

I’m curious as I was allways told by specialists everyone they met who had Bdd and had a surgical procedure or procedures..Either had a euphoria and then went back to hating what they just had done, and have another procedure to fix it.

OR move on to another area they wanted to fix using surgery, I was told only 2 people had surgery and their bdd lessened but it seems a bit stereotypical what I was told, So I thought i’d ask people who have bdd and have had surgery did it help or not ?

Facing my mind

2012-01-24T10:04:43-05:00

I first would like to say that the LORD is the one who introduced me to Christopher Coleman through a magazine artical several months ago.After sharing Chris with my husband, he purchased the book Solitary Refinement for me. I
The LORD has been preparing me for action for quite awhile. I am very excited tro see what in ahead on this journey with Jesus and Chris. In order to face my mind, I’m gonna have to make myself vulnerable, I’m gonna have to be honest with myself and my Jesus. I pledge to be honest with the reader of these post as well.
I no longer want to operate in darkness, I’ve been praying for awhile that the LORD would illuminate my path. That I would be on the path He wants for me. And that I would not shrink back in fear any longer as I strive to continue to walk (in my case drive) this path.
You see, I surrendered my whole life to Jesus about 12 yrs ago in 1999 and in 2001 I stepped out to obey Him through conviction of His word and the enemy fear attacked me and attacked hard.
I shurnk back in that fear and for many, to many years I made excuses, questioned God, and hide from Him when He showed me things, I even sought deliverance from other sources. Those books, converances, prayers from pastors, friends and pumping myself up haven’t released me. No amount of medication, alcohol or denyal has made the pain go away.
It wasn’t until I went back to Jesus and layed myself bare before Him once again have I found deliverence. Seeking Him in the Truth of His word, and being honest with Him and myself that I am finding freedom. It’s only by facing the enemy head on that I am seeing the Word is True and He is trustworthy.
In todays reading, the statement “The mind is the thought behind our emotions” I have been learning this already and this quote just afermined to me that YES I do hear from God, and I do hear clearly. Thank you! I am learning to press past the emotions and obey the Spirit as I let Him rule and have total controle in my mind, and body.
“If you are living an oppressive, stressful life and you cannot move forward, it is because of the junk you have digested that is weighing heavily on your heart and soul.” I have prayed that the LORD will help me to expell that junk food no matter how smelly and painful it is. I so want to be effective for Him and His kingdom. May He use ALL for His glory!