by Andrea D. Hutchinson

Created on: August 12, 2010   Last Updated: September 13, 2010

How does one get those negative thoughts, that seem to pop up continuously, out of one's head? Automatic Negative Thoughts, or ANTs, are those negative, repetitious thoughts that complain within a mind. The thoughts that perpetuate the lie that one is worthless or less-than.

These ANTs have great potential to cause deep damage in the psyche. Damage that manifests itself in one's life. Many believe that mental and physical illnesses begin with negative thoughts. The bible says that: "As a man thinks, so he is.".  How far off is the concept that our thoughts can heal our bodies, or the opposite, our thoughts can make us ill? This concept, that thoughts, positive and negative, have literal mental and physical affects on the body is not new. Scientists and physicians are rounding the corner, again; considering the mind and the body as two parts of a functioning being, and treating illnesses accordingly.

Let's go one step further, though. Christianity believes humans are triune beings. Meaning that the human is made up of three parts: Spirit, Body and Soul (mind).

Where religion or spirituality, science and medicine agree, is that all parts of the whole must function for the whole to be well. Wholeness and wellness, can only be attained when the spirit, body and mind of a man are cared for, with equal and positive life practices.

Remember what your mother always said, and there are many of these momisms:

1. "You are what you eat.". Mom was literally talking about our food and our choices having consequences in our body.

There is more to "what we eat", though. What one eats is anything, that one puts into the body. Through the mouth, ears, or eyes, we literally and figuratively eat, nourishing the body, as well as the psyche. The psyche (mind) eats those things that are said and seen by a person. Mom probably didn't realize she might be putting ANTs in her child's head, concerning their concept of their body, beauty or intelligence. She was simply attempting to teach that child.

2. "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Now mom told us this to teach us manners. Or did she?

What we speak, we create, further,  what we think, we create. Every act, good or bad, life or death, begins with a thought. Premeditation: to dwell in the mind on a thought of an action. Maybe, just maybe, mom knew that if we said something not nice, we

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