{"id":2890,"date":"2014-12-21T06:55:49","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T11:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/?p=2890"},"modified":"2014-12-20T07:00:59","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T12:00:59","slug":"are-we-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/12\/are-we-thinking.html","title":{"rendered":"Are we thinking?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The activity of thinking comes in many disguises.<\/p>\n<p>Thinking can be quiet, loud, scary, peaceful, progressive, or a completely thoughtless exercise.<\/p>\n<p>Some thinking isn\u2019t thinking at all.<\/p>\n<p>Examples of thoughtless thinking:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A mental rehearsal of the day\u2019s activities.<\/li>\n<li>A repetition of the same thoughts.<\/li>\n<li>An echo of someone else&#8217;s thoughts.<\/li>\n<li>Reminders.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2012\/08\/look-for-todays-new-success.html\">Arguing.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Fake thinking leads nowhere. It can even make a person believe all is well when it is not. Pretend thinking can make a person believe they are dutifully praying, healing, or doing God\u2019s will, when they are not. Imitation thinking blames other people, the economy, or the times in which we live, for their problems.<\/p>\n<p>Studies led by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sciencemag.org\/content\/345\/6192\/75\">University of Virginia<\/a> found that most people would rather be doing something than just sitting alone with their thoughts.<\/p>\n<p>In the studies, college students were asked to sit in a room by themselves and think. They were asked not to fall asleep and not to get out of the chair.<\/p>\n<p>They had the opportunity to give their self a little electrical shock. Within a 15 minute time lapse, 67% of the men and 25% of the women shocked themselves, even though they knew they didn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n<p>Religion and philosophies remind us to be silent. And, that\u2019s a good start, however, silence may not recognize the false thinking that goes on at other times.<\/p>\n<p>Repeating the thoughts of another person, for example, Christ Jesus, may be useful, but it isn\u2019t our own. It\u2019s only that, an example. But, we can use that example to learn to think for our self with God.<\/p>\n<p>It requires thinking to know God, then we can align our self with thoughts <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/02\/is-god-force-measurable.html\">of God<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Here are different versions of Psalm 46:10:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBe still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!\u201d (ESV)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s enough! Now know that I am God!\u00a0I am exalted among all nations; I am exalted throughout the world!\u201d (CEB)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStop your fighting\u2014and know that I am God, exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.\u201d (HCSB)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The activity of thinking comes in many disguises. Thinking can be quiet, loud, scary, peaceful, progressive, or a completely thoughtless exercise. Some thinking isn\u2019t thinking at all. Examples of thoughtless thinking: A mental rehearsal of the day\u2019s activities. A repetition of the same thoughts. An echo of someone else&#8217;s thoughts. Reminders. Arguing. Fake thinking leads&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1565,173,1564],"class_list":["post-2890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community_world","tag-better-thinking","tag-prayer","tag-thought-power"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Are we thinking? - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/12\/are-we-thinking.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are we thinking? - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The activity of thinking comes in many disguises. Thinking can be quiet, loud, scary, peaceful, progressive, or a completely thoughtless exercise. Some thinking isn\u2019t thinking at all. Examples of thoughtless thinking: A mental rehearsal of the day\u2019s activities. A repetition of the same thoughts. An echo of someone else&#8217;s thoughts. Reminders. Arguing. 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Thinking can be quiet, loud, scary, peaceful, progressive, or a completely thoughtless exercise. Some thinking isn\u2019t thinking at all. Examples of thoughtless thinking: A mental rehearsal of the day\u2019s activities. A repetition of the same thoughts. An echo of someone else&#8217;s thoughts. Reminders. Arguing. Fake thinking leads&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/12\/are-we-thinking.html","og_site_name":"Everyday Spirituality","article_published_time":"2014-12-21T11:55:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-12-20T12:00:59+00:00","author":"Cheryl Petersen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cherylpetersen","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/12\/are-we-thinking.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/12\/are-we-thinking.html","name":"Are we thinking? - Everyday Spirituality","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-12-21T11:55:49+00:00","dateModified":"2014-12-20T12:00:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#\/schema\/person\/5f61c15bc03b38172723cefb1475d1bb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/12\/are-we-thinking.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/12\/are-we-thinking.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/12\/are-we-thinking.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Are we thinking?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/","name":"Everyday Spirituality","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Cheryl Petersen","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#\/schema\/person\/5f61c15bc03b38172723cefb1475d1bb","name":"Cheryl Petersen","description":"Cheryl Petersen engages and advances divine Science, interpreting harmony to the universe. 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