Sometimes the Lord sends us trials in life. This is normal and correct. Trials cleanse the soul and test the strength of faith.
But it happens that troubles follow one after another, everything falls out of hand and it seems that there is no way out. A person is haunted by obsessive thoughts, forced to relive the past again and again.
A true believer will face adversity with humility. People who are cowardly and unsteady in faith begin to murmur against the Lord and blame Him for their failures. Such anti-divine thoughts that swirl in their heads are called blasphemous.
Blasphemous thoughts are sent by the devil and his minions
Blasphemous thoughts are directed against God and come from the devil
All thoughts come to us from the other world. God and the angels send us good, bright thoughts. Satan and his legion of demons send us evil thoughts filled with darkness.
Paisiy Svyatogorets gave the following definition of blasphemous thoughts:
When bad pictures come to our minds about Christ, the Mother of God, the Saints, something divine and holy, or even about our spiritual father and the like, then these are blasphemous thoughts.
The devil sends blasphemous thoughts to a person. In this way he tries to confuse a person, lure him into a trap and gain power over him.
Dark forces are just waiting for the moment to take possession of a person’s soul
Positive social circle
Pay attention to what kind of people surround you. Think about whether among your acquaintances and friends there are those who evoke negative thoughts.
If you count even a few such people, then you shouldn’t blame yourself and upset yourself even more. Whatever the true reason for the behavior, relationships with these people are harmful to mental health. Experts recommend temporarily avoiding these individuals. If during this period your mood and well-being have improved, then it will be better to end the relationship with them.
You should not stick with people who constantly insult, ridicule, or disrespect your hobbies and time. It’s better that you have one friend, but a positive one, and you don’t have to think about how to remove bad thoughts. Cheerful people always bring back good memories, lift your spirits and charge you with positive energy.
There are also universal methods that perfectly help cope with bad thoughts. Psychologists also recommend actively using them. They bring feelings into balance in cases of mild anxiety, and in more complex cases they only enhance the effect of the above techniques. Their main mechanism is distraction. Perhaps these methods will be familiar to many from personal practice.
Blasphemous thoughts do not always lead to sin
It may seem that blasphemous thoughts among believers are a terrible sin. After all, the Scripture says:
But whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but he will be subject to eternal condemnation (Mark 3:29).
It will be bad for the one who sinned. God is invulnerable, and sin will fall on the head of the blasphemer as the curse of God.
Saint John Chrysostom wrote:
He who blasphemes inflicts wounds on himself.
However, not everything is so scary. The devil, trying to lead a believer astray from the true path, sends thoughts filled with the spirit of blasphemy against the Lord. But then everything depends on the person. Saint Dmitry of Rostov says this:
Since there are many people who are troubled by evil and blasphemous thoughts, it is useful to know when these thoughts become a sin and when they do not. You need to know that there is no sin in these evil thoughts when, with our will and mind, we not only do not consent to them, but also hate them and fight them in every possible way; but when the mind and will delight in those thoughts and a person holds them in his heart, then evil thoughts will be a mortal sin for us.
Those who, although they struggle with such thoughts, but at the same time think that they are sinning, are mistaken because they do not know that there is a big difference between a thought and the consent to do so. When we think about something, it does not mean that we deign to do it; but when we love evil thoughts, and delight in them, and desire them earnestly, and multiply them in our mind, this will already be consent. If we hate them and do not want them, but they themselves come to our minds, and we turn away from them, then our conscience should not be embarrassed by them, for when they fight against us with force, we overcome them, then we multiply our reward from God .
Sometimes people who have a general understanding of the Christian faith and have read something somewhere say that blasphemous thoughts should be despised. There is no need to do this: contempt is a direct consequence of pride, and pride is a mortal sin.
A person can go to hell if he succumbs to blasphemous thoughts
Adoption
Not all problems can be solved; sometimes nothing depends on the person. For example, a relative or friend is hospitalized and is fighting for his life. In such a situation, it is quite normal to worry. The solution is to accept negative thoughts. You need to realize what you are actually experiencing, and there is nothing unusual about it.
Are bad thoughts creeping into your head? Accept them and live with them. But you don’t need to give them free rein, otherwise they will take over the behavior. It is better to observe negative messages from the outside, without subsequent reaction to them. The essence of this technique is action, not savoring thoughts. So do everything you can and leave the rest to chance.
You need to fight blasphemous thoughts with prayer and action
A person is weak and constantly succumbs to temptation. Blasphemous thoughts sometimes overcome even true believers. It is impossible not to pay attention to them: these thoughts are sent to people by the devil in order to take possession of their souls. What to do then? How to get rid of blasphemous thoughts?
Prayer will help you get rid of blasphemous thoughts
You need to read prayers. The prayer against blasphemous thoughts sounds like this:
I open my soul before You, Lord! You see that I do not want such thoughts and do not favor them. The enemy is in charge. Get him away from me!
There is another one:
God, my God! Look upon me, a sinner, and correct the prayer of my lips: drive away evil thoughts from my heart, and enlighten my mind with the light of Your God-Mind; incline Thy ear and hear me praying to Thee and seeking Thy mighty mercy, for Thou art my God, and standing before Thee in Thy house of prayer, I cry touchingly: strengthen me and give me understanding, O Generous God in Thy passion. Amen.
The fight against blasphemous thoughts is impossible without the Jesus Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.
Then it is advisable to go to church for confession. Paisiy Svyatogorets taught that the confessor should say the following words:
“I have blasphemous thoughts about Christ or the Holy Spirit, about the Mother of God, about the Saints, or about you, my spiritual father.”
Paisiy Svyatogorets also taught that you need to develop “kind indifference.” If a person is overly sensitive, then he easily falls into an unbalanced state for the most insignificant reasons. This is what the devil is waiting for, putting blasphemous thoughts into the head of an excited person. But you should not overdo it: with such training you can easily turn into a robot absolutely indifferent to everything.
In addition to prayers, you should do business.
Having heard blasphemous thoughts in your head, it’s time to put things in order in your home.
It’s time to finally wipe the dust behind the cabinets, assemble the bedside table, and fix the toy that the child broke.
It’s good if a person lives in his own house or has a plot of land: work on the land ennobles. Then, tasting the results of his labor, a person will feel the grace of God descending on him.
Order in your affairs and home will put your thoughts in order in your head.
If a person spends time in work and prayer and his thoughts are detached from worldly vanity, then he is invulnerable to demons and blasphemous thoughts will never enter his head.
A pure, sincere soul is not afraid of the devil's machinations
How to pray
Thoughts always overcome a person
And here it is important to learn to understand their meaning, to manage them competently, so as not to allow them to take over your consciousness and “dictate” your terms to it. Prayer against bad thoughts in the head and fear of death will help you understand what is happening, give you inner strength, and strengthen your faith.
But when reading it, you should remember certain rules and strictly adhere to them:
read regularly; It is advisable to read aloud (especially if there are sudden and severe attacks that need to be relieved very quickly); pronounce every word clearly; know short prayers by heart; concentrate on the cause of danger and fear; while reading, imagine an image of what scares you the most and try to destroy it in your mind; Use church candles to calm and concentrate.
But still, the main rule is a person’s deep faith in what he is doing, in what he wants to achieve. Only thanks to her will the Lord hear the one asking and help him. This will not only help you calm down, but also concentrate, give you the opportunity to find the only right solution in the current life circumstances and feel safe.
Psychiatrists call blasphemous thoughts obsessions and treat them with antidepressants
Study of human higher nervous activity I.P.
Pavlov made it possible to reveal the mechanism of the appearance of obsessive thoughts in a person. Psychiatry developed its own idea about blasphemous thoughts and gave its answer to the question of how to deal with bad thoughts. With the development of psychiatry as a science, more and more states of the human soul have been explained. Concepts such as neuroses, neurasthenia, and depression appeared. The obsessive thoughts that accompany such states are called obsessions (lat. obsession - siege)
At the beginning of the 20th century, a separate obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) was identified in psychiatry.
The book Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Causes, Development, and Treatment, edited by Caleb W. Lack, defines OCD:
The main signs are painful stereotypical, intrusive (obsessive) thoughts, images or desires, perceived as meaningless, which in a stereotypical form come to the patient’s mind again and again and cause an unsuccessful attempt at resistance.
For psychiatrists, it makes no difference what kind of obsessive thoughts pop into a person’s head: aggression, blasphemy, fear - from a medical point of view, they are all the same.
To get rid of obsessive thoughts, patients are prescribed psychotherapy. It allows a person to get rid of psychological problems. If things go too far, antidepressants are prescribed.
For a believer, it is necessary to identify spiritual and mental disorder in time.
If the disorder is spiritual, then the best way to get rid of blasphemous thoughts is repentance, confession and prayer.
If it’s mental, then it’s better to see a doctor. God deprives people of reason as punishment, but He also lends a helping hand in the form of doctors. There is no point in avoiding their help.
Pray, work, be submissive to the Lord and blasphemous thoughts will never visit you!
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Obsession: characteristics of the concept
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), or obsessive-compulsive disorder, is a mental pathological condition in which a person is forced to constantly carry out the same mental operations. As a rule, this is associated with an internal belief that something bad will happen. Neurosis reduces the quality of life and interferes with leading a normal lifestyle. OCD is studied by clinical psychology and psychiatry.
Obsessive ideas (thoughts) at their core
Obsessive thoughts themselves can be both good and bad. This could be a strong desire to get something, to achieve something, pleasant or unpleasant memories, fantasizing about how some situation could develop, or a desire to get rid of it, to forget (however, the opposite effect occurs). For example, you can think about how to get rid of obsessive thoughts about the person you love. But this is a completely different topic - unrequited love.
Thoughts are different from obsessive-compulsive disorder. They are not always pathological in nature. But they are dangerous if they tear a person out of reality and turn into phobias, delusions and manias. For example, a scientist may become so obsessed with an idea that he forgets all ethical principles. History knows many cruel experiments on people.
Obsessive thoughts about an alarming (frightening) occasion
Obsessive bad thoughts, ideas, memories, fears can arise at any age and have any intensity. More often they arise against the background of psychotrauma, but other prerequisites can be identified - personality traits:
- anxiety as a character trait;
- tendency to self-examination;
- suspiciousness and suggestibility;
- dependence on someone or something;
- diffidence;
- lack of sleep;
- psycho-emotional, intellectual and physical fatigue;
- chronic stress;
- unstable situation in society or the life of a particular person (material, financial, social uncertainty);
- changes in life (moving, new place of work, etc.);
- depression.
Popular phobias
One of the popular phobias is thanatophobia, or fear of death. Various obsessive thoughts about death come to mind: about an accident or suicide, killing someone. You should not immediately run to a psychiatrist. First, consider it as psychic protection. This is how the brain helps you, hints that it’s time to rest. Examples:
- All people at least once in their lives have had a dubious desire to turn off a bridge into a river or step under a car. It sounds scary, but behind this lies a deep psychological reason: fatigue or reluctance to go to work or home.
- Some people have terrible thoughts about killing someone, for example, a rowdy husband with alcoholism. No wonder: a tired psyche suggests primitive options for resolving the situation. But if you pacify your fear, stop blaming yourself for bad thoughts and think rationally, you can find a more acceptable and no less accessible solution: leave your husband, turn to friends and social services for help.
- And the fear of the death of loved ones speaks of a strong material, moral and physical dependence on them, and a fear of loneliness. Are you sure you are afraid for them and not for yourself?
This is interesting! For those who are truly suicidal and ready to attempt suicide, fear does not arise. They calmly make this decision and think through a method. But if you are scared, it means that you really want to live, but something in life simply contradicts your gut. All you have to do is figure out what doesn’t satisfy you, or what you’re tired of. In Louise Hay's table of illnesses, the psychological meaning of suicide is a pessimistic outlook on life, a reluctance to find another way out of the situation.
There are other popular phobias. For example, hypochondria is the fear of getting sick. It can develop against the background of personal negative medical experience or due to the illness and death of a loved one, as well as under the influence of the media (remember how scary and intrusive phrases like “Are you sure you don’t have AIDS?” sound).
The mechanism of phobias can be either direct or indirect. For example, claustrophobia may develop in childhood when the child had to wait for a long time for parents in a small room. In fact, nothing terrible happened, but the child experienced severe stress from waiting and separation. And the brain associated this with the small room, and not with separation.
Concept of materialization
Thinking is an integral part of our psyche. This is what makes us human and distinguishes us from other living beings on Earth. All events that happen in life are naturally reflected in our feelings and experiences.
One thing is certain - for many people, the fear of ideas that can come to life in a negative way is quite real. Experts call this condition obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), obsession, or neurosis. Obsessive thoughts usually arise completely unexpectedly for a person. Under their influence, a person begins to constantly think and worry. Most often, the same plot with various variations scrolls through his mind.
Absorbed by a negative stream of thoughts, a person becomes lost and falls out of reality.
Thoughts can be associated with both real fears and completely irrational ones. For example, anxious thoughts regarding health issues. Very often, as soon as we sneeze, cough or feel a slight pain, bad thoughts begin to haunt us. Our consciousness immediately begins to look for symptoms of the disease, draws pictures of how we will be treated, and what we will do if the disease is incurable. As a result, we become fixated on this thought and bring ourselves to nervous stress. Although in fact our health did not deteriorate, and all the fears existed only in our heads. Some people are afraid of harming their family and friends with their negative thoughts.
Do not forget that thoughts cannot force us to do something against our will. To do this, a specific intention to cause harm must be formed in the mind. For now there is no such feeling - these are just thoughts. They cause a lot of problems, but which can be successfully dealt with if desired.
Psychologist's advice
Psychologists advise writing your worries down on paper. Write down in a column all the bad things that have happened to you lately.
The list may include events that happened years ago. Write down if they bother you.
Make notes next to the problems: rate on a scale of ten how much they concern you.
Now start with the minor ones: think about it, find a solution. Move on to topics of concern, analyze the situation, and evaluate possible outcomes.
This method will help you understand yourself and understand what is bothering you. Get your head in order. Bad thoughts, like worms, start where there is dirt.
Do some spring cleaning in your thoughts and your fears will have nowhere to hide. Psychologists do the same thing in their sessions - they help clients bring order to their thoughts.
Fear of your own “ideas”
If obsessive and anxious thoughts haunt a person relentlessly, this can create a fear of bad thoughts in him. The understanding that we cannot influence the development of the situation, because at this moment thoughts do not obey us, also negatively affects us. Strong experiences trigger physiological processes in the body that negatively affect our well-being. This manifests itself in a special way:
- Consciousness gets used to being in constant stress, as a result of which a corresponding reflex is developed in which any negative thoughts will cause fear and panic in us.
- During a stressful situation, the body actively produces hormones that negatively affect our brain activity. Consciousness ceases to distinguish a real threat from a fictitious one, since in both situations we experience real and genuine fear.
- The load on the cardiovascular and nervous systems increases. This is especially reflected in people suffering from vegetative-vascular dystonia: the heartbeat increases, blood pressure increases, sweating increases, tremors of the limbs appear, hands sweat, breathing becomes difficult, headaches occur.
- Trying to ignore intrusive thoughts can make the situation worse. Thoughts are just a signal that tells us that we have deep-seated psychological problems and we need the help of a specialist.
In this situation, under no circumstances should you scold yourself for weakness and inability to resist negative thoughts. Fear of our thoughts can become a real phobia, which will greatly poison our lives.
Understanding that fear is not the main problem will help you find peace. Our reaction to it is dangerous.
Psychologist's advice
Psychologists advise writing your worries down on paper. Write down in a column all the bad things that have happened to you lately.
The list may include events that happened years ago. Write down if they bother you.
Make notes next to the problems: rate on a scale of ten how much they concern you.
Now start with the minor ones: think about it, find a solution. Move on to topics of concern, analyze the situation, and evaluate possible outcomes.
This method will help you understand yourself and understand what is bothering you. Get your head in order. Bad thoughts, like worms, start where there is dirt.
Do some spring cleaning in your thoughts and your fears will have nowhere to hide. Psychologists do the same thing in their sessions - they help clients bring order to their thoughts.
Useful video
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jc4AINyOBhI
Wording on paper
Psychologists also recommend putting all your bad thoughts on paper. They need to be written down in detail, in all colors and details. The more often we formulate experiences, the less often we return to them. This means they will bother you less and less. Bad thoughts written down on paper should be considered a completed stage, so the piece of paper can be torn or burned.
Sometimes it is more effective not to destroy records. In some situations, it is better to fill out two columns on the sheet - negative and positive thoughts, so that you can compare them later. The first records negative experiences. And in the second - pleasant. It could also be some positive attitudes. For example, “I am smart”, “I do a good job”, “I am a wonderful wife” and so on.
You can write down only your good qualities on paper and place it in a visible place (on your desk or in the bathroom). As soon as bad thoughts appear, immediately look at this list to remind yourself of the good.
Suppression
Bad thoughts suddenly appeared in your head, what should you do then? It is necessary to suppress the desire to be upset as quickly as possible so as not to develop an unpleasant topic. To do this, you need to put aside all your affairs, count to thirty and take five deep exhalations and inhalations. The brain needs time to comprehend the subject of thought, so as not to make irrational conclusions and unreasonable actions.
If the anxiety still does not go away, then repeat all the steps. If possible, go outside and take a short walk. This will allow you to put your thoughts in order and even distract you from negativity.
