Holy Rewired - "Emotional Healing"

In this chapter on emotional healing, the author contends that our "sinful behavior is emotionally based."

Phillips points out that in Galatians 5:16-22 there are two key words related to the sins of the flesh: 'crave' and 'desires'. "These are emotional words, not rational or logical words...The journey towards wholeness takes place when the Spirit replaces our broken emotions (that express discontent with ourselves, others, and God) with healthy emotions that express a person's life 'in Christ.' We live out of our emotions so to bring wholeness we need emotional healing."

For example, if we erupt in anger at a person in another car who cut us off on the highway, it could be an emotional reaction to a distant memory, or it could be simply fear in general. In either case, it's an emotional response.

Here is where the disciplines spoken of in the previous chapter are important for our healing and progress in faith. For example, by spending time reading and meditating on the Word of God (under the inspiration of the Spirit), "we allow the Holy Spirit to bring to mind the motivation behind our behavior, which will be emotional."

If it is general fear which all fallen humans experience, then continual immersing of our hearts and minds in the truth about God in His Word will incrementally renew our fallen mind to increasingly trust His control over our lives. This doesn't mean we ever reach a point of not experiencing the emotion of fear, but it loses its power to paralyze us and to keep us from advancing in Him and in His purposes.

If our sinful reaction is rooted in a past emotional memory, then it's important to deal with that unhealed memory. This "requires that the person confront his emotional pain rather than avoid it. The person needs to re-experience the emotions and feelings associated with emotional memories so that he or she can understand them and accept them as being a part of life. By 're-owning' experiences, the person understands he has a right to the resulting emotions...he can (then) develop hope."

This hope arises when one realizes that he is the agent (not a mere victim) involved in the feeling and therefore can do something about it. "While a sense of agency may not yet provide a concrete plan of action, there is a feeling of confidence that action is possible and that change can occur. As a person experiences hope, he becomes excited about the possible future...Hope engages the spirit and raises the energy level, causing the person to act.

"Hope believes that there is a chance for a future that is positively different from how we live and act today...That hope, however, must not be misplaced hope...The hope that can transform us is not hope in ourselves or hope in another person. Hope is found only in Christ. Nevertheless, like so many aspects of relationships, hope must be developed. It is a process. Romans 5:1-5"

The chapter ends with the author reminding us that our present experience as believers in Jesus is not only one of peace but of suffering. However, this suffering is part of a larger storyline that ends with a magnificent hope.

So even our experiences of being emotionally wounded, when dealt with in the context of the cross and hope, are part of what it means to suffer in this age. Committed into the hands of Jesus, this suffering can produce "endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment..." Romans 5:1-5 (NLT)

"Sufferings, struggles, and times of testing put stress on our life, and that stress reveals our heart. Our emotions are revealed, creating an opportunity not only to demonstrate how those emotions drive our behavior but what circumstances trigger that behavior. If we can uncover the experience, we can release the experience (into the hands of Jesus), providing emotional healing. The experience does not control us any more. God's enemy, Satan, cannot use that pain to manipulate us or deceive us any more...Others are unable to manipulate us. The testing and trials develop endurance, or patience. Patience...is contentment, not with ourselves or our situation, but contentment in the One who has placed us in that situation...As character develops, people are unable to guilt us into action...Character gives us a foundation of living that allows us to put in place boundaries that keep emotional manipulation from occurring."

The next chapter will deal with the practicals of rewiring the brain so that our emotions align with truth. Have a blessed week in the love of God!

Holy Rewired - "Disciplines and Community"

In this chapter, David Phillips says that the spiritual disciplines and a faith community are "the entryway to self-awareness, emotional healing, and thought change" (which leads to behavioral change).

He warns that there is a danger, however, in practicing the disciplines (prayer, fasting, Bible reading and study, etc.). "The practice of the disciplines can itself be a symptom of brokenness. The disciplines can become a rigid structure of life that allows no room for the divine interruptions of life...The disciplines for some can become the 'total content of their relationship with God, and works righteousness (can become) the shape of their spirituality.'"

When practiced in a healthy way, the disciplines can be a primary avenue on which our journey into wholeness can travel. "It is here that the potter God shapes us into the image of Christ."

Phillips goes on to write about prayer and about "spiritual reading" of the Word. He is careful to point out that the practice of spiritual disciplines needs to be both personal and corporate.

Because I have dealt with this topic a lot on this blog over the years, I will simply share a few quotes from these two sections to conclude this post.

"Prayer is the act by which we divest ourselves of all false belongings and become free to belong to God and God alone." (Henry Nouwen)

The suggestion is made that we use the Psalms and the prayers of those who have come before us: "This (the prayers of the psalmists and others) is the essence of the classical spiritual discipline of prayer; not our private, individualized prayers, but immersing ourselves in the deep, sacrificial prayers of the saints through which the church through the ages has offered itself to be the body of Christ in the world. Unless our individual prayer life exists within the greater support structure of the prayers of the saints, it will tend to become very narrow, individualized and privatized, and we will shy away from yielding control of our existence for God's purposes." - Robert Mulholland

In speaking of "spiritual reading", the author is referring to encountering God through the Scriptures and also through the writings of His people throughout church history.

While the study of the Word is very important, "spiritual" (or devotional) reading means to approach the Word with a submissive and humble heart with the desire to encounter Jesus personally in it and to allow it to speak to us personally, whether that be to encourage and affirm or to correct or direct us.

The chapter ends with this statement: "...the scriptures, along with our relationships, reveal our emotional brokenness, the patterns of destructive thinking and habits as well as areas where we are hurting others...This practice of letting the text challenge us to explore the motivation behind behavior is key to opening up the emotional brokenness and the destructive thinking and helps free us towards a life of wholeness as well as conformity to the image of Christ."

Holy Rewired - "Wiring the Brain" (part 2)

In the second part of this chapter on wiring the brain, Phillips reiterates that the brain is very resourceful. However, this "plasticity" isn't all good news. "While it has the power to produce a wonderfully flexible organ, the brain's plasticity can also work to create behaviors that are more rigid. Once a particular plastic change takes place, it can inhibit other changes from occurring, thus hindering or preventing functional and structural modifications that allow behavioral change."

Experiences of our environment make changes in the brain; the richer the environment, the greater the level of stimulation and complexity, and this enhances learning and growth. "Stimulation and challenge are necessary for brain plasticity because they keep the brain from functioning only via its automatic processes."

Those with limited life experience find change and adapting difficult. For example, children that have a wide range of experiences are able to relate more easily with wide and diverse groups of people than those who have limited life experiences because the brain of those with limited experiences has functioned via its automatic processes rather than be forced to change because of a different environment.

How does the plasticity of the brain relate to the mind, the thinking area? ..."in recent years, scientists are discovering that the mind, the rational, thinking areas of the brain, can affect the brain."

Tests have been done with people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder who are terrified that harm will come to them or someone they love. For example, a person like this may have great fear of germs and will worry compulsively about germs, seeking to get relief from the worry by focusing on dealing with the germs (such as constantly washing hands any time he/she feels they might have been contaminated. This action allows them to feel they have removed the threat). But the reality is that the more she/he thinks about the germs, the more worried she or he becomes.

The brain of such a person won't allow him to move past feeling regret and guilt when making a mistake and so he obsesses about his mistake. There are three areas of the brain involved in obsessions:

• The orbital frontal cortex - the region of the brain where mistakes are detected.
• The cingulate gyrus - a part of the limbic system involved with forming emotions and with processing, learning and memory. As soon as the "orbital frontal cortex" detects that something is wrong, it signals this part of the brain which triggers the anxiety feeling that something bad will happen if the mistake isn't corrected.
  
• The caudate nucleus - this part of the brain allows thoughts to progress from one to the next.
  

In the case of an OCD patient, the caudate becomes stuck. This is referred to as a brain lock by scientists.

A man named James Schwartz developed a treatment to help such patients release this brain lock, and his approach creates a new brain circuit which "gives pleasure and triggers the release of dopamine which 'rewards the new activity and consolidates and grows new neural connections. The new circuit can eventually compete with the older one, and according to 'use it or lose it' theories, the pathological networks will weaken. With this treatment, we don't so much 'break' bad habits as replace bad behaviors with better ones.'"

So Schwartz has his patient do two things: first, each time he feels an oncoming compulsion, he decides to think differently about worrying by relabeling the worry. He pauses to think that, rather than this being an attack of germs, it is an attack of OCD and that it is because of a faulty circuit in his brain. Then, the patient refocuses his thoughts on something positive and pleasurable. In this he is growing and strengthening new circuits and altering the caudate. "'By not acting on the compulsion (to wash their hands, for instance), patients weaken the link between the compulsion and the idea it will ease their anxiety.'"

This has had much success in Schwartz' patients; his conclusion was that "...this was the first study to show that cognitive behavior therapy has the power to systematically change faulty brain chemistry in a well-identified brain circuit."

David Phillips concludes this chapter with the following observation: "Repeatedly doing an action builds and reinforces neural circuits in the brain that control behavior. This makes it difficult to change our behavior because we have to break how these neural circuits are wired by creating and reinforcing new circuits leading to new patterns of behavior. Accomplishing this means we have to heal our emotions so as to change our thinking. Since we act, however, out of our identity which is formed from our experiences and relationships, we essentially have to re-experience life. Wholeness requires that we set aside our old way of thinking, feeling, and acting while at the same time experiencing a new way of thinking, feeling, and acting. Doing so changes our identity, continually re-forming us into the image of Christ, in whose image we were created."

Holy Rewired - "Wiring the Brain" (part 1)

This fifth chapter of "Holy Rewired" goes into how the brain is wired as related to how it affects the renewing of the mind. The author uses some rather technical language, and although I won't attempt to include much of that, this post will still be somewhat heavy reading. For any of you who want better understanding the technical part of this, I would suggest getting this book (if you don't have it) and/or reading "The Anatomy of the Soul" by Dr. Curt Thompson. And for those of you who have a much better handle on this than I do, forgive my weak attempt at summarizing this. My desire is to marvel at God and at His creation that reflects His power and beauty and love and perhaps help others do the same even if we can't all grasp this well cognitively.

This chapter begins with recognizing that we humans do many things without realizing that we're doing them. Phillips gives the example of his habit of always immediately opening the frig to look for something to eat when he arrived home from work, even if he had recently eaten. In the process of writing down all that he was eating (a counselor was helping him in this area), he became aware of this unconscious habit and that he started it when he was a "latch-key" child in his elementary school years.

"Neurological processes in the brain create habitual processes that are so automatic a person does not realize how she or he is behaving. In fact, a person's brain is largely under the influence of automatic processes. This is important for a person's survival and productivity. Without these processes, every time a person gets out of a chair to walk to the refrigerator, he would have to decide whether to lead with the left foot or right foot....Multitasking would be impossible. We need to understand that the brain is 'organized so that once an activity becomes routine it doesn't require conscious effort but occurs automatically.'"

The author then explains in technical terms how "repeated actions, emotions, and experiences wire the brain in such a way that neural connections are strengthened."

So that we understand how important neural connections are, I will quote Marcia Purse on the meaning of neurons: "Neurons are the specialized cells that make up the body's nervous system. These nerve cells process and transmit information from one part of the body to another. For example, if you touch a candle flame for more than an instant, pain nerves (receptors) in your finger send a message up through your hand and arm to the spinal cord and to the brain. The brain records PAIN and sends messages back down to various parts of the body. The mouth cries, "OUCH!", the arm, hand and body jerk away from the flame, and the finger hurts. This all happens in milliseconds. Much of the brain is made up of highly specialized neurons. They interact to control the five senses, thought, mood and motion."

The brain has the ability to be rewired through changing the order of how the brain's neurons fire (connect). This ability to be rewired is called neuroplasticity.

Conventional wisdom used to state "that the brain could not alter its structure or find new ways to function if part of it was damaged...However, in recent years, scientists have made breakthrough discoveries showing that the brain actually changes its structure with each different activity it performs. It modifies and perfects its circuits. In addition, if parts of the brain fail, other parts can and will take over those tasks."

A study was done by Alvaro Pascual-Leon on adults with normal vision to see what the brain would do if they suddenly lost vision. They were blindfolded all day every day from a Monday morning till Friday evening. Before the test began, their brains were scanned so that any changes during the 5 days of "blindness" could be monitored.

Before the blindfolds were put on, the visual part of the brain was highly active when they looked at something, and when they listened to something, the visual part was inactive. "However, during their period of 'blindness', scans showed that when the volunteers did tactile or auditory tasks, their visual cortex became active. As the week continued, the brain system responsible for touch became increasingly quiet when the volunteers were feeling the Braille dots. The visual cortex became increasingly active. Neurologically speaking, 'the seeing brain was now feeling and hearing.'" Then when the blindfold was removed, the visual part of the brain stopped responding to the touch and auditory stimuli within 12-24 hours!

The study concluded that the ability for the visual cortex to feel and hear had always been there and that neural connections that have been silent (not firing) for decades can be called up when needed. "If those connections were used repeatedly, with the blindfolds staying on for years instead of days, researchers believe that those temporary changes could be made permanent, thus changing the whole structure and mapping of the adult brain."

Like last week I will divide this chapter into two parts. The second part of this will deal with wiring of the brain and behavior and also with the plasticity of the brain related to experiences and thinking.

Holy Rewired - "Broken Emotions" (part 2)

In the second part of this chapter, David Phillips writes about the role of emotions in our life and about emotional memory.

As seen in part one of this chapter, the brain has two main structures: the amygdala (emotional) and the neocortex (rational). "The emotional brain is key to assigning meaning to any experience...Those experiences create an emotional memory that is capable of influencing behavior without a person even realizing emotions are involved. This is because emotional memory is not a 'conscious recollection'...However, emotional memories, or implicit memories, form from memories of dangerous or threatening situations, and involve implicit or unconscious processes."

In discussing emotional memory, the author says that "there are multiple memory systems in the brain, each devoted to different functions...one memory system allows a person to learn to hit a baseball. Another system causes a person to remember trying to hit a baseball and not succeeding. Still another...will make that same person tense when he comes to the plate after having been hit in the head by the pitcher the last time he was at bat..."

A French physician (Edouard Claparede) examined a female patient who, because of brain damage, lost the ability to create new cognitive memories. So each time the doctor would enter her room, he had to introduce himself anew, even if he had just been there moments before. He attempted something different one day and entered the room, extended his hand to greet her and the woman reached out to shake his hand as she had done other times before. However, this time he had a tack hidden in the palm of his hand which pricked her and caused her to jerk her hand back immediately. From then on, although she still had no cognitive recollection of who he was when he would return, she would not shake his hand. She wasn't able to explain to him why she wouldn't, only that she would not shake his hand.

Claparede concluded two things from this: first, that learning is not completely dependent on conscious awareness (our experiences are teaching us whether we are aware that we are learning or retaining anything or not). And second, once learning has taken place, the stimulus doesn't have to be consciously known in order to generate an emotional response.

"Humans, therefore, have an implicit emotional system of memory interdependent from an explicit conscious memory. This is the emotional memory."

It appears to be the case that the emotional memory is less forgetful than the conscious or explicit memory is in the human brain. There are reasons for this: "...the explicit memory system is incredibly forgetful and inaccurate ...emotional events are often accompanied by selective amnesia of the experience"; in other words, the conscious memory of unpleasant events is often repressed. Also, while cognitive memory has the potential to distort or forget an event, "the emotional responses tend to diminish very little over time. They actually increase in intensity as time goes on...Years after an emotionally painful event, our reactions can be worse than right after the event."

Phillips suggests that we see the emotional impact in the first sin (Genesis 3). When the serpent approached Eve, he called her attention to the fruit of the garden by asking her a question and then he appealed to her emotions (delightful to look at and desirable). Her emotional response led to thinking about it which led to action. "After Adam and Eve ate the fruit, their first reaction was an emotional reaction. 'I was afraid,' Adam said, and out of this emotion, he and Eve created a covering for themselves. Then they hid, also an expression of the fear and shame they felt. That is the pattern: emotion, thought, and then action. To journey towards wholeness, then, we have to bring healing to our emotions."

James says something similar to this in James 1:14,15 "...each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death."

Holy Rewired - "Broken Emotions" (part 1)

The next 3 or 4 chapters are the heart of the book in which the author, David Phillips, explains the critical role of the human emotions in the renewing of the mind and in true and lasting change of behavior. He also explains how the brain is wired as it relates to the emotions.

John Kotter of the Harvard Business School suggests that successful change efforts come when people are helped to "see the problem or solutions in ways that influence emotions, not just thought."

Phillips continues along this line: "Unfortunately, that kind of thinking is not taught in many business schools, seminaries, or leadership courses...it does not come naturally to the modern leaders who pride themselves on disciplined, analytical, and reasoned thinking. Contrary to what many of us have been taught...changing our behavior is more than just acquiring more information. It involves renewing our mind (Romans 12:1,2)... "Few people, however, really understand the process of renewing our minds and rewiring our brains...our thinking begins with our emotions...Changing behavior does mean changing how we think...However, truly changing how we think requires us to deal with emotion's power first."

While clearly defining emotions is difficult, many psychologists agree that there are three aspects present in emotions:

1. Conscious experience - emotions are felt and verbalized
2. Emotional behavior - epitomized in actions such as laughing, crying, smiling...
3. Physiological events - these are primarily uncontrolled reactions of the nervous system (such as sweating when we are afraid, faster heart beats when excited, etc.

Phillips devotes a large section to explaining how the human brain is structured. I will attempt to summarize what he says...

The two main structures in the brain are the "amygdala" (emotional) and the "neocortex" (rational). If the amygdala is disconnected from other structures in the brain, it can't evaluate the emotional significance of events and will result in a life without meaning. Information that comes through our five senses travels first to the thalamus from where it then goes on to both the amygdala and the neocortex; however, it reaches the amygdala first. This saves time in the case of an emergency when immediate action is required without having to know all the details of the situation first.

While the amygdala is preparing the impulsive reaction, the prefrontal lobes of the brain (which is at the end of the circuit to the neocortex) "attempt to inhibit the influence of the reactive amygdala...This area brings a more thoughtful, analytical response, modulating the emotions."

Phillips explains the brain functions in more detail showing how parts of the brain act as a "damper" or a neural thermostat to regulate unpleasant emotions..."Without this damper, an emotional hijack can occur...'The hijacking occurs in an instant, triggering this reaction crucial moments before the neocortex, the thinking brain, has had a chance to glimpse fully what is happening, let alone decide if it is a good idea.' (from Daniel Goleman, "Emotional Intelligence")

This explains why a present insignificant event can trigger emotional pain from an unhealed negative event in the person's past. "When someone is emotionally (unhealed) or environmental factors have created stressful situations, no matter how much the damper of the left neocortex tries to restrict a purely emotional reaction, it may not be able to. (And so) we feel before we think."

The author makes an important conclusion to this section of the chapter by saying:
"As our brain's emotional systems have assessed limited meaning from the situation and are preparing for action, the cognitive rational systems in our brain are trying to prepare a more educated response...What we (call) rational thought is actually the rationalization of our emotional reaction to the experience we are having...We might think we are being logical. However, all we are really doing is rationalizing our emotional understanding of a situation."

Because of the length of this chapter, I will make another posting in a day or two to conclude it...

Holy Rewired - "Who You Have Become"

As I read this third chapter ("Who You have Become"), it brought to mind something that C.S. Lewis and Leanne Payne have said that I believe accurately describes the fallen human condition:

C.S. Lewis: "We are born helpless. As soon as we are fully conscious we discover loneliness."

Leanne Payne's commentary on C.S. Lewis' words is,"Born lonely, we try hard to fit in, to be the kind of person that will cause others to like us. Craving and needing very much the affirmation of others, we compromise, put on any face, or many faces; we do even those things we do not like to do in order to fit in. We are bent toward the creature, attempting to find our identity in him. Slowly and compulsively the false self closes its hard, brittle shell around us, and our loneliness remains. Only worship of the Creator can bring us to discovering our one true face..."

David Phillips begins this chapter saying: "Each of us has an identity. Our identity develops from our environment, family, social networks, experiences and even how we think of ourselves. In addition...we are created in the image of God...Though sin distorted that image, it still exists within us...Our identity is formed in our childhood and is wired in our brains. Thankfully, that wiring is not permanent...The brain can potentially change its structure with each different activity it performs...Interestingly, if part of the brain fails, other parts can and will take over those tasks. The name scientists give this brain property is neuroplasticity.

"The systems and structures that display the greatest plasticity are those most subject to experience and environment...The experiences we have and the environments in which we grow up result in a formation of behaviors that, to be changed, must be unlearned by changing the way the brain functions."

The main portion of this chapter, then, is an interesting look into the biblical family of Abraham and how all of this played out with Abraham and Sarah, then with Isaac and Rebekah, then Jacob and Rachel and Esau (Gen. 12, 15, 16, 21, 25, 26, 27, 34, 37...).

The author points out: "By observing the actions of Abraham's descendants, we can see how family dynamics and life experiences impact our own behavior. This will give us insight to be able to confirm much of what we already know - we act, think and talk like those with whom we are in deep relationship."

Phillips observes Abram's character flaws. "This is more than sin. His life is filled with deceit resulting from fear...Positively, we also note Abram's propensity for obedience." This is seen later in Isaac as well. Throughout the family story, we see great insecurity and fear among family members that causes the attempts to circumvent the promises of God and make them happen through human means. There is also a strong pattern of tension between siblings and favoritism and deceit with similar character flaws showing up among them. "...as those flaws flow into the descendants, they become more intense."

The author suggests at least three common negative patterns through Abraham's family line: "The first is a pattern of lies and deceit...A second pattern is that at least one parent in each of the generations has a favorite child. Finally, sibling rivalry and relational cutoff between family members create tension that shows up in all three generations."

The chapter ends with concluding statements about who we have become and how we begin to believe those things that we have carefully acted out in front of others in our attempt to present a certain image we want them to believe about us. "For instance, if we want others to think of us as the smart one in the room, we may try to gather a lot of information about many topics so we can maintain this perceived identity", little realizing that in time we internalize this identity and believe it to be who we are.

"The environment in which we grow up and the relationships we have, particularly those early formative years, will affect our understanding about who we are and how we act and feel...Continuous exposure to people and experiences in that environment will literally wire our brain to automatically produce similar behaviors.

"Not only does the environment wire behaviors in the brain, but those experiences can also ingrain the same fears, insecurities, and other damaging emotions in us that existed in that environment. Those emotions will drive our behavior, especially destructive behavior, though we may never consciously understand why we behave as we do. If we do not explore the impact our family, other relationships, and experiences have on our lives, we will recreate that same environment for our own family...

"There is hope. Our hope comes from being 'in Christ.' Often, however, before we can experience the hope, we need to confront the impact of our emotions and experiences. That will be the focus of the next chapter."