When the stress loading becomes too much, it is very easy to lose your way. What we need is some sort of Thinking Compass — a small, tangible tool that keeps pointing a foggy mind back towards healthy thinking and hope.
Jump to:
- When Mental Fog Rolls In
- What Is a Thinking Compass?
- What Goes Into Your Thinking Compass
- The ‘Ah Hah’ Rule
- Questions to Consider
When Mental Fog Rolls In
Mental illness is one of the worst fog-generating experiences you can have.
Your brain can play tricks on you. Your perceptions can change, sometimes quite dramatically, until they are vastly different from everyone else’s.
I well remember someone pointing out to me the ‘little spacemen in the tree’. Psychosis was fogging his thinking. He was unwell, but in his mind he was perfectly well.
Perhaps, though, the more subtle and less overt effects of mental illness can be more damaging — the thinking habits nurtured over many years in a watery soup of unawareness.
When the stress becomes too much for the fragile brain, we become disoriented, confused, and truly lost.
The fog has closed in, and it’s black.
Mental illness often fogs out a true perception of life. Your perspective gets clouded by the interpretations you have made about events. I explain this with a simple formula — Event + Response = Outcome (E+R=O). When the Response is affected by an illness, the Outcome can be disastrous.
What Is a Thinking Compass?
A Thinking Compass is something you can refer back to time and time again, and that will always point towards true North — towards healthy thinking and hope.
We don’t need some huge, massive compass: too big to carry, too heavy to bear, and too incomprehensible to take in. When you are unwell, you don’t want to be overloaded with information and unrealistic expectations.
Even previous learning experiences can hinder your uptake of new information.
My pocket notebook
I have a handy-dandy little notebook (apologies to Blue’s Clues fans). It is small enough to fit in my back pocket and easy enough to pull out when I need a sense of direction. That notebook is my Thinking Compass.
It is a physical book, not an electronic recording device. I just think something quite tangible happens in the brain when you put pen to paper.
Into this compass goes all sorts of material to keep training and coaching my brain — a habit that works the same way as the “Groove Board” in 7 Steps to Change and Regroove Your Thinking Patterns, which physically re-wires old thinking ruts. It’s also how I arise and bind my brain with truth each morning.
What Goes Into Your Thinking Compass
1. Quotes
Quotes I have gleaned from books, podcasts, social media and so on. Short and pithy, powerful and true.
2. Empowering and challenging questions
Questions that stop you, make you think, and help you consider some tough choices. For example: Am I truly taking responsibility for my own life today? In what ways am I going to help someone else today?
3. Scripture verses
The Bible is full of verses that speak truth into the innermost being. Read it and glean goodness — see 14 Comforting Bible Verses for Mental Health and Anxiety for a starting list.
4. Counselling insights
If you are getting counselling, perhaps your counsellor can write down some of the key insights they want you to think about and consider.
The ‘Ah Hah’ Rule
The criterion for material getting into my Thinking Compass is that there has to be some sort of ‘ah hah’ moment attached to it — a ‘light bulb turning on’ experience when I read it.
Basically, my brain needs some sort of new learning experience for it to make a new pathway. Recording these moments — not just carrying them in your head — is its own spiritual habit; I write more about that in Recording: A Spiritual Habit for Better Mental Health.
Building new thinking bridges
Making new pathways in our thinking is hard work, much like building a rope bridge over a chasm. Many repeated journeys back and forth in the brain will make a new thinking bridge strong and secure. I unpack the science of this in How to Create New Rope Bridges in Our Thinking.
Going back to the Thinking Compass time and time again is needed — reading it, rehearsing it until it changes your mind.
The thicker the fog, the more times you will have to refer to the compass.
Questions to Consider
- Do you have some favourite verses or quotes that are like a compass to you? Why those ones, and would you like to share them in the comments?
- Have you had an experience of mental illness being like a fog around you, disorienting you and affecting your judgements? What helped you?
- Can you have too much information? How can you discern what is most helpful and disregard the rest?
Further Reading
- The Swing and the Now: How to Ground Your Thoughts — Stop the wild swing between past regrets and future fears. Learn how to ground your thoughts in the “Now” by binding truth to your heart.
- How to Create New Rope Bridges in our Thinking — Learn how to rewire your brain for hope. Discover 7 steps to build new neural pathways and move past “I can’t change” into mental health.
- Your Rehearsal can Change your Mind — Train your brain with positive self-talk. Learn how intentional daily rehearsal can break old thinking tracks and help you overcome anxiety.
- When the Stress is Too Much — Learn how to identify personal breaking points, break down heavy emotional loads, and manage daily life stressors before they overwhelm you.
- Feeling Overwhelmed? — Feeling overwhelmed can feel like you’re caught in a flood, but you are not alone. Find peace through the Psalms and the gift of empathy.
- The Soliloquy of Words you Meditate on Day and Night — Change your inner soliloquy. Discover how meditating on Psalm 1 can rewire your brain and replace negative self-talk with truth.
About the Author
Barry Pearman has spent almost 30 years as a mental health support worker, community chaplain, and pastor, and has walked through depression himself. His training includes SoulCare Foundations under Dr Larry Crabb, a Bachelor of Applied Theology, spiritual direction training, and certificates in CBT interventions, pastoral therapy, and integrated mental health care. Turning the Page offers a grace-filled path to mental wholeness through faith and hope.
Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash
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