Renovating Your Mind

This article is one of the Unity Classics written by legendary leaders of Unity. Some date back decades, even a century. That’s why the language may seem a bit formal, and the writers sometimes used masculine nouns and pronouns that were considered proper for their era. This is from the 1952 book, Things to Be Remembered, a collection of columns that Lowell Fillmore wrote for Weekly Unity. (Section subheads have been added.)

Lowell was described by everyone as being relentlessly positive, and here he explains why cleaning up our thought processes is important.

Remember that there is nothing hidden that shall not be known.

Most of us harbor thoughts that we would be ashamed to have our friends know we are thinking. Thoughts that we are ashamed of cannot possibly promote our well-being or bring us happiness. The average person would no doubt be horrified if he were informed that a clever scientist had, with the aid of a mysterious new instrument, just made a record of [that person’s] thoughts for the past hour and that this recording would soon be broadcast.

“We cannot hope to put our affairs in order until we have put our ideas in order. Sick ideas cause a sick body and sick business. Joyous, peaceful ideas promote health and prosperity.”

Cleaning Out the Mind

When a person realizes that he is afraid to face his own thoughts out in the open, then it is high time to begin cleaning out his mind. No doubt every one of us needs to do some kind of mind cleaning. We regularly clean our houses, throwing out the dirt, rearranging our furniture, and discarding the things that are of no value to us. The good housekeeper would not think of leaving trash lying around that she would be ashamed of, but we usually just let our trashy thoughts pile up, making no attempt to clean out those that are unsatisfactory. We would not allow snakes and tigers to roam through our living quarters, but we let venomous and angry thoughts have free range in our mind. Our mind is surely of as much importance as our house.

While it may not be possible to discern what other persons are thinking, yet we can often rightly guess the thoughts that are habitual with them, because they have made their mark upon the bodies of these persons. Faces proclaimed thoughts of joy, sorrow, greed, worry. The stoop of a man’s shoulders often tells a story of mental burdens. A man’s walk tells whether he is discouraged or lighthearted … The organs of our body are all affected by our thoughts. Many men die because they will not clean out thoughts of discouragement and fear. Thought habits are revealed by our looks, actions, and deeds.

We cannot hope to put our affairs in order until we have put our ideas in order. Sick ideas cause a sick body and sick business. Joyous, peaceful ideas promote health and prosperity. Many people who think they are unlucky are just careless thinkers. They are holding the wrong kinds of thoughts, and the thoughts produce the wrong kinds of experiences.

It is usually more difficult for us to discern our own wrong mental attitudes than it is for our friends to note them. Friends may realize that something is wrong with our attitude toward life and still be unable to analyze our trouble or to help us by sound advice. Friends may not always be wise enough to know the real cause of what they criticize in us, but there is one within us, the Christ, who can truly help us by revealing to us just what we must do in order to cleanse our mind of erroneous ideas about life.

To Be Humble

To obtain Christ’s help we must become humble and willing to adjust ourselves to his peaceful, loving, harmonious consciousness. To be humble is to be willing to give up wrong thoughts. This is the first step toward repentance. We may not know at first what thoughts we need to give up, but if we are obedient to the highest in us and will ask the Father to show us the way, we shall be directed by the Father how to adjust our thoughts.

An affirmation of love made while we still have a deep-seated hatred or feeling of malice toward anyone will not remove discord from our affairs. A superficial affirmation of love is not strong enough to dislodge a deep-seated feeling of hatred. But by assuming a humble attitude and asking for divine guidance, we shall be shown how to find and dislodge any troublesome thought demon that happens to be lurking in our subconsciousness. We sometimes become so used to old, wrong ideas that we no longer realize that they are with us. The Christ light will reveal the whereabouts of all in harmonious thoughts and cast them out. Our affirmations of divine love must be very sincere and heartfelt to be powerful enough to dislodge the entrenched and hidden thoughts of discord.

When we change our thoughts, we will change our affairs as surely as results follow causes. Our body conditions will also improve with better thinking. “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Patching up the body by material means while continuing to live with old ideas will never effect a permanent healing of the body. While the soul is sick the body cannot be well. Therefore make excellent little thought pictures on the film of your soul, so that the large pictures that are being projected from within into your body and affairs will be pleasing.

“Christ in you, the hope of glory” is the true foundation of your being. When you let Christ have his perfect way in you, you will be able to discard many foolish and hurtful ideas, and you will begin to build into your mind the true, strong, loving ideas that are the inheritance that God has provided for you. You will find great joy in renovating your ideas and thoughts; more joy than can be derived from the achievements of any worldly prize.

Read more from Lowell Fillmore.