Treadmills, Prisons, and Finding Hope When You're Stuck

Good morning my friend, I hope you're doing well. It is wildcard Wednesday and today we're going to talk about treadmills, prisons, the neuroscience.

Of being stuck and how to find and create hope no matter what you're going through.

Sounds like a lofty goal for this episode, but we're going to get it done in about 20

minutes. We're going to have a little music from Tommy Walker.

Theme song for this month is I'm running the racer for season 9 rather I'm running the race.

This is about getting your brain under control, understand how you're wired so you can smash

neuroscience and faith together to keep you on track and build resilience no matter what happens in life.

Because my friend, you can't change your life until you change your mind and if you're

ready to do that with me, there's only one question. Hey, are you ready to change your life?

If the answer is yes, there's only one rule.

You have to change your mind first. And my friend, there's a place for the neuroscience

of how your mind works, smashes together with faith and everything starts to make sense.

Are you ready to change your life?

Well, this is the place, Self-Brain Surgery School.

I'm Dr. Lee Warren and this is where we go deep into how we're wired, take control of our thinking and find real hope.

This is where we learn to become healthier, feel better and be happier.

This is where we leave the past behind and transform our minds.

This is where we start today. Are you ready?

This is your podcast. This is your place. This is your time, my friend.

Let's get after it.

Music.

Oh, let's get after it. You ready? Okay, so I want to give you a couple thoughts this morning my friend. I'm thinking about.

Somebody I've been getting lots of emails lately and lots of contact from listeners who are telling me things like I'm stuck,

I'm scared. I don't know what to do next Some people are even sort of feeling hopeless,

Like they've lost their way They don't even know if they can keep going a person told me recently that they weren't sure that they wanted to be alive anymore,

And I hope things are not that desperate for you if they are you need a therapist

You need a counselor you need a pastor. You need a doctor. You need some help

Okay, get some help because there is hope and today I want to just talk about a method of creating hope when you feel stuck.

And one of the things we can look at is what happens to people when they are actually stuck and,

And the different ways that some people respond the different ways that different people respond to those periods of stuckness

And so I want to give you a thought experiment about two prisoners

Okay, let's not get wrapped up in why they might be in prison but let's say there's two people and they're in prison and in adjacent cells, okay, and,

in one person gets put in prison and they are Embittered and enraged at what's happened to them. They can't believe that they got convicted on this thing

Maybe they didn't even do it. But regardless they're in prison and they're and they're just devastated

They can't believe it that this has happened to them and they're stuck. They can't go outside

They're locked in a cell and they literally don't have agency or a pathway to get out

They've just got to serve out their sentence. They're in there with no parole and they're stuck. It's gonna happen

And they're going to spend every day of this sentence stuck in that cell.

And they get depressed, and they get angry, and they get frustrated.

And they sit in their cell, and when it's time to go outside for exercise, they don't feel like it.

They maybe get involved with some other people who are angry and bitter and stuck.

Maybe they develop a drug habit. Maybe they get involved with some fighting and some things that are happening that add

time to their sentence.

And they spend every day of the time that they're in prison enraged and frustrated and

why did this happen to me?

And they're so unhappy and so angry and they can't believe God allowed this to happen.

And when they get out of prison, they are weaker and more bitter and more enraged and

sadder and less hopeful than they were when they went into that prison.

And they're not in jail anymore, but their life looks the same as it did when they were inside.

They're angry. They're frustrated that this thing happened to them.

They can't really enjoy their life anymore because they're so upset that they lost all that time.

And the rest of their life tells a story of someone who went through something desperate and difficult

and it wiped them out and they are stuck in the neurotransmitter storm of being a stuck person,

an imprisoned person, for the rest of their life. Now that's a sad story, isn't it? It's a really

sad story. Well, let's look at another prisoner. This person gets put in jail and convicted and

and they have no possibility of parole and they are stuck inside this prison

and they don't want to be there either.

But they make a decision. I'm going to exercise while I'm in this place.

I'm gonna do pushups and sit-ups. I'm gonna make sure my body gets stronger.

If I can't go outside and run, I'm gonna run in place in here,

and I'm gonna make sure that I'm getting stronger.

They read everything they can get their hands on. They go to the prison library and they study law.

And by the time they get out of prison, They basically put themselves through law school.

This is a real story, by the way. There's a guy named Jarrett Adams

that was wrongfully convicted and spent 10 years in prison.

And when he got out, he went to law school and now he helps to overturn other people

that were wrongfully convicted.

And he basically made himself stronger and better and healthier and more whole and less imprisoned

than he was before he ever went to prison.

Now that's two extreme stories, right? One person who gets in a situation where they're stuck

and they don't have any control and it destroys them.

Another person gets themselves in a position where they're stuck and they don't have any control

and they use the time to grow and change and improve and move towards something hopeful.

They put something in their mind that they can press forward for and have hope.

That's impressive, right? That's impressive. But you know what? It's not impossible,

so my question for you today is this if you're going to exercise if you're going to,

Say decide to run my brother-in-law Ronnie wants to run a half marathon in December.

And so we're gonna do that and I'm training with him to run a half marathon, which I've never done before,

And I have two different ways that I can train because here in Nebraska There are some days when it's super-duper cold and there's days when the wind is blowing

70 miles an hour and it's not so fun to run outside, so I have fortunately have a treadmill.

And I can get on the treadmill and I can work out on the treadmill and I can use that on

training days when I don't have the opportunity or when it's not so convenient to run outside, right?

Well, there's different ways you can run on a treadmill.

You can set the incline to flat and you can jog on the treadmill or walk on the treadmill

and you can go as slow or as fast as you want and you can use the treadmill to pass the time.

You can say I'm going to run for 30 minutes today and I've found that it's really easy

to get sort of bored on the treadmill or to turn it just fast enough that it's not so

loud that I can hear in my headphones the audio book that I want and I find that it's

It's kind of stuffy in there and it doesn't feel quite as good as running outside.

I can find that maybe I don't go quite as fast or run quite as far on the treadmill

because it's sort of boring, right?

If I do that, then I spend my training time and I'm not getting the same benefit as if

I was pushing myself harder. Or I can use the treadmill to actually increase.

Things that I couldn't do outside I can set the incline higher. I live in Nebraska. So there's not very many hills

It's really flat here so I can use the treadmill to set the incline higher and I can train for running up hills and,

I can use the treadmill to see if I can actually accomplish a mile faster than I thought I could I can use it to

Train I can get online programs and have other trainers get on the treadmill and basically teach me how to be a better runner

And I can use that time even though I'm in the shop, and I'm on the treadmill, and I'm not actually moving forward,

I can use that time to get stronger or I can use it to pass the time and stay the same or even get weaker,

Right that's two different ways to look at a treadmill, and I use that example to say this just because you're moving,

Doesn't mean you're making progress.

Just because you're moving doesn't mean you're making progress.

And what in the world does that mean?

Well, we can busy ourselves, and we can be moving, we can be railing against injustice,

we can be throwing ourselves against the wall of our prison cells or running around in circles,

but if we're not actually making progress towards some type of goal, then we're just moving.

Remember that Psalm cease striving and know that I am God be still and know that I am God sometimes our movement

Isn't actually helping us and so in terms of what's happening in between your ears. You need to know this,

Directed mental energy is what makes healthy synapses for you what you're actively thinking about you're getting better at.

Okay Now if you're in some situation in your life and you literally can't do anything about the time that you're in you had surgery

you have some kind of injury, you have some kind of disability,

and you can't literally go outside and get stronger or change your situation or change jobs,

or whatever it might be.

Then just know this, we talked a few weeks ago about mirror neurons and you actually

can reproduce the neurotransmitter environment in your brain of doing a thing by thinking

about doing that thing or watching someone else do that thing.

Like you can watch a video on YouTube of somebody accomplishing something that you want to learn

how to do and you can actually emulate the things that happen in your motor and sensory

cortex and you can actually ingrain some synapses to get better at that thing even though you're

not physically doing it by just thinking about it.

That's why the guy in prison can think about something in the future and he can study and

he can learn and he can practice and he can prepare and he's better when he gets out even

though he's not actually been doing that thing.

The pilots in the Air Force do something they call chair flying.

So super expensive, obviously, to get up in the fighter jet and fly around for hours.

And instead of doing that when they can't, when the weather's bad or when it's nighttime

and they can't just go jump in the jet anytime they want to, they do a thing called chair flying,

where they get in a chair and they imagine themselves in the cockpit, or they get a simulator of the instruments

and the things that they need to see.

Sometimes they even just write them on pieces of paper and they mentally think through their missions,

that they're gonna be accomplishing. What happens if the engine goes out?

What happens if I get myself in an upside down position and I stall out?

What happens if I need to eject?

Where's that instrument? They practice, they think, they plot,

and they plan, and they chair fly.

And guess what they're doing? They're building synapses to help them be better at the task

when it's actually time to do it.

And they're building hope that they'll be better pilots when they do that.

So the idea that you can mentally prepare for something or you can use your time to get stronger better,

healthier even happier,

Even when you're stuck is valid from a neuroscience standpoint, and it's valid from a spiritual standpoint.

May remind you of the book of Jeremiah the prophet Jeremiah chapter 32 There's a story where the Babylonians have come and they've taken the city and everything's in ruin and the people have been dragged off into exile

and the situation is hopeless.

And Jeremiah's cousin owns a field in a place called Anantoth, and God says,

hey, I want you to go buy that field from your cousin and make sure you have witnesses and record the deed.

Go buy that field.

And Jeremiah's like, God, this field is useless. It has no value.

It's now being controlled by the invading army. There's no reason why I should buy this field.

And God says, there's gonna come a day When I'm gonna make this right,

people are gonna buy and sell property here again. There's going to be construction here again.

There is hope for the future.

Homes and futures and families are coming back to this place, and you just need to trust me.

Go by that field.

And so Jeremiah does it. He buys it. He buys the field and records the deed,

makes sure there's witnesses.

And God says, stay alert. This is Jeremiah 32, 27, and 42, and 43.

Stay alert. I am God, the God of everything living. Is there anything I can't do?

I will certainly bring this huge catastrophe, the invasion, on the people,

but I will also usher in a wonderful life of prosperity.

I promise.

Fields are going to be bought here again.

Eugene Peterson in his book run with the horses says this about the time when Jeremiah bought the field at Anatoth,

He says buying that field in Anatoth was a deliberate act of hope.

All acts of hope Exposed themselves to ridicule because they seem impractical,

failing to conform for visible reality conform to visible reality But in fact, they are the reality that is being constructed,

but is not yet visible. Hope commits us to actions that connect with God's promises. Hope commits us to actions that connect with God's promises. And

that's why we're here today, my friend. I want you to connect to God's promises,

and I want you to have enough hope to commit yourself to actions, to be the

person in the prison cell who says, yeah, I may be stuck here, but I am NOT stuck

in my mind, and I'm going to get my body stronger, I'm going to get my mind stronger, I'm going

to get myself ready for what comes next.

I'm going to buy that field because I'm going to commit myself to actions that connect to God's promises.

If you believe that God has a plan and a future for you, if you believe that the Lord is close

to you when you're brokenhearted, if you believe there's a resurrection, if you believe He

can make good things out of difficult things, if you believe that He came here to give you

abundance, then you can commit yourself to actions that connect to His promises.

That's the movement part of the verb of hope. You remember, and then you move.

Paul says it this way in Philippians 3.

He says that I have not already have not already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal,

But I press on to take hold of that for which christ jesus took hold of me,

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do,

Forgetting what is behind And straining towards what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which god,

Has called me heavenward and Christ Jesus. You see he's in prison,

He's literally in prison. It's a prison epistle. He wrote that from a Roman jail,

And he's saying hey, I've got all these plans and God's got all these promises for me

And I haven't taken hold of them yet, and I'm literally in a place where I can't do anything about it right now

But I'm going to press on I'm gonna work in my mind to press on to connect to God's promise

I'm going to commit myself to the actions that would be necessary to accomplish the goal of getting to that place,

Even if I'm stuck in jail, even if I'm stuck in this place Even if I'm on a treadmill and I don't feel like I'm moving forward. I'm still gonna make progress.

Paul says also 1st Corinthians 9 26 and 27. Therefore. I do not run like someone running aimlessly

I do not fight like a boxer beating the air

No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others

I myself will not be disqualified for the prize He says I'm not gonna flail around on the treadmill at a flat incline and not going very fast,

I'm going to train when he used this time and this place and whatever I'm dealing with and however stuck

I feel I'm going to train as if I'm going to win the prize I'm going to commit myself to actions that connect with God's promises,

That's what I'm going to do.

My friend, my question for you today is when you feel stuck, are you going to give up?

Are you going to commit yourself to actions that connect to God's promises?

You're going to direct your mental energy use those mirror neurons do some chair flying make some plans

Do some push-ups if you need to get yourself in the state to be ready to connect to God's promises for your life Even if right now,

You can't see the way forward even if right now the invading army has in fact taken your field and it seems,

Valueless and not important to you buy it anyway,

connect to that promise, commit to actions, buy the field, record the deed,

make sure there are witnesses so nobody will say that you're crazy when it comes to pass later, right?

Jared Adams spent that 10 years in prison instead of getting out in the prison yard

and getting in gang fights and becoming a drug addict, he spent it reading and studying

and preparing to go to law school someday so he could help other people who were stuck in a place like he was.

And you don't have to be hopeless, whatever your situation is,

I would submit that you can have Lou Gehrig's disease and be on a ventilator and you can still be getting stronger

and healthier and happier and more hopeful in your mind, even if your body is withering away,

because you can do some chair flying

and you can commit yourself to some mental actions that will connect to God's promises for your life,

even if your body is wasting away,

even if your medical condition isn't what you want, even if your financial condition isn't what you want,

even if your marital condition isn't what you want, you can commit yourself to actions

that connect to God's promises and you can find some hope in your life, my friend.

And you can change your mind and you can change your life, but you've got to remember that you're running a race.

And the question is, what kind of race are you running?

And are you getting stronger? Are you getting weaker? Are you getting more hopeful or more hopeless?

Are you getting more faithful or more faithless?

And are you moving towards promises?

Or are you withering away and getting more and more bitter and scared and nervous about the future? You don't have to.

Hope commits you to actions that connect you to God's promises.

And my friend, all you need to do is start today.

First Corinthians 9, 24 to 26 says, Do you not know that in the race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?

Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in a game goes into strict training.

They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.

Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly.

I do not fight like a boxer beat in the air.

Music.

Hey, thanks for listening. The Dr. Lee Warren podcast is brought to you

by my brand new book, Hope is the First Dose.

It's a treatment plan for recovering from trauma, tragedy, and other massive things.

It's available everywhere books are sold, and I narrated the audio book,

if you're not already tired of hearing my voice.

Hey, the theme music for the show is Get Up by my friend Tommy Walker,

available for free at TommyWalkerMinistries.org.

They are supplying worship resources for worshipers all over the world to worship the Most High God.

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and go to my website and sign up for the newsletter, Self Brain Surgery, every Sunday since 2014,

helping people in all 50 states and 60 plus countries around the world.

I'm Dr. Lee Warren, and I'll talk to you soon. Remember, friend, you can't change your life,

until you change your mind and the good news is you can start today.

Music.