Don't Let the Terrorists Win!

Feeling like the voices in your head could start their own terrorist organization? Don’t let the terrorists win! Here's how to fight back against the voices and self-talk that are trying to keep you down. 

Transcript

Do not let the terrorist win now before you go call into the Department of Homeland Security to go capture some terrorists that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about all the people throughout your life who have somehow put stuff into your head that's negative or bad or brings you down or is just in many cases hurtful okay so for example okay let's start with your parents that's the obvious place to start and again this in no way shape or form is parent blame that's not what we're doing here but there may be things (00:35) that they said to you while you were growing up or even maybe today that are hurtful like things like you you'll never amount to anything or who do you think you are or all the stuff that happened in childhood we're back to things like you know stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about or uh I was listening to something earlier about even when you're when you're joyful and happy and a parent says all right that's enough fun in games for now right as if there's you you know let's shut down the joy who are you to be happy and joyful (01:06) right so again we're back to every parent does the best that he or she can but there are things that that we all bring in from the previous generations we don't even know we're doing them we don't know any better okay and so these things you know get let out and they Unfortunately they come they come to you as kind of like commands of well I can't be joyful I can't be sad I can't show my feelings um I can't be who I am I can't show my excitement for things or my passion for anything right cuz y all you just been T you've been shut (01:44) down so we're back to what I mean by being a terrorist so apparent in a way that voice is inside of you terrorizing you to not be who you are to not step out to not try things and not be curious not be playful and that's a lot of stuff I've experienced over my life where I just felt like oh my gosh I can't I can't use my creativity because you know good boys don't do that good boys grow up they get a job they get married they're responsible they pay all their bills blah blah blah and so one of the terrorist voices in my head and I'm (02:15) going to be quite honest I don't remember anybody ever even saying this to me but it's like you can't do this thing that brings you pleasure that you're passionate about because it doesn't make money so that means anything from learning a musical instrument learning a foreign language uh drawing doing art any of those kind of things right you just because they're not valuable so the voices say the terrorism the terrorist voices say so I'm going to say start with terrorist is you know probably your your parents it could be (02:47) as well your brothers and sisters who parit a lot of stuff they heard their parents say your parents say it could be a boss or bosses or managers at work the people who criticize your work or in subtle ways treat you the same way that your family did or does and and I've said that before but I think the worst I never want to work for a company that tells me that hey come join our family right because if you're already part of a family you don't want to be part of or that you're really sour on that's the last thing I want to do is (03:20) join somebody else's family who knows how dysfunctional they are right so a lot of this these terrorist voices are you might hear them at work you might hear it from a boss or manager someone who's critiquing your work or telling you to do things and you feel all those same anxieties and worries and fears come come back to you that you may not have experienced since you were a child all right there there could be friends just again well-meaning friends but that's some of the the language that comes across and it's part of your own (03:51) uh you know defense mechanisms like how you deal with other people you know and especially if you're a codependent well I've got to please them I got to make them happy I don't want them to be upset with me especially at work right what a horrible Dynamic when you think about you're in a place that it it all depends on your per you know your performance how well you do you may have a great personality but at the end of the day you've got to perform you've got to meet certain metrics you got to do stuff so there's always a certain pressure to (04:20) perform and if you're a codependent type person you're going to want to make sure you're in there every day you've probably got a knot in your stomach you're trying to do the best you can and all it takes is one like you know disparaging look from a boss or someone and you just you crumble the pieces so there's that almost that that terrorist voice in inside of your head that says you better do a good job or else right big fear of Abandonment you better do a good job otherwise you're going to get in trouble or the worst you're fired (04:52) we're letting you go thanks but no thanks so these are words of just Terror for if you grew up in that kind of environment where you're afraid to death of of Abandonment and if especially if you're the people pleaser type person um I'm going to say if you're someone who's in school you might get that from fellow students and teachers same thing especially in the classroom same thing well you better do a good job and not even a good job like your best job necessarily but a job that's good enough to make the teacher happy and (05:24) that goes back same with the job too it may not be your best work but it's got to be work pleases other people so that in a job they don't fire you at school they give you a good grade or they don't flunk you so just be cognizant that all these things all these voices these these people who have been really just you know on you are going through your head um think about the news think about the stuff you hear in the news all the time about you know people telling you what what a good uh Patriot is or a good American is or what a good citizen is (06:01) and you're a bad person if you vote for this person or if you voted for this person on this side or if you are for this policy or that policy or if you're against this policy or that policy you're a terrible person you're not even an American you're a horrible horrible human being don't let the terrorists win right they tell you that that you're that somehow you're a bad person if you don't act a certain way in society you know and if you're a practicing Catholic you know how to act you know what morality is you know what (06:33) standards God has for us so to be a quote unquote patriotic American should be fairly easy right you just you be a decent person love God love your neighbor don't do bad things to other people okay so that's a little side note but you know you get voices of people who are trying to tell you how to be a certain thing in this case an American you know if you're overseas listening to this or even you know a citizen of your own country you're only a good citizen if you act and do things the way we tell you to even if they're (07:12) against God if they're against God's laws right to be a good communist you have to do this you have to work this much you have to produce this many things so again there's another voice of what I call terrorism of people who are basically telling you how you must be now here's one that I'm going to struggle a little bit with but even voices from within the church okay when the pope tells you that if you litter that's a sin if you you know somehow harm the environment that's a sin it's like wow do you do you really (07:47) need that so you're telling me you know can you imagine going to confession you know bless me father I Sinn it's been two weeks since my last confession I uh yeah I I threw a plastic straw on the ground or I uh you know I lit a campfire and I know that the black smoke went up into the air I mean just beyond ridiculous right so even from within the church you get stuff like that and that that's why it's so important that you're grounded in the faith that you know what being Catholic is and what the Catholic Church teaches and this is going to be (08:19) so much helpful in in further casts that I do that to have that grounding as a Catholic is going to help you through so much of what I'll be talking about if you know know your faith if you know what the church teaches and things like this aren't going to bother you or maybe bother you a whole lot less right you might even have Bishops and Priests and religious same thing that you have to be green you have to live environmentally a certain way you have to treat different people with different proclivities in certain ways and all of (08:52) a sudden you're you're a bad person or or lately we hear about illegal immigration here in our country oh welcome in all welcome in all the illegal immigrants right oh I'm a bad person if I if I don't open my house to them if I don't let them live within my house so I'm not going to be labor to that point but just know that there's there there could be voices within the religious community that can be terroristic in terms of telling you what to do how to do it based on nothing so be very careful about that now I hope you're sitting down or (09:24) you're at least holding on to something because the biggest terrorist in your life I'm if you are codependent or if you were what was called The Lost Child in your family you know a scapegoat any of those things the biggest terrorist is more than likely drum roll you yeah that that person you see in the mirror and it's not you per se as much as all those voices in your head yeah I'm not talking about schizophrenia you know what I'm talking about the selft talk that you can be the very worst terrorist you could be your biggest (10:02) enemy from that perspective so you have all these people that you've been around your entire life and you may be hearing a lot of those voices and those voices are disguised in in as your voice cuz you've taken it all it all on and you're you're beating yourself up and you're telling yourself what you can't do you're telling yourself who you should be right they call it the shy way of life you should be this you should be that you should stand for this you should not stand for this so when it comes to terrorism I'm (10:36) betting that you probably terrorize yourself more than anybody else and once again I'm going to ask you to hold that up against what is really true if you know when you read the Bible nowhere does Jesus say you know does he condemn you as a person you as who you are in fact it's quite the opposite you know when you find out that God created you from from all eternity when God loves you when if you read the gospels in Jesus it's always about compassion and mercy it's not about clubbing you over the head so when it comes to you know the (11:12) great commandment of you know you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself okay it's under the assumption that you love yourself that you actually love yourself to give that to other people so if these terrorists in your head are keep telling you that you're no good you're a terrible person you can't do anything how are you going to love other people how are you going to have compassion for other people if you don't have compassion for yourself so the only way to defeat (11:42) terrorists and terrorism as we're talking about here is take a deep breath and start speaking truth to yourself write it down if you have to I I have to do this all the time and I still fail so many times each and every day you'll be working on a project and you don't even necessarily hear the voice so you know you might have your own experience but for me you may not even hear a voice per se like being mean to you it's almost like even a feeling while I'll be working on someone it's like it's back there it's like you know (12:18) you're not doing this right who do you think you are do you really think this is going to be a success this isn't going to work this is going to take so much hard work and you don't even do hard work you're going to you're going to stop you're going to quit you're going to give up nobody's going to like this nobody's going to like you I mean it's even like you know creating a podcast or or a video no one's going to watch this nobody cares and it's a it you know again maybe this a terrorist I should have brought up it's the Devil Himself (12:48) in so many cases where he have you ever thought about this like the devil can see the potential within you somehow just by being around you all the time he he knows perhaps the gifts that God has given you and he's terrified so think about what's in it for the devil if he terrorizes you with all these negative thoughts in conjunction with your own thoughts because you're already beating yourself up because he doesn't want you to be the person that God created you to be think about what a think about what a victory (13:21) that is for the devil if he can keep you from becoming what God created you to be if he can keep you from accomplishing the mission God wants you to set out on you know I think of St maxan Colby when you know back in in Poland in Europe he was creating the the newsletter to the immaculada he was preaching and teaching and you know he went he came he ran through so many problems with machinery and space and and everything else can you imagine if if he had these negative thoughts of like well who Do You Think (13:54) You Are God doesn't like your work you know I mean if if he just stopped doing that and think of any saint who's done just amazing and incredible things if they listen to that inner terrorist if they listen to the devil telling them what they can't do and how they're going to fail and how they must make God very unhappy or even if he you know takes on the voice of you know God and tells you it's like you know I'm not happy with you I don't love you I think about the horrible things that that they had to endure so you're in good company if (14:29) you're hearing in the same thing you're in good company is what I'm trying to say so what did they do they persevere they kept at it they kept going and in the meantime I want to encourage you to write the stuff down if something negative is in your head if you hear a voice say you're too stupid you can't do this okay counter The Voice counter and say you know I've done so many things in my life already that prove I'm not stupid I've accomplished you know ABC I've done this and that I've gone to school I've gone to college I graduated (14:58) college I I got a u you know a decent job I'm able to provide for my family or I'm an incredibly successful uh single person and I've started this project and I've done this and that so take take a moment don't don't let the devil fool you and terrorize you into tearing your own self down is what I'm trying to say so today take a little step even if you find one thought that's bugging you if you find yourself and here's how you know here's how you know every single time when the devil is hovering around you there's just you're (15:32) just sadness there's a cloud there's a Darkness that's your first clue right there and all of a sudden you start saying negative things to yourself you start feeling sad depressed stop right there what am I thinking what's going through my head what am I hearing and you know what get a bully Club to that terrorist and just beat the beat the snot out of them right because when you think about it all these terroristic voices the voice of the devil have you ever thought about this they're all trying to keep you from (16:07) accomplishing something they're keeping you from seeing you as God sees you as the Blessed Virgin Mary sees you as the Sacred Heart of Jesus sees you have you ever thought about that how they they all think you're amazing you're wonderful they accept you and love you as you are it's time for you to accept and love yourself as you are it's not easy if you've had a lifetime where either people have told you outright that you're a loser you're no good who do you think you are if you suffer abuse physical um psychological any any of (16:43) those things and as I've heard from John Bradshaw who does a lot of work with uh toxic shame it's kinesthetic where you don't even hear people people don't even say these things to you you somehow feel them you know them you you just you know it you walk in a room with somebody and you just know that I don't know they don't like you or they there's something they have very huge negativity toward you so you know just like in the United States when we're fighting terrorists we're going all over blowing up terrorists (17:17) whatever get your battle gear on and just start fighting the terrorists that are part of your life in your head and your mind and are telling you things that aren't true they're telling you lies you know what tell tell the devil to go to hell you don't want to hear from him and just get on your knees and ask God for help ask especially the Blessed Virgin Mary say Mommy I need help I can't do this I'm overwhelmed and just keep asking and praying and don't stop don't give up please I'm asking you I'm begging you (17:48) don't give up please keep at it because even if the whole world hates you truly hates you God loves you God the creator of the universe God the creator of creator of the earth and everything in it loves you and wants the best for you he wants you in heaven with him so please today take a moment even if it's just if you're able to catch one catch the lies catch the terror catch the horrible things that you hear and fight back push back tell yourself the truth because the truth is you're loved God loves you and I'm sure if I was sit in the (18:29) same room with you right now I could tell you I love you too because we're all in this together we're all fighting for heaven we're fighting to get there some of us have to work a whole lot harder than others I guess in some ways I'm some I'm sometimes even jealous I'm ashamed to say it of people who grew up in families where there is so much you know love and acceptance like you know people who really families that encourage you who said nice things to you who were there for you who let you express your emotions (18:59) but I know that you and I are also where we are for a reason and we may have to fight harder we may have to you know do a lot more work but it's worth it because you know you you live with yourself 24/7 365 so you might as well say a lot of nice things to the person you're with that often you might as well encourage that person you might as well have compassion for that person so that you can have great days and make great progress progress and just know like I say you're not alone God bless you keep at it"