How to Renew Your Mind After 50: Reclaiming Your Purpose and Mindset

Hey, I'm TJ. Welcome to the Mind Body Faith Over 50 podcast. I'm glad you're here.

You are part of the MBF family. So before we get started, I want to share something with you.

I put together a list of the top things that I do each and every day to help me renew my mind, strengthen my body, and to deepen my faith. So if that's something you'd like, go to mbfpodcast.com forward slash list and you can get your copy free today. All right, back to our show.

The Sacrifice of the First Half

So you know what it's like to be able to work hard, provide for your family, to sacrifice basically, yourself because we grew up that way, right? I mean, whether you're a dad like me, and you probably spent a lot of your time away from your kids, your family, doing whatever work it is that you did.

And that could be multiple businesses because let's face it, they didn't all stay solvent or we might have been let go and had to move around a little bit. Some of you guys probably moved physically, even picked up your family, moved to different locations.

But whatever it was, whether it was you, you and the kids, or you and your spouse and the kids, that's sacrifice, that's a lot. But we did it because we knew that was what was best, right? Well, yeah.

Facing the Reality of Aging

But in doing that, if you're the same age that I am, or at least in that 50 to 80 range, chances are you don't have kids still living with you at home. If you do, you might need a different program for helping them launch from the house.

And listen, I love kids. I love raising them, I love mentoring them, I love being around people that I can share with. But at the same time, if you're keeping yourself from growing, you reach a point where you look around and there's no kids there anymore.

Hopefully, there's a spouse there still if you're married, or you've remarried and you've got that support, but it's just not the same. And even at work, you realize, how did I get to be one of the only, you know, oldest people here?

I've been there. I get it. It's really sobering and honestly a little scary to realize that you've already lived over half of your life. Now that's biologically speaking, okay?

It Is Never Too Late to Dream Again

I don't think at 60, I'm gonna live to 120. I'm okay with that. I've made peace with that.

But here's the deal. If I were to just take that and think, man, I'm like over halfway done, that wouldn't be good. And that's kind of what I wanted to share with you today is what are you doing for yourself now so that you don't fall into that rut?

Or if you're there, what can you do to pull yourself out of it? I've been working for the last ten years or more on renewing my mind, my mindset, and not just even dreaming again, which is awesome, but also realizing that okay, this whole haven't lived half my life thing already, that that's totally the wrong way to look at it.

First of all, the first half of that even, you know, I was a kid, right? Elementary school, college, if you went to college or apprenticeship, the armed services, and if you did serve, thank you for doing that.

But whatever it is that you did up until I don't know, when you maybe got into your mid twenties, maybe even thirties, that was just preparing you for adulting, right? I know we think of our kids at eighteen sometimes as adults from a world standard, I guess, at least in the United States, but as somebody that's had eighteen year olds, there's just no way that those guys are adults at that age, right?

So we can argue about that later. But even for us, we've maybe had half of the life that we've lived so far and a little more into adulthood, into the career, the families, whatever it is that we were wanting to establish and move towards as far as a goal.

But just because we're halfway through our physical life already, doesn't mean that we don't still have dreams and goals and aspirations. And if you don't, then you've let the world and negative thoughts cause you to believe that you're almost retired or you're in retirement, some of you, and that you know you're just kind of here in case anybody needs you.

The Power of Community and Connection

And that you know, with Chat GPT and people asking that for advice, probably not needed that much from the advice side of things. Sorry, that might have been more from my own experience. You know what I mean though.

So renewing our mind is so important. And I'm so glad that I do have people in my life who have helped me to realize that. And I have community.

So I want to encourage each of you to be a part of community, not just the mind-body, faith community, the MBF family. Although I'm glad you're here. Don't give that up.

But real connection, being part of a church group, like a life group or a small group, somebody that does life together, right? Be careful though who you surround yourself with. Community's awesome.

We're better together, right? But just as you can have a positive impact on others, they can have a positive impact on you, or you could have a negative impact on each other. So it's super important for you to have the right mindset, the right attitudes.

Understanding the Science of the Mind

I know I keep saying mind, so what do I mean by that, right? What's this renewing of the mind thing?

Well, I'm gonna read a scripture from the Bible that talks about that, and then let's explain it a little bit from a scientific standpoint. So in Romans twelve two, it says do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Okay, that's clearly important for it to be spoken by the disciples that walk with Jesus. And it's not in just that verse, but throughout the Bible it talks about taking our thoughts captive and holding them so that we control what we think because it's so important.

But what is the mind? Am I just talking about like, you know, this part up here, the brain? No.

Actually, the brain, obviously, is within our soul. And we think of that as okay, that's like the supercomputer, right? That controls everything else.

Somewhat, yes, but the mind is more like our soul. It's our thoughts that lead to actions. It's our attitude, it's the essence of who we are.

Like when you make up your mind to do something, right? You've heard that. So as a scientist, I have a little bit of an understanding into what that means in terms of it being different from the thoughts that are actually measurable within our brain.

Okay, stay with me here. I know I'm kind of going off on a scientific tangent, but our brain has, you know, blood vessels and all kinds of matter within it, that have synapses.

It also has the ability to have neuropathways that are formed by the thoughts that we think. Okay. Mind blown. That's an emoji that gets used a lot now.

Breaking the Cycle of Negative Self-Talk

It's not that our brain isn't controlling us, it's that it's our mind, our thoughts, what we believe, what we tell ourselves, what we allow ourselves to think about, that control the brain, control the body. Our physical bodies do not control us, guys.

So put biology out of it. Every day we have the opportunity to renew our mind. We can constantly change our stinking thinking to good thoughts.

And why is that so important? Well, we talked about like we've already lived half our lives, right?

We can actually become the person that God intended us to become the best version for each of us, and that's totally within our power. That, if nothing else, is what I want you to take away from our talk today and this time together.

So you probably heard as a kid when at least during the time I was growing up about brainwashing, right? Like a negative thing.

And in reality, programming is something that happens all the time to us, either by people around us, our environment, or self-talk, right? I'm betting a lot of you are like me in that sometimes you just say dumb things.

Well, we shouldn't tell ourselves that, that was stupid, or I just man, I can't believe I did that. I'm so dumb. No, no, no, no, no.

God made you to be perfect in every way. Not that, my gosh, I've got to be perfect now, but that you already are. And so it's just a matter of making mistakes and getting through things that allow us to be who he wants us to become.

And that's by design. So don't get down on yourself. Don't allow yourself to give you those negative thoughts energy because what we think about the most grows and creates those neuropathways in the brain.

But here's the best part. Any negative thinking or pathways that we already have, we can change. We just have to start thinking, planning, living, enjoying, experiencing, and that should bring us joy alone.

Taking Responsibility for Your Transformation

So that's what God wants for us. And let's talk a little bit more about this connection between the brain and the mind because this is an important part.

Our mind is what allows us to make decisions, obviously, but also just make good choices for ourselves. And in doing that, if we can strengthen our minds, we can help others around us.

Many of us want to be able to help others and speak life into others. And we should. And listen, we've got the maturity to do that, right?

So we just need to be of the right mindset so that we're sharing the good stuff when we're sharing that with others. All right. So we've got a little bit left to discuss, but before we do that, I put together a list of things that I do daily to help me renew my mind and strengthen my body and deepen my faith.

I want to share that with you. So you can get your copy by going to nbfpodcast.com forward slash list and pick it up.

I hope it's something that can encourage you and there's probably some things that you can add to it as well. So I'd like to hear from you and see what activities that you're doing or that you can add to what I do, so we can communicate together. We're all part of this family, and I love that.

So let's review what we've talked about because look, it's a lot to take in. I get it, especially if this is a new way of thinking, you know, pun intended, for you.

How we think is based a lot on what our experiences have been. And since we're older, mature, we've had a lot of experience. We've had a lot of growing up.

Things have changed. We've learned a lot. But the world around us has changed a lot too.

And we have, in some ways, been programmed for beliefs that aren't necessarily true, or at least aren't all of the truth, right? So we know that we have the ability to take that experience and use the good stuff, but we can replace any of the bad stuff.

Look, we've all had a lot of bad things happen to us, and some of you, some of you had some really bad things, and I feel for you on that. Each of us has a story to tell.

And what I want you to know is that our story's not close to being over. We're writing a new chapter.

Despite what you've been through, and God knows, He knows, He's with you, we do have the power to change and our minds can be renewed. We don't have to, you know, just do it alone.

We have community like here, and the community that we can build in community with others through church groups and life groups and friends and family. But we also can be careful to guard ourselves against allowing others to speak negativity over us.

In fact, we need to be speaking daily affirmations over ourselves because it comes through repetition that we actually begin to believe and have that trust and that faith. So we know we're responsible for our own thinking and we've got choices.

So let's go out there and make a change in us and in others. So we're gonna end with another verse from the Bible. This time Philippians four eight.

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. If there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

So remember, renew your mind, strengthen your body, and deepen your faith so that you can become the best version of you. I'll see you in the next episode.

Are you ready to stop making excuses and start seeing results? If you are looking to reclaim your purpose and renew your mind, let's work together. https://mbfpodcast.com/list