The Death of Ants**

I know the title sounds a little strange but hang in there.
I grew up in a small town in NY called Elmira Heights. I moved to O-town nine years ago.
In NY, we had ants, but no where near the kind of psycho ants in Florida, the kind that eat your house and the kind that attack and bite you.

We had big huge black ants.

When I was small, I think it was my job to kill all of them. I would crush them, step on them and even drown them. Then one day a friend down the street told me to be careful. Ants can carry like a thousand times their own weight and one day (since all ants have families, ya know) they might try to kill me. Since they can climb trees, they could throw rocks at me and try to stone me. They could even become Kamikaze like and hold me under water and drown me.

Scared the life out of me. I never tried to kill an ant again.

Until I moved to Florida.

The point of this story is this: I was right. I had the right idea about ants all along; killem all.
According to Daniel Amen, author of Change Your Brain Change Your Life, he says ANTS are Automatic Negative Thoughts that need to be destroyed.

Ya see, I knew I was justified in killing them.
Here's why..
Your memory and negative thoughts and experiences are stored in your deep limbic system. It's there, don't worry. Its' in the middle part of your brain, very small, but very significant. When your deep limbic system is way way active, your mind is set on negative. If you doubt this, think about when all of the sudden (ladies*) you cry over nothing; or you are irritated, you start regretting something you did way back when (and really no one cares about it but you), you feel anxious about the future, you are critical, and you complain. *this isn't directed to all the ladies, no chillax all you men reading this.

Think about the last time you told yourself, I'm going to fail this test; It's going to be an awful day; Why bother. Are you getting it now? You set yourself up for failure. Think about all the times you are on your way home, after leaving your kids alone with your husband for a week. What are you thinking about? What the house looks like, did he take the trash out, are my kids still healthy or did they eat candy and take out for the week? These negative thoughts predispose you to self-fulfilling prophesies. You are expecting bad things to happen and you set yourself up for it to happen.

Another example, you think about no one wanting to be your friend, no one likes you; maybe you even think ill of others. Therefore you alienate others from you, causing you to continue with the negative thoughts and believing them further. Making sense?

Here's more examples, just in case you are saying to yourself, "I don't do that."
You never listen to me.
You're arrogant.
I should have done better.
My children never listen to me.
I feel as though you don't care about me.

In order to repair the damage done to the deep limbic system, you must evaluate your thoughts. Because sometimes your thoughts might not even be telling the truth. Remember when the Bible said, take every thought captive. Well, that's because, like God created your brain and like he knows how it works and he knows what happens when you misinterpret events and what people say and think negatively. Why do you think Paul wrote Philippians 4:8? Whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.

Hello. Because ANTS destroy your life. Just like red ants and carpenter ants and the plain old black ants can destroy parts of your life. Like your deck, foundation, picnic, fun in the yard with bare feet ...
You must kill the ANTS in your life.
Dr. Amen says that thoughts are actually things, beings. They actually have physical properties. Picture them as invaders (good or bad). When you think a thought, it effects you physically. Your body releases chemicals after every thought. If your mind is full of negative thoughts, it will effect your deep limbic system and therefore cause irritability, moodiness and even depression. But you can teach yourself to control your thinking. Hence the reason we use polygraph testing. Because our thoughts, good and bad, cause our body to react. Heart beat, sweat, temperature, and breathing.

Key word, teach yourself. No one else can do it for you. Not even God. It is up to you to take the initiative and do it. God can help you, but he commands you to take your thoughts captive. He commands you to think on positive things. If he could do it all for you every time you ask him to, he would not have written it down for us to do it ourselves. He would have said something like this, 'Hey, every time you have a bad thought or you are feeling down, just tell me about it and I will make it all better. I will even replace it for you. You don't have to do or think anything. I got it covered."

God is not a Jeanie in a Bottle. Yes, he will help you. And if you pray to him, he may possibly give you a thought to replace the bad one with; but what if he doesn't. Au ha! It's because it's your job. He wants you to do it. He wants you to learn how to do it for yourself; with his help and encouragement.

Ok, so how?? How do you get rid of these ANTS????
First you have to identify what kind of ant it is so you will know how to destroy it.

ANT #1 Always or Never thinking
Replace always or never will something else.
For example, My children never listen.
My children are not listening to me right now, but they usually do.

ANT #2 Focusing on the bad; the negative
Look for the positive in every situation.
Turn your negative thought into a more positive or neutral thought.
Play the "Glad Game" from the Pollyanna book.

ANT #3 Fortune telling
This is the one where you predict what is going to happen.
For example, People are going to stop coming to this church.
You don't know that. Tell yourself that you do not know the future. If you could predict the future, don't you think you would have won the lottery by now.

ANT #4 Mind reading
This is when you think you know why someone did something or what they are thinking about.
For example, your wife has a downcast face. You think, uh oh, she's PMSing. Better stay away.
You don't know that. You only think you do. You won't know unless you ask them or they tell you. Stop reading other people's minds; they don't need your help, and it's not helping you.

ANT #5 Thinking with your feelings
This is when you feel a certain way and you actually believe the way you feel is accurate. If that were true then every woman who cries for no reason is a bipolar. Not true.
Evaluate your feelings, feelings LIE. What is true about your feeling? What isn't? Then make a decision based on what is true. If there is no reason why you are crying other than hormones, then there's your answer. Go check your calendar, because your are probably due for Aunt Flow.

ANT #6 Guilt Beating
This is where you think things like should, must, ought to, or have to.
Like, I should have done better on that test. or I must spend more time with my kids.
It is better if you change them to fit your goals.
It is in my best interest to perform better on the next test. or I want to spend more time with my kids.

ANT #7 Labeling
You are a ____ (negative word)
Well, that effects you as well.
You calling someone a jerk effects how you interact with the jerk.
Most people aren't going to act in a formal or positive way with a jerk.
Stay away from this.
Think Bambi and his friend Thumper, "If you can't say something nice. Don't say anything at all."

ANT #8 Personalizing
This is when you think the reason someone didn't talk to you, it must have something to do with something you did ... or didn't do.
There are many reasons why people behave the way they do; but don't take it personally.
Someone may not have talked to you because they were focused on where they were going and what they needed to do.

ANT #9 Blaming (poisonous)
For example: It wasn't my fault.... or How was I supposed to know... or That would not have happened if you had just ....
Whenever you blame someone for problems in your own life, you make yourself powerless to do anything about it. Take responsibility for what happened; don't blame.

Train yourself to identify what kind of ANT is interfering with your life, write it down and change it to something more positive; this will kill the ant.


Take it easy.... and don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy
(the eagles - like the best band ever)



**Amen, D.G., MD.: Change Your Brain Change Your Life. (New York: Times Books - Random House, 1998).