Friday Night Smackdown For Your Brain

Your thoughts can sound confident, spiritual, and logical while quietly steering you into anxiety, self-doubt, and distraction. We sit down as friends and talk through a different picture of “take every thought captive” one that feels less like a pretty quote and more like a real fight. For us, it looks like wrestling a thought to the ground, naming it, and refusing to let it drive the next decision. 

We get practical about discernment: asking where a thought comes from, whether it is true, and whether it holds up next to the Word of God. Melissa shares a military analogy for spotting the enemy when everything looks the same at first, and we tie that to why community matters so much in Christian mental health. When you are new to faith or simply new to managing intrusive thoughts and negative self-talk, you learn faster by walking alongside people who are yoked to Jesus and know what to look for. 

We also explore a nuanced twist: sometimes the thought or desire is not evil, it just does not serve you well today. That is where taking thoughts captive becomes wisdom instead of shame. We connect this to faith and wellness habits like Oura Ring and smartwatch tracking, continuous glucose monitors, biofeedback, and sensory gating. Even good data can become noisy, and sometimes the healthiest move is stepping away so you can feel what is happening in your body again. We close with a relatable story about sugar cravings and how “captivity” can lead to real freedom, where you guide the habit instead of being ruled by it. 

If you have ever felt pulled around by your mind, hit play, then share this with a friend, subscribe, and leave a review so more women can find faith-first conversations that help their hearts and health.

Transcript

Why We Hit Record

SPEAKER_01 0:02

When Stephanie and I started the Heart and Soul Elevation podcast, we wanted to have conversations, conversations that mattered, conversations about Jesus, about faith, about health, about wellness. And sometimes when we're just chatting as friends, we decide to press record. And that's what happened for today's episode. We were talking about our thoughts and how our thoughts can run wild sometimes. So, what does it actually mean to take your thoughts captive? What does that look like? And how the heck do you do it? Today we're going to share our thoughts about that on the Heart and Soul Elevation Podcast. Welcome to the Heart and Soul Elevation Podcast, where faith meets wellness and women learn to live aligned, spirit, mind, and body.

Stephanie 0:45

We're your hosts, Melissa Holman and Stephanie Pasniokis, two Jesus-loving women passionate about helping you steward your health without losing sight of the one who gave it to you. Around here, healing happens in community. Scripture leads the way, and science simply confirms what God designed.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Let's elevate your heart and soul together.

The Real Meaning Of Captive

SPEAKER_01 1:10

So people talk about that verse, you know, take every thought captive. And I was talking with a friend yesterday about reading the Bible, right? And when we read the Bible, just with our eyes, it's kind of like in this monotone, almost holier than thou tone in our voice, right? We don't look at uh we don't look at the people in the scriptures as being human with emotions and experiences and I don't think we do it intentionally, but we do.

unknown 1:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

And we don't think about we don't think about people like being sarcastic in the Bible. You know, everything they say has to be from the lips of God and holy and perfect. And um when I read Take Every Thought Captive, and I think most people are like, oh yes, let's hold our thoughts captive. And no, you know what it means to take something captive? You wrestle. I remember wrestling wrestling with my brother and trying to pin him down. Wrestle that stuff to the ground, you throw it to you. It's like Friday night smackdown is WWE. You throw that stuff to the ground, virtually in the middle of its back, you wrench their arms behind them and tie them, right? That's what I think when I think take a thought captive. It's totally different than the way that the church has a whole views that take a thoughts captive. It's like this, oh, let's just take our thoughts captive thing. It is hard. Our brain is hard, our brains are gonna do whatever it is that they're gonna do. And literally, the scripture tells us to take that stuff captive, lock it up in a cell, throw away the key, walk away, and for some reason we just think we can put them in a neat little box inside our brain.

Analyzing Thoughts Not Just Noticing

Stephanie 3:13

Or treat it like a um, you know, meditation can be a wonderful thing. It's about being present and it's about letting a thought come in and letting it go out, letting it come in and letting it go out and just being present, letting it come in. Taking your thought captive isn't just letting it in and letting it go out, because it it and and what's hard about it, what's hard about it is you have to analyze. So what does it look like? You know, figuratively, we're wrestling with, we're wrestling it down. Um, but what's really happening, yeah, what's really happening is you look at it and you say, What is this coming from? I mean, it takes a lot of effort and thought to say, where is this coming from? Is this true? Is this true not just in my mind and heart, but is it a true when you compare it to the word of God? Mm-hmm. Exactly.

Spotting The Enemy Like A Soldier

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Like, and what so I this was a question when I was in the military, right? And I'm a new new person in the military, and we were front lines, my career was front lines. And I'm I'm like, how do you know who the enemy is when we're all dressed alike? How do you know who the enemy is when we are all dressed alike? How do I know what I need to wrestle to the ground and Hong Kai? How do I know what thoughts are the enemy? And what thoughts are friendlies?

Stephanie 4:33

Like it it So how did that how did that play out in the in the military? What did that look like in the military?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

And and as a new person, what I was told was if it if if the guy next to me is shooting, then that's the enemy because that's the experienced guy, and I'm supposed to follow him. And in following him, I will learn what to look for, right? This is no different. So this is community.

Stephanie 5:00

We have the word of God. We can see how somebody else uses the word of God, how somebody else takes their captive, how how they're you know, and how do I learn over time?

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Exactly. And who am I following? Who am I following? Who is the guy next to me that knows who the enemy is? We talk about this all the time off camera. Who is the guy next to me who knows who the enemy is? That's Jesus, right?

Stephanie 5:27

We talk about being yoked, yoked to Jesus, walking hand in hand.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Yeah, and this is the same thing. Like, how do I know which thoughts are the enemy? Because I am yoked to the one who knows.

Stephanie 5:40

Who knows? And he has told us, and it is the word, and he is the word, right? And I think it just always comes back to that because that isn't that isn't changing. Yes, it's like a diamond with many facets, and it might mean and tell us something different at different points of our life, but it's never, it's but it's but it's a signpost, it is a stake in the ground. And we might we might not be able to see all of the the facets when we're first when we're new, but then somebody comes along and just like, oh, but look at it this way and look at that way, and we and and our sight gets better and we're able to see better, and we're able to, you know, and so um and and what what used to just be a green camouflaged blob out there, now I can see the insignia on their uniform. I can see the variations in their uh their belt or the variations in the camouflage or you know, and at first or their weapons or or how they or how they leave because they were trained differently to do things differently. And you you know, but but from afar it looks the same.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

And and so Especially for someone who's new, like and and not we're not just talking about new to the faith, right? What if you're new to learning how to wrestle with your thoughts? What if you're new to learning how to take your thoughts? How did I do that practically? Right?

Stephanie 6:58

Yeah, that's and and you practice. I mean and and you never you never you never stop needing to do it, right? You're never you never stop needing to do it.

Doubt Worry And Herding Cats

Stephanie 7:09

This is how this conversation came up and um and how we accidentally ended up recording this because you know, this week my mind has been all over the place, and and there have been doubts and doubts of myself. I mean, and saying, is this the thing I'm supposed to be doing, or is that the thing I'm supposed to be doing? Where does God want me to go with this? Um here I was thinking this is what I wanted to do, and now all of these other things are coming up, and I'm hearing, and it's not that I'm not, you know, and these are from other other people and thoughts, and and my brain wants to make something of them right away when really maybe it just has to sit and stew and analyze and wrestle and say, okay, and put it before the Lord and put it next to the Word and say, okay, what is all this gonna look like? What is this gonna look like? Taking my thoughts captive, because it doesn't necessarily mean, although for many it does, negative self-talk, putting yourself down.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Right.

Stephanie 8:08

It can be it could be worry, it could be borrowing troubles from tomorrow for today. I mean, like it could be you know, it can it can be changing the direction you're going uh in anything, your career or something or whatever, based, you know, like uh like a feather on the wind, like a child chasing a leaf, you know, like just going wherever the wind blows, right? And not not doing that and saying, no, the staying the course, staying the path, taking the next step that is put in front of you. What is that? And um because our brains want to know everything and work it out and whatever, but sometimes we don't do it the right way, and sometimes it's more like a uh herding cats than cattle, right? Where it's all over the place, and it's like we've gotta like my brain. I felt like it was doing this yesterday. And I'm like, we gotta wrestle, and it got to the place where I was like, okay, I got it. I I I see a little bit better what's going on here, and it brought it all around. But I you know, but I don't want to just wrestle that. Yeah. Somebody asked you because, like, oh, that is a really good point. Let me think about that. Think about that. Are you sure that that's what matters? What made you think that mattered? Oh, well, I have no idea. My brain offered up this thought that this thing mattered, and so now it decided it did. Interesting. So, again, that community aspect, it's not just who you're with, it's not just Jesus, it's the people in your family, it's the people in your world, it's the people who are your tribe or however you want to call it. Um, is as a as a Christian, they're equally yoked with you and their in their faith and their walk with Jesus. And um, and a lot of times we are the hands and the mouth and feet of Jesus to each other and to the world.

When A Good Thing Needs Paused

SPEAKER_01 10:11

One thing I want to say, because I was having this conversation with someone just yesterday, she was wrestling with um, what should I do with this thing? Like I've been wrestling with it for a while now, and I don't know what to do with it. And she asked me point blank, what do I do with it? And I I just sat with my eyes closed for a minute and was praying and asking. And um, I realized that what I wanted to say was very flesh, very, very fleshly. Like I wanted to make it like, oh, everything is fine. Yeah, it's okay to do that thing, blah, blah, blah. But what I said, what came out was if you've been wrestling with this for a while now, you already know the answer. Number one. And number two, the thing that you're asking about is not evil in and of itself. But if God is asking you to lay that thing aside for a time, then you need to lay it aside for a time. It doesn't mean you'll never, ever, ever get to do that thing again or experience that thing again. But for right now, if he's asking you so that you can serve him better to lay that thing aside, then we need to lay that thing aside. And what what I wanted to kind of camp on here is just because today I've wrestled with that thought and I've taken that thought captive doesn't mean necessarily that that thought itself was evil and harmful and horrible. It just means that for today, it does not serve me well. And I may be able to let that thought free again in the future. And that's one of the things about having a walk with Jesus, having a real relationship, not a tradition or religion with him, right? Every day is different. Just because today I have to put something in a box doesn't mean that tomorrow he's not gonna ask me to take it out.

Stephanie 12:12

But but I I want to go back to the analogy you had earlier. You talked about wrestling it and throwing it in the cell and locking the door, and it's like that's truly captive for today. But letting it out doesn't necessarily letting it run free in amok. It might be that you tame it and now it's on a leash and now it's not, it's not driving you. You're guiding it, it's it's not ruling you. It isn't, it is, it is now serving a purpose as opposed to over overwhelming and and not, you know, so it's it's now where it's supposed to be. So for this person that you were speaking with yesterday, um, for a time, setting it aside is uh is very, very powerful because if God is telling you to do that now, then there is something to learn during its absence that might allow it to be something healthy later on that it isn't today. So um, I have a similar situation. Exactly.

Wellness Data Without Getting Hooked

Stephanie 13:03

I was walking with a friend of mine, and we both, you know, we have data, we have our aura rings and we love to talk about it. And data can be great. And she was like noticing, and I've I've gone through periods like, hey, it's telling me something. But but sometimes that data distracts from being connected with what's so that's great if you can connect it with what's happening, right? So there was a little challenge at the end of that. I said, What if you took that off for just a week and see what happens and started to just instead of using the external data start to see how you feel and start connecting it and and and starting to sit with, well, what's going on? Not just that there's evidence of it, you know that now. Okay, great. Let's just, but let's not keep focusing on it because maybe there's something to be learned in the silence. What are you going to? What are you know, what are the things that you know? Coming back around to it and saying, Okay. What do I know? What you know, and and and separating that. So sometimes even though something is good, I'm I I'm like test, not guess. I'm the data girl. Like I want data. But sometimes, um, I did I did not sleep with my watch last night. I'm just like, nope, I'm not, I'm not looking. I don't want to know any of it.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

I'm just going to one of the things we had to do in aromatherapy school was case studies, right? Case studies. You do these case studies with people, you create blends for whatever it is that they're dealing with, and you track all that data. And even if the blend doesn't work, that's still good data. The absence of a positive outcome is still good information. We forget that. We forget that. So taking off your aura ring and going, okay, the absence of data is a good thing sometimes.

Stephanie 15:03

Yeah, it's forcing you to pay attention. You know, I I it's a great tool to bridge to help you learn how to connect with what's feeling in your body with what's being seen. And there's a biofeedback mechanism there. I feel the same way about a continuous glucose monitor. Amazing biofeedback and to help you make different changes. But once you have the data and you understand a little bit what you need to know, continuing on with it can be detrimental too long. I like to do it in periodic times to do spot checks, but staying with it all the time, I've done it where I did it once for a while and then I stopped. And I mean, I almost had a rebound. Like, I'm like, I don't have that, you know, and so there's a time and a space. You mentioned a concept recently, which is a really great concept, the sensory gating, right? Um, so having a period of time with data or a sensor or anything, or you know, whether it's an activity or something, the absence of it helps reset that sensory gate. It opens the gate. Our brains stop ignoring it. We start, you know, we start to adapt. The same thing works with adaptogenic herbs, you know. You take them for a bit, but your body is going to start to adjust to it. You have to stop in order to remain sensitized to it. You know, if you're eating sugar all the time, you're gonna get insulin resistant, you know, you're gonna start ignoring it. Like we're meant, we're never, we're we we don't want to be in a rut of any kind. Our body kind of just our brains do, you know, and um, and sometimes we can have this pendulum swinging the other way in some in a way that's not necessarily healthy.

Stepping Away To Break The Hold

Stephanie 16:45

So um, you know, how this all loops around to taking thoughts captive is sometimes we're in the middle of something or doing something and we need to step away. We need the absence of it. And then when we come back to it, we often see it very differently and it often loses its hold over us in the same way. For example, I went without sugar for a while and I cut that man when I stopped sugar the what, you know, because I was pre-diabetic and I decided I'm going whole hog and stopping it. I I now eat it again on occasion, but I can't eat it the way I did before. So, like I would have like the you know, oh my gosh, the Heath Klondike bar to me was like the most amazing thing on the planet. And, you know, I I had all kinds of things that I that I had. Um, not having it for a while, I it was almost like I had to not have it at all. It just cut myself off. But then as I started adding it back in, because then it started to become like, oh my gosh, I can't have sugar. And I got again that pendulum, that opposite thing. And now it was meaning something that it shouldn't. Now it was a good and bad thing, and that's not good either. This was well early, way before I ever started looking into health coaching. This was early, early on in my own journey. I was like, oh, that's not good either.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Right.

Stephanie 17:56

Where does this actually fit? And if when I took sugar captive and I put it in the cell for a while and I took it back out and it was tamed on a leash, it no longer holds the power over me. I still have emotional connection to it. When I do have a small amount, I'm able to stop sooner because my brain says, nope, that's plenty, and I can hear it and I can listen to it, and I don't feel like I'm losing out by stopping. Like I did once upon a time where I was held captive to it, you know, and and so now it's out and it's on its little leash, and I can enjoy my myself and it doesn't throw me off. Yeah, you know, and my body can respond well to it now again, where once upon a time it was literally like poison on my body, you know? Yeah, it's uh it's healed, and I think that's that's something that this whole concept can help do, you know. Yeah, taking those thoughts captive.

Your Turn Plus Closing Charge

Stephanie 18:53

So I would love to hear from anybody, comments, whatever. What are what does that look like for you?

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Have you ever even thought about like what taking something captive would look like for you, right? That's what it looks like for me, being in a military background. I want to wrestle it to the ground, I want to hog fight, I want you know, pick it up, throw it, and that's what I want. But like, what about you? What's your experience with taking floods captive?

Stephanie 19:22

Yeah. Tell us about it. Tell us if this has helped you in any way think about a situation in your life that you might approach differently.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

For sure.

Stephanie 19:31

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

Okay, cool. And never done. Thanks for joining us for today's conversation on heart and soul elevation.

Stephanie 19:46

If this episode encouraged you, be sure to share it with a friend. Remember that healing happens in community.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Be sure to subscribe for more faith-first conversations. And if you're desiring more community, come join us over on YouTube where we grow together in real time. Until then, keep your eyes on Jesus, care for the body he gave you, and may his peace guard your heart and mind.