The Mind You Are Training

Every day, someone is trying to shape the way you think.

News organizations compete for your attention. Social media algorithms learn what keeps you engaged. Advertisers spend billions trying to influence your decisions. Political movements seek your loyalty. Activists compete for your passion. Even your closest friends and family shape the way you interpret the world.

Most of us recognize these influences, yet we often overlook something even more important. Every influence that changes the way we think also has the potential to change the way we feel. Over time, repeated exposure doesn’t merely inform us. It can train us.

That raises a few questions worth asking:

What kind of mind are you training yourself to have?

Who are you allowing to train it?

Are you willing to allow others to negatively impact your quality of life?

Modern neuroscience has demonstrated that our brains are remarkably adaptable. Scientists refer to this ability as neuroplasticity, the brain’s capacity to strengthen the neural pathways that are used most often. In simple terms, the brain becomes more efficient at whatever it repeatedly practices. We know this to be true of physical skills. A pianist develops muscle memory. A carpenter instinctively reaches for the right tool. A surgeon performs delicate procedures that once seemed impossible. Repetition changes the brain.

The same principle applies to our emotional lives.

This is not to suggest that anger itself is wrong. Scripture certainly does not make that claim. In Ephesians 4:26, Paul writes, “Be angry, and do not sin.” Anger is a normal human emotion. Jesus Himself became angry when He drove the money changers from the Temple and condemned religious hypocrisy. There are times when anger is an appropriate response to genuine injustice.

The question is not whether we will experience anger.

The question is what we do with it after it arrives.

Healthy anger addresses a problem and eventually subsides. Unhealthy anger is rehearsed. It is replayed in our minds. We revisit conversations that happened years ago. We imagine better comebacks. We relive insults. We collect fresh evidence that confirms our grievances. Without realizing it, we are practicing anger.

The brain responds exactly as it was designed to respond. The more frequently we activate certain emotional pathways, the easier they become to activate again. Like a well-worn trail through the woods, repeated use makes the path easier to follow. Eventually, the smallest offense can send our thoughts racing down familiar roads of resentment.

Psychologists have observed another interesting phenomenon. People who habitually dwell on anger often begin noticing more reasons to be angry. Researchers refer to this as an attentional bias. The brain naturally starts scanning the environment for evidence that supports the emotional patterns it has learned. Someone who lives in fear notices danger everywhere. Someone who practices gratitude notices blessings that others overlook. Likewise, someone who continually rehearses anger becomes increasingly sensitive to insult, disrespect, unfairness, and offense.

The world itself may not have changed nearly as much as the lens through which it is being viewed.

This is one reason why hatred rarely appears overnight. It usually grows gradually. An offense produces anger. Anger, if continually rehearsed, becomes resentment. Resentment hardens into bitterness. Bitterness begins shaping our identity. Eventually, we stop evaluating people as individuals and instead see entire groups through the filter of our accumulated grievances.

History provides countless examples of this process. Sometimes the target has been people of another race. Sometimes another religion. Sometimes another political party. Sometimes another nation. In today’s culture, we increasingly encounter messages that encourage hostility toward entire groups based on gender, ideology, occupation, or social class. I recently learned of retreats where women are encouraged to cultivate and intensify their anger toward men. Whether those particular programs are effective or misguided is not the central issue. Similar messages exist across the ideological spectrum. Some encourage contempt for men. Others for women. Some for conservatives. Others for liberals. Others for the wealthy. The targets change, but the underlying strategy remains remarkably consistent: keep the grievance alive and feed it.

That should concern us regardless of our politics because it raises an important question.

What happens when we stop merely experiencing anger and begin cultivating it?

The answer appears to be that anger slowly becomes part of how we interpret the world.

This has consequences beyond our relationships. Every episode of intense anger activates the body’s stress response. Heart rate increases. Blood pressure rises. Stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol are released. These responses are valuable during genuine emergencies. They prepare us to confront danger or escape it. But when the body spends years returning to that state over and over again, the costs begin to accumulate. Researchers have associated chronic hostility and persistent anger with increased cardiovascular risk, elevated inflammatory markers, poorer sleep quality, and impaired immune function. While anger is only one factor among many that influence health, there is growing evidence that living in a constant state of outrage places a measurable burden on both mind and body.

The irony is difficult to miss.

We often believe our anger is hurting the person who offended us. More often, it is hurting us.

Take, for example, a psychologist who noted that in his practice, 80% of his patients say they never have a waking hour without hateful feelings toward a particular politician. They say it invades their dreams and ruins their vacations. Many have fantasies about the individual’s murder.

Perhaps the most important lesson is not about anger at all. It is about influence.

This brings us back to the opening point: every day, someone is trying to shape the way we think. News organizations compete for our attention. Social media algorithms learn what keeps us engaged. Influencers build audiences. Political movements seek supporters. Activists rally followers. Advertisers promise fulfillment. Even our closest friends influence how we interpret the world. Every book we read, every podcast we follow, every video we watch, every retreat we attend, and every online community we join is teaching us something about reality.

The question is not whether our minds are being trained.

They are.

The question is who, or what, we are allowing to do the training.

Some voices cultivate gratitude. Others cultivate suspicion. Some encourage forgiveness. Others encourage resentment. Some challenge us to love our neighbors. Others invite us to divide humanity into categories of allies and enemies.

The most dangerous ideas are not merely those that persuade us to think differently. They are the ideas that teach us to feel differently about other human beings. Once contempt becomes habitual, every new interaction is filtered through that emotional lens. Facts become secondary. We begin seeing people not as individuals but as representatives of a group we have already decided to distrust or despise.

That is why guarding the mind is about far more than protecting ourselves from false information. It is about protecting ourselves from emotional habits that slowly reshape our character.

The ancient wisdom of Scripture and the findings of modern neuroscience meet at an interesting point. Both state that what we repeatedly dwell upon changes us. The Apostle Paul urged believers to think on things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable. Neuroscience would describe the process differently, but it points toward the same practical reality: what we repeatedly practice becomes increasingly natural.

So perhaps the most important questions we can ask ourselves are not political, psychological, or even medical.

What kind of mind am I training myself to have?

Perhaps a better question is this:

Who is discipling your mind?

Every podcast.

Every YouTube channel.

Every TikTok.

Every news feed.

Every retreat.

Every sermon.

Every conversation.

Every social media algorithm.

Every one of them is teaching you how to see the world.

The question is not whether your mind is being trained. It is. The question is whether the person doing the training is making you wiser or simply making you angrier.

The answers to these questions will shape not only how we see the world, but also the kind of person we eventually become.

They will also shape our quality of life and longevity.

It’s your choice: be happy or be consumed.

References

Is Anger, but Not Sadness, Associated With Chronic Inflammation and Illness in Older Adulthood?, by M. A. Barlow, et al. (Psychology and Aging)

Anger in Brain and Body: The Neural and Physiological Perturbation of Decision-Making by Emotion, by S. N. Garfinkel, et al. (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B)

A Systematic Review of Neural, Cognitive, and Clinical Studies of Anger and Aggression, by Y. Richard, et al. (Current Psychology)

Anger Linked to Greater Inflammation and Chronic Illness in Older Adults, by American Psychological Association (American Psychological Association)

Research on Acute Anger and Vascular Function, by Journal of the American Heart Association (Journal of the American Heart Association)

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Dave Chamberlin runs a consulting and training company and brings more than 40 years of civilian and military aviation experience to his work. He retired as a Chief Master Sergeant after 38 years as an aircraft crew chief in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard, and has also worked in technical, instructor, consultant, and leadership roles. He holds an FAA Airframe and Powerplant license and a master’s degree in aeronautical science, and his writing often focuses on military issues, especially those affecting aircraft maintenance personnel.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.