How many people consider that how they view their bodies affects their eating and exercising decisions? If you consider yourself 'fat' or 'unattractive' and this is what you tell yourself in your mind, your behavior will likely follow those thinking patterns. If you spend time feeding hatred or resentment in your heart and mind you'll end up with behaviors that reflect that, even towards those you don't hate or resent.
Likewise, if you think too highly of yourself you're likely to be easily offended when someone tramples on your 'rights' (or what you perceive to be your rights). I guess you could say that what you feed your Ego can get in the way of your relationships. Whenever there's a pattern of behavior, there's always a pattern of thinking behind it, no matter what it is.
I was struck by the emphasis of the mind when I was recently reading in Philippians 2, and how it brought all this together. The Apostle Paul told the church to be 'like minded' and to be 'of one mind'. I'm all for like-mindedness in the church, but because I'm an independent thinker, I don't like to join in group-think. So I have always been a bit of a 'rebel', I guess you could say, when it comes to being part of the status quo (hence why I identify myself as a libertarian leaning independent). But Paul continues to tell the church to have 'lowliness of mind' (be humble), and this goes back to the Ego thing. He ties it all together by pointing to the one example Christians are supposed to follow: Jesus Christ. Again Paul tells the church, "Let this mind be in you (have this way of thinking), which was also in Christ Jesus..." and he goes on to describe Jesus' humility of thinking, and how that thinking affected Jesus' behavior.
Now, when someone 'offends' me I try hard to change my thinking and ask myself what 'right' I had in the first place.
Changing the way you think is a process that takes constant work, but it's worth it when you see behavior changes in your life.
