When I was in therapy, my therapist emphasized developing and applying strategies to deal with my emotions and thoughts. The idea was to view my thoughts and feelings differently.

The biggest downside with that was my thinking and emotions never changed, only my filter.

It’s made me think about the filters in my life. Sometimes we talk about someone who expresses things in a blunt, harsh way as having no filter. And for most of our lives, we engage our filter so that what is in our hearts or minds comes out differently when we say it.

We filter our comments.

We filter our actions.

But as we age or some traumatic brain injury occurs, the filter gets weak or disintegrates. Everything comes out pure, unfiltered and unpleasant. Nice right?

What if, instead of working on our filters, we concentrated on transforming our thoughts. Prioritize the transformation of our souls. Perhaps we wouldn’t need a filter after all, and we could live life unfiltered now.

Think about this

2 Corinthians 10:3–4 (NLT): We are human, but we don't wage war as humans do. 4 We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.

I realize this could fit several contexts but suppose it fits our personal thought life. The goal would be destroying the strongholds or strong thought patterns that mislead us. Not simply filter them better.

Or what about this?

Romans 12:2 (NLT): Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

So not just changing the filter but changing the way I think.
Personally, the idea of transformation is more appealing than being afraid of letting down my guard or losing my filter. Maybe instead of getting a better filter, let’s figure out how to make the filter unnecessary.