Busting Stress Is as Easy as Riding a Bike

You’ve heard the phrase, “It’s like riding a bike.”  Maybe you told a friend I haven’t been skiing in years and your friend says, “Come on, it’s easy, it’s like riding a bike.”  You can fill in the blank. I haven’t ____ in years. I haven’t taught a class, quilted, fished...you name it and the likely response would be, “There’s nothing to it, it’s a piece of cake, it’s like riding a bike.”

Nowadays I’m more likely to take the piece of cake over a bike ride but I certainly rode a bike “back in the day.”  What do we mean by this phrase, “it’s like riding a bike”? We can’t just mean that something is easy. Do you remember learning to ride a bike or teaching your child to ride a bike?  It’s not easy, is it? It takes time, practice and determination. If we can add in a person to help us and give us advice and guidance we’ll learn even faster.  

I remember my daughter was just determined one afternoon that she would not give up until she got it!  After the point that I was too tired to keep going, I sat down and she kept going and she got it!

So, learning to ride a bike is not super easy for most people but once you learn it, you can go years without being on a bike and then have the crazy idea that you are going to go on a bike ride.  You can hop on a bike and after a few shaky starts, it all comes rushing back and it’s almost as if you never stopped riding.  

Once you’ve learned to ride a bike, you can also do it without much thought.  You are able to look around at the scenery, hold a conversation or think about how you remember the seat being larger or softer last time you rode.

How is this possible and what does it have to do with stress?

A lot of thought went into learning to ride the bike at first.  A lot of conscious thought and focus. Every time you got back on the bike after learning to ride you reinforced those thoughts.  You created a very strong thought network. It moved from conscious thought to nonconscious. This doesn’t mean when you hop on a bike, even years later, that you don’t even have to think about it.  The thoughts are very much alive.  Your brain is thinking about it, but it’s doing it unconsciously. 

As you ride on the bike the thoughts move from the nonconscious to the conscious mind where it becomes pliable or changeable and you add more to the thought network making it possible for you to learn new skills and enriching the thought through your newest experiences.  

You get off the bike and the thoughts (good or bad) move back into your unconscious mind and become a part of your perceptions and attitudes of life.  You have thoughts like bike riding is fun, or bike riding is hard, or I’m too out of shape for bike riding.  

And this thought process is happening with every experience you ever have.  Your mind and brain (two different things) sure are busy, aren’t they?!  It would be easy to think the sheer number of thoughts that are rambling around your brain is what is causing you so much stress and anxiety but no, your brain was made to handle it...if they are love thoughts in line with God’s way of thinking and doing.  Otherwise, they are toxic thoughts and no, your brain can’t handle that. It isn’t wired to do so. You were not designed to constantly have toxic thoughts running through your mind.  

The thoughts tucked away in your nonconscious mind that you have been building your whole life (and even in the womb!) form the perceptual base from which you see life.  And your perceptions will play a huge part of your stress, worry and fear. 


Up to 99 percent of the decisions you make are based on what you have built into your nonconscious mind. Those thoughts become automatized. You don’t have to think about them any more than you have to think about how to ride a bike.  They just automatically guide us into decisions and feelings.

Here’s an example...you were taught a certain race of people is inferior or bad.  That got stored in your nonconscious mind and now you have misconceptions about their intelligence.  You make hiring decisions or friendship decisions or even seat choices based on this nonconscious thought.  You feel nervous or superior around them. You might even catch yourself doing this and think why am I doing this?  Why am I thinking this or acting this way, I don’t even really believe that to be true.  

Until you bring it to your conscious mind (where it can be changed) and you rebuild or redesign those thoughts with the truth of the word of God, your automatic response will be directed from your old, toxic unconscious mindsets.  

This happens all the time to us with every stress, worry, and fear we have.  If you are stressed out by the pressures at work, for example,  the stress is being fed by a strong thought network of nonconscious thoughts you have been building over the years about not being good enough and the need to perform, or that your job is your financial source so you can’t lose it, or your identity is wrapped up in your job, etc.  

We can change the thought and create a new life!  It’s a unique creative ability that God gave us as humans that animals don’t have.  We are made in His image and He is a creator. So we are creators too. We create with our thoughts and our words.

We can renew our mind to the word of God and get that into our nonconscious mind so that is what is automatically directing our thoughts, perceptions, attitudes, emotions and decisions.  We can fill our nonconscious mind with thoughts of how God wants us to live an abundant, light and free life.  Thoughts of Jesus' victory over fear.  Thoughts of the joy and peace available in the Kingdom of God.

When the pressures of life come, you won't stress but you’ll have a “go-to” God response that comes to you so easily that it’s like riding a bike!

Could you use some help with changing your stress levels and learning new ways of thinking?  Schedule a free call to talk with me and we'll put together a plan for you to start seeing more victory in your life.  Click here to schedule a time to talk.