 |
| Googled: "Anxiety quotes" |
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus". Phil 4:6-7
Googled: "Anxiety Bible verses"
Anxiety: "a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome."
Googled: "Anxiety definitions"
This topic of anxiety is very near and dear to me because I have anxiety, and most people if not all have struggled or dealt with some form of anxiety in their lifetime. I chose to write about it because I have been feeling a little more anxious lately. I wanted to be real and honest and as raw as possible about why I think I am anxious and solutions that I have found very helpful.
I wanted to start with physical symptoms of knowing I am anxious and maybe some other symptoms you or others may have experienced.
1 Increased heart rate while resting
2. Sweating in air conditioning
3. Clenched teeth
4. shortness of breath
5. upset stomach
6. headaches
7. Insomnia
When something is bothering me or I am nervous about a future conversation or gathering, I experience some of these symptoms. Now, not all of these symptoms mean you have anxiety. These are general physical symptoms that may be signs of anxiety. Physical symptoms are a good thing! What?!?! These signs and symptoms are your bodies way of warning you that something is not right. Some part of your brain and thinking is off balance and you need to fix it!
Ex: 1
I needed to attend a gathering with some friends and needed a babysitter for me daughter. The person I originally assigned to the job did not have much experience yet with watching her. A day before this event I had many of the signs that I was anxious and something was not sitting with me well. I had the sweating, the increased heart rate, and probably the clenched jaw. I knew that I was uneasy about the situation, but I was also upset and nervous to tell the person that truth when I had already told them they could watch her. Needless to say I figured it all out and took care of business.
Small example yes but the point was that your body will tell you when something is not right and not sitting well with you. Now I have definitely experienced situations that proved a lot harder to handle than this one, but I still learned and grew.
Moving on to some deeper issues. Cognition. What thoughts or feelings are signs of anxiety?
|
|
The day before the event I was feeling tense and restless about my decision. I knew I needed to change something so that I felt peace. And I did.
Now that I gave that warm-up example I am going to write for another couple minutes on why I think I have been feeling more anxious lately: Here goes-
I have been taking on more at home. Balancing things at home and making sure I am doing everything I can to be all I can be takes its toll. I worry that I am going to mess up. I worry that I am not parenting Riley well enough, that maybe I need to be teaching her more, reading to her more, or whatever else I think. I have another side business that I do not put enough time into and I worry that my husband will think that I do not care about it or the ways he has set it all up for me. I get anxious thinking about having hard conversations with people that I care about. Restless feelings when I don't say or act on things I am feeling or thinking. I want to be spending more time reading the Bible, but I fear more unanswered questions will arise or that I really will encounter Christ in a real way and it will change me! Whew! That was raw and uncut people.
Wow! Okay well I am going to share my personal solutions.
Here are my solutions:
Planning ahead and thinking rationally and practically.
- Honestly, as easy as that sounds I struggle with putting my emotions and excited thoughts aside to make rational practical decision. This is something I have to work on. I use google calendar and it has helped me so much!
Praying and practicing courage
- I believe a huge contributing factor to anxiety is fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of inadequacy, fear of not doing enough, not being enough, not being who you are made to be. (Told you we were going deep!) Be courageous sisters and thyself!
The quotes I had at the beginning of the page were general quotes all from google. What I found interesting in my search were how many quotes were focused on self reliance. Well I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure we were not meant to do life alone. We are not meant to fight anxiety within our own minds. My top solution lies heavily in the biblical quote I gave:
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus". Phil 4:6-7
The Lord hears us and wants community with us. He wants us to bring our requests and our anxiety filled thoughts to Him. To find community where we can share these thoughts, help one another out practically and leave the rest with the Lord. I whole heartedly believe that anxiety can be greatly lessened in our day to day lives when we practice the above ideas, sit with the Lord alone, and be vulnerable and transparent in a trusted community.
If you do not believe in the Lord and are interested, shoot me an email and I would love to help and answer questions that you may have. Lets band together as sisters and help one another out. We are all living life, we might as well do it together and THRIVE while we are at it!
I would love to hear what ways you will try to fight anxiety and maybe even free write for a few moments something that is causing anxiety in your life.
No comments:
Post a Comment