anxiety – Westchester Men's Ministry

Journaling: Don’t give up!

November 15, 2012 by nymensministry 1 Comment

Don’t give up! You will face resistance in trying to spend time with God. The other day (day 2), I was attempting to spend time with God and the phone rang three different times, and our dog went crazy because someone came too close to our house. It was clear that satan didn’t want me to spend quiet time with the Lord. I persisted on this occasion but if you have missed a day, or haven’t started yet, why not start (or start again) tomorrow. Lamentations 3:21-23 says:

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

Journal Entry (Anonymous)

We will be posting entries that we have requested from people that are participating in this challenge throughout these 40 days. This is our first one from an anonymous person. I hope it is an encouragement to you.

Blessed Lord, who caused all Holy Scripture to be written for our learning: Grant me so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that I may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever, Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)

“I was glad when they said to me, ‘let us go to the house of the Lord… For there are the thrones of judgement, the thrones of the house of David.” – Psalm 122:1,5

“Sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises to our King” – Psalm 47:5

“Rejoice heart and soul… shout for joy … Look your King is approaching, he is vindicated and victorious” – Zechariah 9:9

“Tell it out among the nations: ‘The Lord is King! He has made the world so firm that it can not be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity.'” – Psalm 96:10

Your throne, O God, Endures for ever and ever – Psalm 45:1-10

Hallowed be thy name, Thy Kingdom come. They will be done on each as it is in heaven – The Lord’s Prayer

“You must go through the trial before you have any right to pronounce a verdict, by going through the trial you learn to know God better. God is working in us to reach His highest goals until His purpose and our purpose become one. (Conforming my will to His) – Oswald Chambers

And He will protect me through it –

“For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways.” – Psalm 91:11

“If you had eyes to see, you would perceive a bodyguard of angels always attending every one of the blood bought family.” – C.H. Spurgeon

“I have been young and now I am old, but never have I seen the righteous forsaken, or their children begging bread” – Psalm 37:26

Lord, I’m fearful, I’m anxious, I’m depressed. I’m worried about both getting a job and finding a job. I worry equally about the smallest things like my schedule and big things like a friend’s sister in ICU. I feel helpless at times when it comes to my marriage, my ministry, and life in general.

I know you are on the throne but as all of the readers of the Bible need to heat it, so do I (today and probably everyday). I know you are working your will into my life and it’s hard, it feels like dying. I feel like a failure although I’m probably just mourning the loss of my will.

I know you will protect me; I just don’t always see you working. I have absolutely no evidence of your unfaithfulness. You have always been faithful. You can’t not be faithful.

I don’t know how to pray – I ask for a closer walk with You during these 40 days and I ask that it be a blessing to others. In Jesus’ very precious name. Amen.

Journaling: Don’t Give Up by Westchester Men’s Ministry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at https://nymensministry.com/2012/11/15/journaling-dont-give-up/.

Filed Under: anxiety, Bible Study, communing with God, daily office, depression, Discernment, divine office, journaling Tagged With: anxiety, bible study, book of common prayer, Christianity, closer walk with God, communing with God, depression, fear, God's will, intimacy with God, journal, journaling, my will, praises to our king, quiet time, relationship with God, sadness, savior jesus christ, time with God, walk with God

Reducing Anxiety – Practically Depending on God

November 1, 2012 by nymensministry 5 Comments

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” – Jesus to the apostles in John 16:33

http://www.humintell.com

Jesus warned the apostles and He warns us today that we will have trouble, but in the end God wins!! I called this blog entry ‘Reducing Anxiety’ because I have found that these tools help but they don’t eliminate anxiety. These tools should be available to all, especially Christians, as we deal with the trials of life.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

When we get anxious, we start to breath quickly and shallowly. Obviously you get less oxygen and it can be harder to think clearly. I’m not an expert on this but here are the steps I follow for this technique, along with some additional resources:

http://www.deepsloweasy.com

Although you can lie down, I typically do this exercise while sitting up tall in a chair. Back straight, head looking straight ahead, comfortable and relaxed. Place one hand on your stomach and one on your chest.
Breathe in slowly through your nose so that your stomach moves out against your hand. The hand on your chest should remain as still as possible.
Optional: after your stomach is filled, then you can fill your upper chest (see diagram to right). If you do this optional step, then first exhale from the chest before…
Contract your stomach muscles bringing your belly button towards your spine. Exhale through pursed lips (like you are blowing up a balloon)
Repeat, inhale to a count of 8 (but don’t strain yourself) and exhale to a count of 4 (again, don’t strain)

Additional resources on Diaphragmatic Breathing:

Diaphragmatic Breath – The Cleveland Clinic: http://bit.ly/Rx0MxI
With Every Breath you Take (Part 3) by The Voice Lady: http://youtu.be/23ctmPTwgGY

Cognitive Restructuring

Cognitive restructuring is much like journaling but with a focused template and the goal of understanding and practically addressing anxiety.

Find a quiet place where you can think and write. Briefly describe (in your journal) the situation (provide context, date, etc.).
List all the thoughts you are having about this situation. Don’t filter yourself – this is important. These are your automatic thoughts.
How does this make you feel? (anxious/nervous, angry, frustrated, sad, irritated, embarrassed, ashamed, hateful, confused, etc.)
List the thinking errors in your automatic thoughts. Here is a list of possible errors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_distortion
Challenge your thoughts. Here are some sample questions that could help:
1. Do I know for certain that___________?
2. What evidence do I have that ________?
3. What is the worst that could happen? How bad is that?
4. Do I have a crystal ball?
5. Is there another point of view?
Rational Response is a summary of the challenges into a rational statement to use to combat your automatic thoughts.
Achievable Behavioral Goal – what is one thing that is do-able that you can do right now to help reduce the anxiety?

Afterwards, you can further ask more questions like: Did you achieve your goal? Did the rational response help? What did you learn? This is from a book called Managing Social Anxiety: A Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Approach Client Workbook (Treatments That Work). You can find the complete two page worksheet to use as a guide below.

I find that after doing this exercise for a while, the anxiety creating thoughts immediately bring the rational response to mind which acts like a cure. Here’s a very short example:

Situation: Getting over a cold that has kept me from working for two full days
Automatic Thoughts:
1. I’ve got a lot to get done but I’m still fatigued from my cold. I’m falling behind!
2. I also would like to post a new blog entry but I want to do it well and not rush it. -> Honor God
3. Job search is stalling with no word from multiple opportunities while I was sick.
4. Worried about upcoming storm – the tree near our garage could fall on our house.
Feeling: Anxious, tired
Thinking Errors: Disqualifying the positive, Fortune telling
Challenge: I’ve been sick and despite that I spoke at a conference and have had somewhat productive days.
Rational Response: Give yourself a break; Trust God for the outcome; Make a list
Achievable Goal: Make a list of the follow-up items and actions I need to respond to first.

I sincerely hope this post gives you some tools that help you reduce your anxiety. Please let us know your thoughts. Do you have other techniques that have worked for you? Have you tried these before and had success? or not?

God Bless!

Reducing Anxiety – Practically Depending on God by Westchester Men’s Ministry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at https://nymensministry.com/2012/11/01/reducing-anxiety/.

Filed Under: anxiety, meditation, Peace, trials Tagged With: anxiety, anxious, breathing, cognitive restructuring, diaphragmatic breathing, journal, journaling, meditate, mental-health, pray, relax, stress, worry

Is Anxiety a Sin?

October 30, 2012 by nymensministry 13 Comments

I struggle with anxiety. I guess this isn’t too hard to admit here, since many of you don’t know my name. My guess is that I’m not the only Christian that does. According to recent statistics about 18% of people over 18 suffer from some form of anxiety. That’s about 40 million adults in the US. Actually, anxiety disorders are the number one mental health problem in America, surpassing even depression in numbers. So, I’m clearly not alone.

Embarrassed by Anxiety

That said, once my anxiety became a true problem a few years ago, I started to also feel guilty. I thought, if I had more faith, I wouldn’t be anxious. I felt that my anxiety was a verdict on the state of my walk with God. It took me a long time to realize that this might not be true.

I read all the scriptures that said we should “be anxious for nothing…” (Phil 4:6) but trust in the Lord who is sovereign. I tried – but I remained anxious. Through this experience I realized two things:

God is very compassionate, in scripture, to those that are anxious
Although we are to trust God there are practical things we can do

God is Compassionate to the Anxious Christian

I believe the Bible speaks about anxiety so much because it is one of satan’s tools and God knows that it can cripple us. (Bible versus on anxiety: http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/anxiety.html).

“…the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” – Romans 8:26

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” 1 Peter 5:6-7

“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” – Philippians 4:6-7

Scripture doesn’t condemn anxiety, it seems to compassionately try to help you avoid it and overcome it. This is an important difference. I don’t believe anxiety is a sin, still God doesn’t desire us to be anxious. He wants us to turn to Him in everything and trust him.

Actually, it is interesting that many famous Christians have suffered from anxiety including Abraham Lincoln, Rick Warren, John Bunyan (Pilgrim’s Progress) and even Charles Spurgeon (known as the ‘Prince of Preachers’) may have struggled with it. They all had a huge impact and therefore anxiety doesn’t need to stop us.

Practical Solutions to Anxiety

God says that we should trust him with our finances but that doesn’t mean we don’t create a budget. He tells us that He will always be with us, but that doesn’t mean we should haphazardly walk through a terrible area of town. Likewise, there are practical things we can do, and avoid when it comes to anxiety.

Please note, there are many reasons for anxiety and sometimes professional help and medication is the best answer. What I’ve found is that I need to know what I’m trusting God for, and therefore thinking through and journaling about it helps.

In our next blog, we are going to go through two tools. A simple breathing exercise and what is called cognitive restructuring which is closely linked to journaling but with a focus on dealing with the anxiety of the moment. Look for this blog on Thursday, November 1st

Let us know your thoughts; does this subject resonate with you? Have you felt guilty because of anxiety? What has helped you to overcome your anxiety? We want to hear what you have to say!

God bless

Is Anxiety a Sin? by Westchester Men’s Ministry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at https://nymensministry.com/2012/10/30/is-anxiety-a-sin/.