Do you ever feel anxious and you don’t really know why? You can feel the heaviness in your chest or the uneasiness anxiety brings. You can feel fearful or worried or a little down but you cannot pinpoint where the feelings are coming from.
This was how I felt most days up until about a week or two ago.
I’ve been going to a counselor through my church’s counseling center since the end of March. The main reason I started going to counseling was my anxiety. I wanted to understand what was really causing it.
My counselor and I have worked through many different causes of anxiety in my life. These sessions have helped me to see my worries and fears in a different light.
Then about 2 weeks ago our sermon was on Anxiety. You can listen to it here. In this sermon our pastor talked about identifying your anxiety. Stopping and thinking about what it is you are anxious about. The following day I was reading through my daily devotional in the Bible app and it covered this same topic. It was a devotion on Anxiety written by Louie Giglio. On that particular day his devotion said “…when anxiety starts creeping in, don’t generalize your condition. Stop and think about what it is that is actually making you anxious. Name it. Say it out loud. And cast it on Jesus”.
This was one of those times where I new God was working hard to get my attention. I’ve felt that way only a handful of times since I became a Christian. This was definitely one of them.
Since that day I have been writing down what I feel anxious about each day in my journal. It has been so helpful and changes the course of my day. I can identify why I’m anxious and then logically process it and work through each cause in my mind.
Most of the time I’m anxious about things that I have no control over. Just last week I was anxious about the possibility of losing our jobs or taking pay cuts. Other times I am anxious about college choices for our daughter or job prospects for our recent college grad son. Some sort of anxiety like this during this pandemic is expected. However, we need to remember that most of it is out of our control. Worrying and being anxious about something you cannot do anything about is honestly a waste of time.
Sometimes I’m anxious about smaller things and some of them I can do something about. For instance, I may be anxious about an unfinished project or a phone call I have to make. For those types of things I can dig a little deeper and look at the root reason for my anxiety. What will be the worst thing that can happen? Thinking through it like that helps diffuse the anxiety.
Once I’ve made my list for the day I usually write in the margin something about each one. For instance if it’s something I have no control over I write in the margin “God has this”. If it’s something that isn’t mine to worry about I write that next to it in the margin.
By naming what is causing you anxiety you are bringing it out into the light. When it’s out in the light the enemy cannot use it against you. Once it is in the light you can see it and speak truth over it. You can pray about it and ultimately lift it up to God.
I don’t know if you needed to hear this today. However, if you are like me and have had some generalized anxiety – I truly pray that this will help you. I pray that you will also be able to stop and identify your anxiety each day. In addition to identifying it I pray you can see the truth in light of what is causing your anxiety. I hope you will also pray about it and ultimately release it to God’s control.
This process has definitely created more peace in my life, I hope it can do the same for you!