Calming our Anxious Minds
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This month we are highlighting counseling topics and how they intersect with our life and faith. This last week of May we’ll explore how mindfulness can help relieve our anxiety and stress and strengthen our connection to God.
Anxiety is the most common mental health condition for adults in the U.S. Americans experience higher rates of stress, anxiety, and negative emotions than any other nation. For many of us, work is stressing us out more than ever. The increasing pressure we face at work stems from a new religion that one journalist calls “workism,” a doctrine that promotes work as not only necessary to economic production but also the centerpiece of our identity and purpose.
When work becomes the focus of existence, it beckons us to strive harder and set us up for exhaustion. Days feel like a race to the finish line and even lunch breaks can be tinged with guilt. However, with the increase of work burnout more attention is being given to the physical and mental impact of anxiety and stress. Nowadays, physicians screen for anxiety, stress, and depression during annual physical exams. Mindfulness and relaxation techniques are driving apps like Calm and Headspace to new heights of popularity. And more adults are practicing meditation compared to yoga, massage therapy or acupuncture. Recently, the Journal of the American Medical Association found that mindfulness-based stress reduction is just as effective as Lexapro for anxiety disorders. So, it’s important to consider what is so effective about mindfulness and explore ways to combat our stress and anxiety.
When we inordinately worry about the future, jump to conclusions, and run through worst-case scenarios, our bodies tense up, heart rates increase, and breathing gets rapid. Emotions are just as much in our bodies as they are in our minds, and our nervous system starts to run the show. For many of us this is when panic ensues. But we can’t just think ourselves out of our emotions, so by calming the body we can also calm the mind. Mindfulness is a practice that involves paying attention to our present moment without judgment. It helps us be aware of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surroundings. When we are mindful, we are paying attention to what is real right now in the present moment rather than focusing on the past or future. We observe our thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them and approach our experiences with an open, curious mind.
Using mindful practices like breathing, grounding, and progressive muscle relaxation, we can gain more control over our negative thought patterns by relaxing our bodies. For example, we take up to 20,000 breaths a day—it’s so natural we don’t even think about it. But shortness of breath is common with stress and anxiety and creates more panic and irrational thoughts. Practicing deep, slow breathing is the quickest way to relax the body and slow down our thoughts. When we calm the body, we calm the mind.
Mindfulness also includes meditation and reflection, which can help us to refocus and reframe our thoughts. One of the earliest forms of mindfulness in the Bible was practiced by King David more than 3,000 years ago. David knows by observing nature with his senses that the world is vastly bigger than he is, putting things into perspective:
The Bible offers numerous examples of meditation and mindfulness. Verses like Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God” and Psalm 63:6, “On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night” highlight the importance of quieting our minds to recognize and revel in the sovereignty of God. These moments of reflection are not about emptying our minds but filling them with thoughts of God and his promises.
But because our thoughts are not fully reliable (Isaiah 55:8) we must engage in an ongoing “renewing of [our] mind” as Paul exhorts us in Romans 12:2. Being mindful of our connection to Christ strengthens our relationship with God and others:
Mindfulness encourages us to be fully present with God in our daily lives. When we become more attuned to his presence, we can stay grounded amid stress and anxiety and face life’s challenges with openness, compassion, and strength. If you would like to explore how mindfulness can alleviate your symptoms of stress and anxiety and how to engage your faith through these practices, reach out to us or visit our website for more information about our counseling services. The Barnabas Center exists to equip Christ the King members and our Houston community with counseling and resources to bring understanding and healing in your life, whatever season you find yourself. Thank you for your support during Mental Health Awareness Month!
Anxiety is the most common mental health condition for adults in the U.S. Americans experience higher rates of stress, anxiety, and negative emotions than any other nation. For many of us, work is stressing us out more than ever. The increasing pressure we face at work stems from a new religion that one journalist calls “workism,” a doctrine that promotes work as not only necessary to economic production but also the centerpiece of our identity and purpose.
When work becomes the focus of existence, it beckons us to strive harder and set us up for exhaustion. Days feel like a race to the finish line and even lunch breaks can be tinged with guilt. However, with the increase of work burnout more attention is being given to the physical and mental impact of anxiety and stress. Nowadays, physicians screen for anxiety, stress, and depression during annual physical exams. Mindfulness and relaxation techniques are driving apps like Calm and Headspace to new heights of popularity. And more adults are practicing meditation compared to yoga, massage therapy or acupuncture. Recently, the Journal of the American Medical Association found that mindfulness-based stress reduction is just as effective as Lexapro for anxiety disorders. So, it’s important to consider what is so effective about mindfulness and explore ways to combat our stress and anxiety.
When we inordinately worry about the future, jump to conclusions, and run through worst-case scenarios, our bodies tense up, heart rates increase, and breathing gets rapid. Emotions are just as much in our bodies as they are in our minds, and our nervous system starts to run the show. For many of us this is when panic ensues. But we can’t just think ourselves out of our emotions, so by calming the body we can also calm the mind. Mindfulness is a practice that involves paying attention to our present moment without judgment. It helps us be aware of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surroundings. When we are mindful, we are paying attention to what is real right now in the present moment rather than focusing on the past or future. We observe our thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them and approach our experiences with an open, curious mind.
Using mindful practices like breathing, grounding, and progressive muscle relaxation, we can gain more control over our negative thought patterns by relaxing our bodies. For example, we take up to 20,000 breaths a day—it’s so natural we don’t even think about it. But shortness of breath is common with stress and anxiety and creates more panic and irrational thoughts. Practicing deep, slow breathing is the quickest way to relax the body and slow down our thoughts. When we calm the body, we calm the mind.
Mindfulness also includes meditation and reflection, which can help us to refocus and reframe our thoughts. One of the earliest forms of mindfulness in the Bible was practiced by King David more than 3,000 years ago. David knows by observing nature with his senses that the world is vastly bigger than he is, putting things into perspective:
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them? Human beings that you care for them?” (Psalm 8:3–4)
The Bible offers numerous examples of meditation and mindfulness. Verses like Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God” and Psalm 63:6, “On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night” highlight the importance of quieting our minds to recognize and revel in the sovereignty of God. These moments of reflection are not about emptying our minds but filling them with thoughts of God and his promises.
But because our thoughts are not fully reliable (Isaiah 55:8) we must engage in an ongoing “renewing of [our] mind” as Paul exhorts us in Romans 12:2. Being mindful of our connection to Christ strengthens our relationship with God and others:
Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others (Philippians 2:1-3).
Mindfulness encourages us to be fully present with God in our daily lives. When we become more attuned to his presence, we can stay grounded amid stress and anxiety and face life’s challenges with openness, compassion, and strength. If you would like to explore how mindfulness can alleviate your symptoms of stress and anxiety and how to engage your faith through these practices, reach out to us or visit our website for more information about our counseling services. The Barnabas Center exists to equip Christ the King members and our Houston community with counseling and resources to bring understanding and healing in your life, whatever season you find yourself. Thank you for your support during Mental Health Awareness Month!
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