Anxiety
Anxiety can be a complex thing. Although it is a universal human experience, there is a lot of variation in its specific contours and shapes in each of our lives. Here are four things about anxiety that I see in my own life and the lives of people I counsel.
First, anxiety may not always be easy to initially spot. For some of us it may feel like racing thoughts, like being inside a tornado of overwhelming thoughts and emotions that spin faster and faster. Some of us feel anxiety as an emotional weight that we carry in our minds and in our bodies. Others of us may not necessarily be aware of the emotion of anxiety but we can feel our back and shoulder muscles start to tighten whenever we are carrying anxiety and stress. Several years ago, through the help of a counselor, I first began to see that I have an anxiety problem not because I always felt anxious, but because I began to have huge problems sleeping at night. I started to discover that my body was carrying more anxiety than I was consciously aware of. Anxiety teaches us the importance of listening to our bodies and dealing with deeper emotional and spiritual needs.
Second, anxiety often is the felt symptom of deeper emotional pain, things like shame, guilt, fear or anger. Again, many of us may not think of ourselves as anxious people but we might be able to more readily identify deep-seated anger that we have carried around for a long time. Others of us become anxious when we hear this harsh, inner-critic constantly telling us that we have messed up, that we are terrible or that we have failed and that we will never measure up. If we slow down and begin to listen to what anxiety is saying, we will begin to see that there are always other important emotional things that need to be addressed.
Third, anxiety is an energy that we must do something with. We can understand all of our emotions as energy but this is especially true of anxiety. We can expend this energy in redemptive, healthy ways. This might look like moving our bodies through some kind of exercise activity like running, walking, riding a bike or working out. Or we can use this energy to focus on things that we can control instead of wasting our time attempting to control situations and things where we are actually powerless. And if we do nothing with our anxiety, then our bodies can often pay a price through health problems such as high blood pressure or stomach problems. And choosing to do nothing with our anxiety can also open the door for Satan and evil to tempt us with deceptive places of relief such as a variety of addiction problems.
Fourth, anxiety is an opportunity to experience comfort through connection. Is anxiety a sin? Not necessarily. It is a place of weakness and depending on what we do with it we can see this an opportunity to grow instead of something that must be banished or a sin that we must always repent of. The goal shouldn’t be to banish anxiety but to understand and engage it in a deeper way and know how to manage it. One of the most important ways we engage our anxiety and see it as an opportunity is to reach for God and others who can comfort us when we are anxious. God wants us to aim our anxiety toward him instead of stuffing it down or banishing it with the facade of a stiff upper lip. God doesn’t shame us for being anxious. Instead he invites us to bring our pain to him, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).
