Why Anxiety is at the Center of Your Attention and How to Lessen Its Affects

1 Peter 5:7 – Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Sometimes anxiety fills our minds for a very good reason:
                                    

• You’ve just balanced your checkbook and discovered you forgot to enter your rent payment into the ledger.
• You’ve just taken an important test which will determine if you can continue to stay in a nursing program you recently started.
• You hear that a friend of yours was just in a car accident and you don’t know how they are.
• You’ve just come back from seeing your doctor and he told you bad news.
• You turn on your TV and see news of a fire burning near where your mom lives and you don’t know how she is.

 
So we see that there are valid reasons for the unease you feel sometimes. However, sometimes anxiety comes on without any apparent reason. It surprises us. We can’t pinpoint where this anxiety is coming from.
 
But what we do know is that once anxiety has a chance to put its foot in your door, it can quickly move into a full blown panic attack.
 

• You’re breathing becomes shallow.
• Your heart races.
• You begin to sweat.
• You can’t think.

 
Here are some ideas that may not completely take away your anxiety, but they can help calm you:
 

1. Take a deep breath and then another.
2. Put down your pen momentarily and think about something else.
3. Focus on how it feels to stroke your dog’s fur.
4. Look out the window and focus on the roses that are in bloom.
5. Turn on some soft music.
6. Make a cup of tea, and let the warmth relax your stiff muscles.

 
Whatever you choose, remember that though you may not believe it, anxiety is under your control. You decide whether you’re going to let your anxiety rule your life. Just believing you can gain back control may be enough to chase away your panic attack.
 
Heleo.com in their article, “10 Simple Strategies to Control Your Anxiety,” provides us with additional ideas on how to get your anxiety under control, such as avoid asking yourself, “What if?” The more time you spend worrying about the possibilies of what may happen, the less time you’ll spend focusing on taking action and calming yourself. Also, disconnect. Technology enables constant communication and the expectation that you should be available 24/7. Choose blocks of time where you cut the cord and go offline.
 
Whether we know the reason we’re feeling anxious or not, with the help of the ideas above, we can release our anxiety into the wind and let peace and calm take its place. And, remember, God asks us to cast all of our anxiety on him. He cares for us and will help us not just find peace for the moment, but will grow that peace into an everyday occurance.

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