Anxiety and Faith - Prescription

Anxiety can feel like your personality, your “normal,” or proof you’re failing spiritually. We don’t buy that. We want wholeness and we mean the integrated kind: mind, body, and spirit working together instead of fighting each other.

We talk honestly about Christian mental health and the myths that keep people stuck, like “if I had more faith I wouldn’t struggle” and “strong emotions are sinful.” We unpack why emotions matter, how suppressing fear or grief can show up as panic attacks and physical symptoms, and how letting feelings lead your life turns them into a terrible god. Along the way, we connect biblical counseling with practical psychology, including a simple CBT framework for reframing thoughts and the nervous system “fight flight freeze” ladder that explains why some of us live on high alert even when we’re safe.

Then we get concrete: grounding with your five senses, breath prayer that ties slow breathing to Scripture, and a daily “take inventory” habit that helps you find the real fire behind the alarm. We close with the story behind the hymn “It Is Well” and the kind of peace that doesn’t deny sorrow but still trusts Jesus.

If you’ve been looking for faith and therapy to work together, hit play, share this with a friend who’s carrying a lot, and leave a review so more people can find practical help and lasting hope.

Transcript

Welcome, Prayer, And New Series

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Summit, how is everyone doing tonight? Yeah, that was kind of sad. I'm not gonna lie. Summit, how are we doing tonight? Now we're again rowdy. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Y'all carried. Summit, if you don't mind before we get started tonight, we just want to pray um over the night. So if you wouldn't mind bowing your heads and joining me. Father, we're thankful for you. We're thankful for this time together. It's a privilege to be here. Gather. God, would we not take this moment for granted? God, would this be an opportunity for you to meet us here no matter where we're at? God, would we just come to love you more and to know more about you through this? Love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

So we are starting a new series, guys. Um, also I lost my voice and it's slowly going away more and more. I woke up this morning just with no voice. Like that is truly the work of the enemy. Um, and also it's like snowing ass. I don't know what this is about because it's just 65 yesterday. It turns out to be like the craziest day. But we're starting a new series. If you can pull up the slide, uh, we're starting a series called prescription series. And so, pretty much we are talking about all things um wholeness to find freedom in your mental health, your spiritual health, your emotional health. And so today we're talking about your prescription for wholeness. I think so many times in the church we might feel like um it's weird to talk about mental health. It's weird to talk about our emotions, or sometimes maybe we dismiss that as not real, or we just don't know our place in it. And so tonight we really want to just talk through like what is the church's place in it and what does it look like to have just a healthy reality of what it looks like to find just wholeness in our spiritual and mental and emotional health. Um, and so I'll give this mic back to you. But um, yeah, if you want to describe maybe just a little bit more of what it means that to be whole.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

And I also just wanted to introduce myself because I haven't been to Summit in a bit. I was very pregnant and then I had my son just three months ago. But my name is Tara. Um, I'm Victoria's sister. And um I was on a uh mental health panel last March when we did one because I am a licensed independent clinical social worker. That's my title, but I went the therapy route. So um I've been doing private practice work and I've opened up my own practice, and so I'm very passionate about this topic and about what I do. Um, but more than that, I'm really passionate to kind of bridge the gap between like faith and mental health and how they beautifully integrate with science um and the way that God has designed our bodies. And so that's a bit of what we'll get into and kind of getting through some, you know, different myths and different things. Um but yeah, if you want to introduce yourself too, but everyone kind of probably knows you, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

Well, I haven't been coming here as often as I'd like, but my name is Greg. I don't have any cool titles to back me up about anything, but really long story short, um mental health has been something that God and I have been walking through for the last couple years. Um and so honestly, I'm hoping just through my personal experience and what God has taught me that um I can share something and hopefully even I can learn something myself by listening. So thank you guys.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Sorry that this is we were like really close. Hold on. You guys are sisters though. And then the mic is sorry, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

So that whole side of the stage isn't um yeah, so that whole side of the stage just isn't working. So we are improvising. So thanks guys for sticking with us through any technical difficulties. Um, and so yeah, they described who they are. Mine is Victoria, if you don't know me. Um and yeah, uh mental health is also a little bit of part of my story. And then also about four or five years ago, um, I went back to school for biblical counseling. Um, I got certified in it, and that's very different than what Tara does as a therapist. Um, I'm not talking about your nervous system. We're not going through um what it looks like to heal your physical body. But really, biblical counseling was much more of like if you're a Christian who's struggling with anxiety, if you're a Christian who's struggling with suicidal thoughts or whatever it might be, like yes, you might be in a clinical program, but also what does it look like to look into God's word and see what God has to say about that and what lies might be subtly within you that you're believing that you need to just be brought to light and that you can find freedom from and find truth in. And so yeah, we're really excited to dive into this topic. Sorry for the chaotic start. Um, but yeah, we're gonna just dive right

Defining Wholeness As Integration

SPEAKER_01 4:48

in. Um, and so yeah, any other thoughts of just like what when we say prescription for wholeness, like what does that really mean before we just dive in completely?

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Yeah, yeah. So um just that word wholeness, I want us to think about it as it's integration, not perfection. It means aligning body, mind, and spirit, not compartmentalizing them. And so Victoria kind of already said that, but I just really want to emphasize that we are not just one part. God doesn't look at us as just physical bodies or just our spirit or just our minds. We are made in this beautiful, complex way. Um, and so, you know, when we experience, you know, anxiety or grief or stress, these things are not just impacting the emotions, they're also impacting your body at a physical level. Um, and people might really relate to that, right? Where it's like, oh, I struggle with headaches or stomach pains, or I get these intense panic attacks, right? So we do know that there is such a physiological and biological impact with our nervous systems. I'm gonna get into that more, but I just want to emphasize when we're saying wholeness tonight, mind, body, spirit. Just remember those three things, because that's really what we're going to get into.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Yeah, and if I had to jump in on that point in particular, I think something that I felt like I struggled with was like wholeness was this place that like I had to get to, or like it was some sort of destination. Like once I got there, like I would finally like have peace. And someone shared this with me. Um, it's Paul in Philippians, he's actually writing from prison, and he says, For I learned to be content, whatever the circumstances. Paul says that he learned to be content, meaning that it wasn't just something that just one day happened, but it was something that happened over time. And then in 2 Corinthians 4, he says, Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. So it seems like this is more of a process um in a journey rather than arriving at a destination.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

That's good. Um the only thing I want to add just as we go into this, um, is I really want to encourage you guys to lean in tonight as we talk about this. I think sometimes, um, like I was saying earlier, we can just dismiss the church when we talk about mental health, or sometimes maybe we ultra-spiritualize things, or uh people feel

Why Anxiety Is Surging Now

SPEAKER_01 7:12

like uh the church hasn't caught up to maybe what's really true in the world. And um the truth is, guys, that we are the most anxious generation that's ever existed. Uh, there's literal books that are called the anxious generation that just talks about Gen Z. Um and uh 60%, so two out of three Americans that are a young adult would describe themselves as anxious. 75% say they have some sort of mental illness in general. So 70% of this room struggles with mental health. That's that's what this is saying. Um and on top of that, there was a study done that said the average child who is anxious today exhibits the same level of anxiety that the average psychiatric patient had in the 50s. So the level of which that we are anxious is so much higher than it was in past generations. Not only that, it says there are statistics that talk about how America or the United States, I should say, is one of the most anxious countries, statistically, which is crazy because we are one of the most privileged countries. And on top of that, we live in one of the most uh safest times in the world where like we have more doctors than ever, we have more knowledge than ever, we have more technology than ever. So why is it that we live in one of the safest countries in the safest time periods of the in life? And we're in one of the most exciting seasons of our life as young adults, right? Like we're young, there's so many decisions, we're making it so exciting, but yet we're all so anxious, apparently. We all struggle with mental health, apparently. And so it's really prevalent here to go back to our roots. Let's go back to what God's Word has to say. Like, what does He say about this? What does He say about anxiety? What does He say about mental health? Because clearly, whatever the world is doing isn't working since we're getting worse at it. Since the world is becoming more and more anxious, we need to get closer and closer to Jesus and figure out what is going on. And the last thing I'll share, I know I'm blabbing, is I was reading recently in Luke 8, and I was just reminded of this as we were talking about this topic. It's a parable that talks about God's word being planted in different types of soil. And one of the examples is that God's word is planted, and then it says that the weeds of life come up and it chokes out the plant. The plant bears no fruit because of it. And what that parable is talking about is that the when the word of God is planted, right? Then the weeds of life come up as the anxieties in life, the worries of life. It chokes out the plant that it can't produce fruit. And so what that means is if you're a Christian and you're letting the worries of this world, you're letting anxiety consume you, it's choking you out to living the abundant life in Jesus that you're able to live. Like you're not able to bear as much fruit as you could. You're not able to go out into all the world and make disciples as much as you could, because anxiety or worries in this life is choking you out. And that's not the life God has for you. Like your identity as a Christian is not whatever you struggle with, but it's who you are in Christ. And in Christ you can find complete freedom. And so don't think for a second that if you struggled for your whole life with mental health, that you can't find freedom from it because you can. And so that's why we're talking about this tonight is because we want our generation and the summit to be marked by people who find freedom and that we don't just take on trauma, we don't just take on um mental illness and just identify with it, because we can, as Christians, find so much more freedom than anyone else in the world can. So, yeah, we're gonna kind of just dive in, but I wanted to start off with that.

Myth One More Faith Fixes It

SPEAKER_01 10:47

So, that being said, as we talk about this in the church, what are some common like myths or misconceptions that you think people have? Um, maybe in this room, maybe in the church as a whole.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

I can start. I my personal wrestle with mental health is always been anxiety driven, and I'll talk a little bit more of my story, but um I think because of that, where my logical brain goes is that oh, okay, if I'm wrestling with anxiousness and fear, that the solution is always gonna be faith. Um and so like a myth that I believe um sometimes is that if I just had more faith that I wouldn't struggle emotionally. And just to be blunt as I've wrestled through it, like a lot of my fears and a lot of the anxiousness does often come from the fact that I do generally lack faith um or a trust in in God's provision in my life. But um just because um someone's struggling emotionally, that doesn't mean that it's because of a lack of faith. Um and I the reason why I find myself getting there sometimes is honestly, usually through comparison, I will come to the summit and there's a lot of you know guys here who God is doing really cool things in their life, and I just look at it and I'm just like they don't seem to be struggling like the way that I am. So like maybe there's just something wrong with like me and my relationship with God, or I look at people in the scriptures like Paul, um and Paul says pretty radical things and does pretty radical things. He says things like this in Acts 20, he says, However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus Christ has given me. And then in Philippians 1, he says, For me to live as Christ and to die is gained. All these radical things, and not only does he say them, but he actually lives them out. Paul is one of the reasons why Christianity spreads um across the globe. He's accredited to be the author of so many of the texts of the New Testament, and then um many say that he actually ended up dying for his faith. So when I see that, I'm just like, man, like if I had that type of faith, I probably wouldn't struggle like emotionally. I would just trust and everything would be good. But Paul, even with all that faith, like he shares that he has hard moments too. And I want to read one from 2 Corinthians it's in 2 Corinthians 1. He says, We don't want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experience in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. Paul, one of the greatest church leaders, had moments where he felt like there was so much pressure on him that it was beyond his abilities. He had a moment where he felt like he despaired life itself, meaning that he lost hope in his life, and he had a moment where he felt like he received death. But listen to how he talks about this his struggles in the next verse. He says, But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly pearl, and he will deliver us again. And so Paul sees his opportunities not just as a moment of oh, I'm just lacking in faith, but he actually sees his struggles as an opportunity to grow deeper and his re and his faith rely on the Lord. The the struggles that Paul were end were was enduring seem to have tested and worked out Paul's faith. And so you see, faith isn't like a one-time interaction thing, you get it, and then all of a sudden, like your life is good. But oftentimes that your faith is tested and worked out in the moments that you are struggling, and whether that be physically or emotionally. But that's how you have a healthier body and you grow bigger muscles. And faith is sometimes similar that God uses good moments and hard moments to help us grow deeper in in relationship with Him.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Yeah, and you know, as you're saying, like faith, faith deeply supports healing, as Victoria mentioned. Like this spirit part that we're talking about is so important. Um, and when we say emotional struggles, I think that's really where we bring that to the Lord. And we're gonna get more into that. And just for time's sake, I want to jump into myth

Emotions As Signals Not Sins

SPEAKER_00 15:33

two. Um, strong emotions are sinful. Something that I say to clients very often is that emotions are indicators, not dictators. And so how we respond to them matters because they're signals to us. Um and so they can be giving us information about what our body needs, about you know, boundaries or threats, right? Um, desires that we might have. And the goal is not to shame those emotions away, um, but it's to notice them, understand them, and most importantly, respond to them wisely. Um and what can happen too, though, is that some people might be prone to like ignore emotions and then suppress them. And then that also is where we can see like major effects on the body and the nervous system, and that can kind of show up in different ways, like you know, tightness in the chest and tension and numbness, irritability, um, things like that. So um, I think there's kind of like some extremes when it comes to this.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

Yeah, and I was quite literally one of those extremes because I I just shared this, but I'm a very logical thinker and transparently, like I I watched like a lot of people in my life who didn't use their emotions like really wisely. And I'm just like, you used your emotions to just like do things that didn't make any sense. So my my stance was like, well, emotions are like for weak people, and um, you know, they're just of no use, so like why even listen to them? And so I like oftentimes would suppress them so that they wouldn't, you know, sway my my logical thinking. Um and if you're like I had to do a total 180 stance on that turn because of exactly what you shared. I because I bottled up emotions, I've I felt them build up anytime that I let fear or sadness or grief just bottle up and and not do anything with them. I was left anxious, I was left with chest pains, um, panic attacks, my arm starting to feel weird pains in my side, and then all those physical symptoms made me think more like, oh shoot, like I might be dying. Um, and then that kind of feeds this vicious cycle. Um and so something that I realized was, huh, if me bottling up my emotions has this type of side effect and has this type of like bad cause, then I must there must be a purpose for them. Um and that begs the question, well, what is that purpose? And like you said, you know, emotions if processed, if used wisely, they're really meant to point us back to God. Because when we understand when we experience emotions, we share an experience with God because He has emotions too. We partake in this, like I said, it's shared experience with the God of the universe. Um and that draws like an intimacy. So think of you know, in moments we're sad or sad or hardship, man, Jesus suffered too. Isaiah um alludes to the Messiah who we know to be Christ as a man of sorrows. Um and so like moments where we're sad, we can look um at Jesus' life and and really say, like, Lord, like this isn't like I don't enjoy this, this is hard, but you suffered way more for my sake, and so I'm thankful for that. Um or in moments where we're joyful and life is good and life is pleasureful, we get to praise the Lord because God is the one who created fun and he's the one who created pleasure. Um in moments where we're overwhelmed, and this is one that I keep going back to um to talk back to the cross, Jesus in the garden actually is so overwhelmed by the burden that is going to be placed on him on the cross that he sweats blood, um which is a real disease. Um when you're so anxious, a blood vessel pops in your head and you start sweating blood. Um and so that points was like, wow, God understands us, and when we experience the emotions, we then get a small glimpse of God.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Yeah, I um as Greg was sharing that with me earlier, I just thought of how um I've shared the story here before, but um, if you're new here, um I'll still share it from the beginning. Um, my husband and I adopted a baby girl 10 months ago, and um you know, we adopted her from some really hard circumstances, and um her birth parents were just going through just really tough, really sad situations. And um, and so, anyways, every night when I put Haven to bed, my daughter's name is Haven, um, we have the same routine. We sing a little song that talks about how much mommy and daddy and Jesus love her. Um, and then after that, sing it. No, no, no. You don't want me singing regularly, let alone with this voice. Um, and so we sing a little song and then we do our prayers, and every night we pray for the same things pretty much. We pray that Haven sleeps through the night. Uh, we pray that uh she comes to know Jesus, that her whole life will point to Jesus, that she'll understand him in the deepest of ways, and she'll help other people for the rest of her life know Jesus, that her future husband is already being prepared and will come to know Jesus. Uh, we pray uh that uh she always knows how loved she is by us, by her birth parents, by her friends, by her family. Uh, we pray. Um, all these things. And then the very last thing we usually pray for is we pray for her birth parents. We pray that um they'll be safe, that they'll find freedom from the things we're talking about tonight, honestly, from mental health struggles and uh different life struggles, and um, that they will come to know Jesus most of all. And so we pray that every night. And so it's been months and months that we like, we do the same prayer every night. Like you'd think that it would just be like, okay, again, but for whatever reason, there is a random night like a a few months ago that again, I've been doing this for like six months, seven months, every night the same thing. And one night as I was holding Haven and praying these prayers, when I got to the last point about her birth parents and just how hard their life is, and praying that they would find freedom, and praying that somehow that we as we're caring for this little baby that it will point them closer to Jesus, we're praying this. I just start weeping, and I'm just crying, and I'm like, why am I crying so much? Much. Like, what's going on? And um, as I was processing it, I was like, I'm just so sad for Haven. Like, because those are her birth parents, and her story started with so much brokenness, and I can't imagine how one day she's gonna look back, and that's going to be heartbreaking for her. And she's going to look at her birth parents and see their brokenness, and that's gonna be so hard for her. And so I'm crying for a situation that I'm not even fully involved in, that I'm not related to, that I'm not in, but I'm feeling it so deeply just because Haven is my daughter now and I love her so much. And in that moment, it just hit me that that's probably how God loves us in our moments of suffering. Like, I think about when my dad passed when I was 18 years old, and I would just be crying, and it's like God was probably just right there crying with me. Like he was because he loves me and he loves um, he wants the best for all of his children, and he sees the suffering in this world, that also makes him sad. And so he, in the same way that I can just love Haven so much that I weep for her, God weeps for us too in our sin. And it just hit me that, like, wow, like God isn't just like this like God in the sky who's just all powerful, but he's also just like a loving father. And he is, he sees sin and he sees suffering and he has a righteous anger about it, and he has a righteous sadness about it. And so we can have emotions that are righteous as well. We can have emotions that when we see brokenness in this world, when we see sin in this world, like that is wrong. Like we don't have to be like, oh yes, joy that this just happened. Like that is sad, and we're allowed to be sad, we're allowed to be mad. But then what do you do with it? Is the question. Because, like Tyra was saying, like you can feel those things, and those are great indicators for stuff. But if you start acting out in it in a sinful way, that's when it's wrong. And uh, the analogy I always like to use is like uh feelings make uh terrible compasses. Um, and so you don't want it to be something that's telling you what to do and where to go, but your feelings can inform you, they can be like a temperature gauge that informs you to look around and say, Why am I so angry? Why am I so sad and inform myself of why? But then don't let it tell you what to do. Um, the definition of a Lord is somebody who has control over you, right? So, like God is the Lord of our lives, and we surrender to Him and we say, God, I want you to be in control of my life. I'm surrendering my own control, and I'm saying, I want to do what you want me to do, God. That makes him the Lord of my life in that moment. And when we let our feelings do that, we're letting our feelings be the God of our life. And anything other than the true God is going to make a terrible God in your life and lead to destruction and pain and more suffering. And so it's never worth it. Um, it's always worth it to just ask God in his truth, what do you want me to do in this situation? Even if I'm righteously angry, even if I'm righteously upset, what do you want me to do next?

SPEAKER_00 25:01

So yeah, that's so good.

CBT And The Nervous System Ladder

SPEAKER_00 25:04

And um I I want to pivot a little bit to it's my feel like a bit of a science lesson, real quick, but I always do this only because I think maybe you're in here and you're like, hey, like I am, you know, I'm praying, I'm in my word, I'm in community, and I'm really struggling. You know, I have daily panic attacks. I, you know, the list can go on. And so I really want to speak to kind of like our nervous systems because there is a certain wiring in our bodies where if you're in that place, I kind of want to take you through like mind, body, and spirit, and then bring kind of in a spiritual piece. So if you have that um visual of the triangle, take your time. Um, there you go. Perfect. All right. So, first things when someone comes in, I always kind of want to see where they're at, like on like a thought level. So this is just a framework. You may have heard of it before, but cognitive behavioral therapy, where essentially it is this belief that our thoughts and our feelings and our behaviors are always interconnected. And so what that means is if I walk outside and I'm thinking, wow, it's such a beautiful day, I might feel happy and then I might smile and go for a walk. Right? Like there's always something that we're doing when we're thinking and feeling something. But the belief is that if we at the thought level can control this piece, it's going to then impact what we feel and what we do. So, for example, your thought can be, I don't know, oh my gosh, I have this interview, um, I'm gonna do horrible, and then you start to feel really nervous, and then what do you do? Maybe you're pacing back and forth and have a panic attack. But if we go back to step one to your thought, and you say, I have an interview today, you know, I'm a little nervous, but I've done interviews before, you know, and if I don't get this job, there's other ones. And then you might feel a little nervous, but a bit at ease. And then what you might do is maybe start to prep for your interview. So it just kind of shows you that at the thought level, if we can take it, reframe it, it can impact how we feel and what we do. This is also a very spiritual thing, right? When we think about meditating on scripture, okay, we're gonna reframe a thought, right? There is that verse in Romans 12 that we are transformed by the renewing of our mind, right? And so if I get in scripture and I'm, you know, reading these truths, right when I'm starting to feel something, I'm I'm reframing that thought and the sequence is following, right? So we can see that this is also a very spiritual act as it is clinical and practical. So that's at the mind level. So now we're gonna just kind of go to like at the body level when it comes to the nervous system. So this is like a really big one that I get into with people. Um, so if you have the picture of that ladder, and I showed this um last year, but just to kind of go over it really quickly, um, this is kind of um the way that our nervous system like signals to us and how we cross over into kind of calm and connection and then into like fight or flight. So you guys might have heard of the terms like fight, flight, or freeze. So that kind of comes from this, and we get this term from our vagus nerve, which is one of our longest running nerves. And I'm only saying that because that's how it communicates to our body in different ways. Um, but basically that top part of the ladder, it says ventral. Just think of the word connected. So the example I like to give is I kind of already gave it, but let's say you're going outside and you're on a hike and it's beautiful and you just feel one with nature, you're in that ventral state. That in in this state, um, you kind of mentioned it, like logical thinking, it's the best for it. You are very on point. Um, the next one is sympathetic. We can also kind of call this like that like fight or flight. Um, and so this is, you know, you can be more on edge and anxious. You're very much looking for cues of danger. So let's say that same person is on that hike. It's a beautiful day, but they hear, I don't know, they hear something behind them. They hear a tree snap or something or whatever. They automatically whip their head around, and now the entire hike, it's like, who's behind me? What's happening? Am I gonna pass out? You know, all these things. And so they're constantly looking for hues of danger. They're in this sympathetic response. And then the last one, dorsal, um, also like freeze. Um, this is really like a disc a uh disconnect. So this is more common with people that struggle with depression. So we can kind of see like increased isolation and you know, from social settings or things like that. Um, they're withdrawn or shut down. Um, and so these three things God designed us in this way. This is science. So we our nervous system um is like this to protect us. I want to say that first. So if we didn't have a sympathetic fight or flight response, we probably all wouldn't be in this room, right? Because you would probably just cross the street, even though there's cars flying by, you know, we just wouldn't know that things are dangerous. So we need that response. We have to know, oh shoot, like someone's chasing me. I better run. That's important. Um, but the problem is, is that I would probably say a large percentage of people live in sympathetic, and I've said this before, live in sympathetic, live in fight or flight when there is no danger around you. You're alone in your bedroom and you're insympathetic. You're here at church and you're in sympathetic. So you're not, there's there's no cues of danger. There's no noises, there's there's no bad news hitting up your phone that someone died or something happened. But maybe those things once happened and now you're forever in this phase. And so that is where I work with people to start to how can we rewire the brain that got here? Maybe it was a five-year-old. Maybe you as a five-year-old had to be a parent, and you are automatically in this phase because you have to protect yourself because they didn't do that, right? So we go back and we have to figure out when did this start? Um, you know, what event made that start that we can start to rewire. And so I go through all of this because I think it is a powerful tool to really understand what's happening eternally, knowing that God designed you in this way and that it's not, but it's not God's design that we stay in this fight or flight every single day. He did that to protect us, right, from actual danger. So um, you know, your nervous system every day is gonna ask yourself, am I safe right now? And so maybe there is a lot of things that you do have to bring to the Lord, right? Where you might just be feeling that unsafety, but there's really no danger around. Um, and so that's, you know, again, I know it's gotten kind of got a bit into science, um, but I do want to now bring in a spiritual component that I do with clients as well.

Grounding And Breath Prayer With Scripture

SPEAKER_00 32:09

And so um I have the pictures, I love like visuals. Um, so um I don't know if anyone's heard of like grounding exercises, but essentially when your nervous system is in that fight or flight, the main goal is just to kind of bring it to like a restorative place before you even process. Like, I don't know if anyone's ever had a panic attack before, but if you have, the worst thing someone could do is be like, hey, calm down, look at me, calm down. Like you're far gone. Like you actually need like a sensory, sorry, that sounded rude. Um, I'm still like freshly postpartum. Anyway, so you your senses, your five senses actually need a reset. So this is a science. So, like, you know, touch, smell, your hearing, your vision, all this needs to reset. And we can bring in a spiritual cook like component here. So if you look up here, um, this is just an exercise, a five senses technique. So you would you could be sitting in this room and do this, and no one would know. You would look around and you'd see what are five things I can see right now. And you'd say it in your head, okay, I see these lights, I see the ceiling, I see the piano, I see my friend, whatever. So you would go through that. Four things that you could feel. I feel my clothes on my body, I feel my chair, um, I can feel my water bottle, like whatever. Um, three things you can hear. Maybe there's a weird buzzing happening, right? Or maybe someone's voice. So you would really kind of hone in and listen. Two things you can smell. Sometimes I just have a client like open up a hand sanitizer or you know, whatever. Um, and then one thing you can taste. Usually I tell them like something sour or water. So that is like a clinical exercise, and that is to kind of re that's to get your nervous system from sympathetic into that ventral very quickly. Um, and then how we can kind of bring the Lord into something like this, right? Is bringing the meditation of scripture. It could be any scripture. I put this on me because it's short and everyone knows it. Um be still and know that I am God. So, you know, once you've regrounded yourself, you can you can kind of sit, you can talk to the Lord now, because now you're in a spot that you can actually process and you know you can meditate and say something like, be still and know that I am God. God is with me. Like you, and then that's where we can start to kind of bring that in. The next slide I have too is a little similar, but it's just called breath prayer. And I I just like breathing is the most important thing for our bodies and nervous system. Um, even just breathing in for four and breathing out for six, like totally completely resets us. And so if we can bring that in with a truth in scripture, that's awesome, right? We're bringing the clinical and with the spiritual, and I've showed some of people here this before. Um, again, you can use any scripture. You can even kind of take parts of it. So the example here is um do not be anxious about anything. We can do it. Um, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So I would look at this verse and then I would kind of just take two big parts from it to incorporate in my in my breathing. So um we can kind of do it together if you guys want to. Um, but no pressure. Um, so you will inhale for four, and I always tell people you breathe in your nose and out your mouth. Usually people are like, so um, you would breathe in. And in your head, though, you would be saying one of these truths from scripture. So as you're breathing in, you're thinking, Jesus be near. And then as you breathe out for six, you know, you are in your mind saying, I receive your peace. So that's just how those work. And again, no one would know you're doing this. Maybe you're like Tara, this happens in public. No one would know you're doing any of these exercises. Um, so I always like to kind of show things like this. I have like 20 more of different exercises like this, if you want some, but um couldn't get into all of them. But this is just to show you how beautifully clinical interventions I can pin to like anything in scripture, honestly. Like they are so perfectly in like integrated, and God designed us in in this way for wholeness.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

That's so good. I think, yeah, so many times we like separate them, but it's so cool to realize that like they really do go together, and God even like gave us scriptures that point us towards those things, you know, like even take every thought captive and things like that. It's like that's exactly what she was just describing, and maybe that's something your therapist says, but to remember that God said it first is so important. Um and going back to you don't have to put up the slide, but going back to one of the first things you said about like how your thoughts inform your behavior. Um, and that's where I think it's important to remember that yes, it might be something that is really hard because of your past. Like, yes, it might be something that because of your struggles as a child, you were always in fight or flight, and so you naturally get more anxious and you're predispositioned that way, like you're a more anxious person than maybe your friends, or you're a more um, you're more

Focus On Today And Trust God

SPEAKER_01 37:17

easily angered, or you're more easily sad, whatever it might be. Sorry guys, I'm losing my voice so bad. But um, and so whatever it might be, but however, remembering though that it's still spiritual, there's still a lie that you're believing, there's still something about God that you're not remembering in that moment. And the only way you're going to fight and find true freedom is to involve both of those things. And so, really practically, so like I we you guys can share any more truths, but I think um just two truths that I can think of, or even just one I can share, is um just this idea that God gives us strength in the moment that we need it. I think so many of us are, I know when I'm anxious, it's always about things in the future. It's always about things that are not happening, it's always about things years from now, or even next week, or even tomorrow. And I'm just I'm replaying them in my head and I'm thinking of the worst case scenario, and I'm already preparing my future self of how I'm gonna deal with it. And I'm thinking through, I want to be, I think that what will bring me the most peace is to be the most prepared. And so I'm working out the situations in my head and I'm I'm trying to figure them out. However, it's just making me more and more anxious. And the reason for that is because I'm thinking about it without the Lord's strength. Like I'm thinking about it just in my strength. But when that moment actually happens, if the worst case actually happens, like God says that He gives me strength in the moment that I need it. And so that moment hasn't happened yet. So I don't have that strength yet. But when that moment does happen, I will have the strength in the Lord to get through it. And it's not something that I would be able to prepare for, it's not something I'm able to just muster up myself. It's something bigger, it's something that makes God just that good. Um, and so uh kind of a life lesson for me, maybe like three years ago, I was really struggling with anxiety and just being really anxious about what's to come. And I was struggling with a lot of health issues, and I was just wrestling through like, God, like I'm so anxious about tomorrow. Like that was just what I said consistently. Like, I'm so anxious about tomorrow. I'm so anxious, I don't know what to do. Um, and God just kept bringing the word today to my mind. He's like, focus on today. And so to this day, I wear a ring that says today because I need to be reminded consistently that God gives me strength for today, that tomorrow has enough worries of its own, that I need to focus on the worries of today and not put on more. Like God didn't create me to be able to carry the burdens of my whole life. There's a reason that He only let me know about what's happening today. Also, He didn't create you to carry the burdens of everything you see on social media because that's not your burden to bear. That might be someone else's situation or some other thing, and that's terrible, and we can grieve that, but that's not your burden necessarily. So don't take on the world, you know. Like what has God placed in front of you today? And what does it look like to find peace by remembering that He's giving you strength for that moment today? I brought up earlier how um my husband and I adopted our baby, but what I didn't share, and and some of you might know this, is um the story of how he adopted her, and it really kind of summarizes what I'm sharing. So I'm I'm gonna um explain it. But I remember when we started the adoption process, I was like, okay, like, so they'll probably like call us and then we'll have like six months to prepare. And that was still stressful. I was like, most people have like nine months of pregnancy to prepare for a baby, but we're gonna have less than that, but that's okay. Like we'll figure it out, like we'll make a nursery, we'll like figure it all out, it'll be okay. Um, but I was still anxious about it. Like I would think every day and look up like stroller brands, and I just wanted to be prepared, even though I had nothing to be prepared for yet. The moment wasn't happening. Um, and so I was anxious and nothing was happening. And then only a week into our adoption process, so mind you, we're not prepared at all. Um, a week into our adoption process, we get a phone call that there's a little baby already born in Arizona. Uh, she's two days old and she's alone in the NICU. She's sick, and her birth parents had left, and she's all alone, and she needs someone there as soon as possible. And they were like, So you have 30 minutes to decide. So we talked about it. We had 30 minutes. Uh, Zach was in a basketball game. I was leading a Bible study. I was like, y'all talk amongst yourselves for a second. Um, Zach and I are talking on the phone. We're like, we're just gonna say yes. We're just gonna give God our yes. So we said yes, and then from there, we had two hours to get on a flight and get to Arizona. And so talk about like unprepared. Like, you think I would be so anxious. Like, we're about to adopt a baby that's gonna change my whole life. She's a sick baby at that. She I have to go on a seven-hour flight. I don't even own a diaper, like I own nothing that would help this little baby. I don't have a nursery set up, I don't have a car seat, I have nothing that is going to help her. We don't even have a name for her yet. And we have to, we're like when we get there, we have to give her a name. So we're thinking of everything, but we had so much peace because all we were focused on was that the battle at hand was what God was giving us today, which was this baby's alone. We need to go to her today. She just needs someone to hold her today. That that's the call right now. It's not the nursery at home, she's not home yet. It's not the car seat, she's not in the car yet. It's just holding her in the hospital. And so that's what we did. And then it was so crazy how true, like, I've never experienced the Lord's peace so clearly than in those moments of even then when we were getting home. Like, we just continue, like God provided above and beyond, and we were never, we never lacked anything. We always had what we needed, even though we didn't have nine months to prepare. We didn't even have a week to prepare, we had nothing, but yet we had everything we needed, and it was truly just something supernatural, and it was truly just a God thing. And so, yeah, if there's if there's a truth that I can remind you of, it's that focus on what God has given you today. How can you be faithful today? And also remembering that God is in control, like He's the good Father who is in control of your whole life. And so meditate on those truths. And if if you don't believe that uh God should be in control, that's okay, but really wrestle with that. Like, why is God good? Why does he deserve to be in control of your life? Why do you want to surrender to that control? Because he has your best in mind, and so yeah, those might be

Taking Inventory And Finding Root Fires

SPEAKER_01 43:39

some truths that you need to remind yourself of in those moments of real anxiety or whatever it might be. But um, anything else?

SPEAKER_02 43:46

Yeah, I'll jump in. That was so good. But I'll jump in on a different practical that might tie a little bit with something that Tara shared, something that you can partner up together with. But I think the practice that I have found most helpful to Me, um I'll call it taking inventory. There's a psalm, Psalm 139, and David says this he says, Search me, God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts, see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. David. David takes this moment to just reflect on what's going on in his brain, what's going on in his heart, and he invites God into that. 2023 was the first time that I ever had a panic attack. Didn't know that fear was as big um in my life until really that moment. Um and so hadn't panic attacks, was feeling um that fight or flight day after day after day, um, and then went on medication for it. Medication was was helpful, but didn't change a single thing about my life. And so got off medication and if you're surprised, a couple months later went right back to being anxious day after day after day. And then I had this kind of weird moment. I went to Florida um on a trip Florida, man. Um and I was just so I was at s I had the most peace in Florida than I ever had in in a felt like a really long time. I wasn't physically or emotionally stressed at all. And at the end of the Holy Land. Yeah, I guess so. But and at the end of the trip, I just had a I just had a moment where I was like, why did I come to Florida in my in the way that I feel feel so much different? Because I mean, as much as I love Florida and as much as all the Rhode Islanders flock down to Florida to go hide from the state, I have a feeling that it had less to do with Florida and it had everything to do with how I lived my life here back at home. That was really the first moment where I was like, God, what is going on in my life and in my brain that has led me to like this place? And the the first thing that I I learned was it was it had to do with pace of life. And so I was able to kind of take a moment and you know prey on the things that were going on in my life and kind of scale back a little bit, and that's been helpful. Um and the reason why that exercise was helpful is because anxiety is an alarm, basically, as as you were saying earlier. When there's a fire, the alarm goes off. And just like an alarm, you can pull the batteries out of the alarm, and the alarm will stop even if there's a fire. And that's that was my story. I pulled the batteries out of the alarm, I um chose medication which works, but if again, if you pull the batteries out and don't put out a fire, it does not turn the alarm off. And you can easily do that with medication with just distracting yourself. You can choose a lot of things. Um but it wasn't until I looked at my life and said, What fire is in my life that needs to be put out? Um, it wasn't until I found more freedom from it. And so kind of fast forward to 2026, because you know, my wrestle with anxiousness has not been perfect, but I've been able to kind of make a daily practice of this taking inventory, taking moments to say, okay, how do I feel? What am I anxious? If I am anxious, why what's the why behind it? And man, I've I've learned so much, so much. I've seen how moments where I'm out of control or things didn't go the way that I planned them to, I found myself more stressed and angry than I normally am. And being able to really see how my desire for control, how much it costs me physically and emotionally, it's really pushed me to hey, let me hold these things loosely, let me hold work and relationships, let me hold these things loosely and trust God in His plan for my life. I've often seen how um I'm a I'm a huge perfectionist, but I I just recently realized that I use perfectionism as a means to protect myself. If I'm perfect, what is there to be afraid of afraid of? And so whether that's me over-preparing for meetings or procrastinating things because I don't have enough information, or just being harsh on myself for making mistakes. I find myself more stressed and burdened because of perfectionism. And the root is because I was I'm I'm afraid to be incompetent, I'm afraid to be seen as a failure. And honestly, just being able to again identify that fear and see how much it's cost me has pushed me to remind myself daily that hey, God's power isn't made perfect in really strong, you know, smart men, but it's made perfect in weakness. And so that God, even if I mess up and do things the way that I shouldn't, God can use that too. And even just like more simple practical things like some days I watch YouTube shorts for 25 minutes and I'm super overstimulated, and I'm like, I should probably stop doing this. Um and I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that just by taking a moment to think about okay, what's going on, why is it happening? You know, you get to you get the better idea of what those deeper fires are. And if you can figure out the deeper fires, you can figure out what lies you're believing, what fears you have, and you're able to replace them with the truth. And you know, once we replace those lies with the truth, you put the fire out, the alarm goes off.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

Um, as we're closing today, I want to share a story that I think um, or at least it was

It Is Well And Choosing Peace

SPEAKER_01 49:46

encouraging to me. So I hope it's encouraging to you. But it's a story of a Christian family. Um, and this family from the 1800s, um, they had lost their son really young. And so they had four daughters and a little boy, and the little boy had passed away, and the family was just so upset. But not only that, the boy passed in a fire, and so their whole house burned down as well. And so, not only are they all struggling with the grief of how sad it is to lose a child, but they also are financially struggling now. And so the father is trying to provide for his four daughters and um and his wife, and he's working extra, and finally, after two years, um, he saved up enough to put them on a vacation. He was like, I want them to rest. Like, we've been through so much as a family, I really want them to go find rest. And so this is the 1800s, so he get he they go on a boat uh to get to another country to go on vacation, and as they're on the boat, uh they're about halfway to their destination, and uh there was a storm, and the ship sank, and unfortunately, all the daughters passed away. The wife ended up uh being saved, and she gets to land and she sends a telegram to her husband, and she's like, I was saved, but I'm alone. And so he gets that news and he's just so distraught, he's so upset, and he wants to just go be with his wife and mourn with her. And so he gets on another ship and he's going to make his way to her, and he's laying down in the ship, and the captain comes down and says, Excuse me, sir, like you might want to come up here for a second. He was like, Why? And he's like, Because we're at the very same spot that your family's ship had sank. And so we're we're over where your daughter's bodies lay, if you want to come and have a moment. Um, and so he goes up and he stares into the distance and he's looking into the sea, the very same waves that crashed into his daughter's ship and that cost them their life. And he writes these words. He writes, When peace flows through life like a river, and when sorrow crashes like the waves of the sea, whatever happens in this life, it is well with my soul. Yes, it is well. If you don't recognize it, this is a popular hymn sung by thousands of churches throughout the world since then. Um we have uh thousands of people, probably millions of people, have sung it by now. Um, and we sing these same words, it is well with my soul. And I don't think we actually understand the depths of what it means. Like, think about in the moment that he wrote this, he is thinking about the passing of his family. He's grieving, he's going through the most suffering that a parent can probably go through. And he's just like, it is well with my soul. How is he able to say that? How is he able to have that much peace? Because I want that much peace. And another part of the song, I think, answers the question. He says, My sin, all of it was nailed to the cross. I don't carry it anymore so my soul can praise the Lord, for it is all well with my soul. See, he's able to have that much peace because he recognizes just how much he was saved from. He recognizes that because of what Jesus did on the cross, because his sin was nailed on the cross with Jesus, that he's able to go to a world with no suffering, that he's able to have an eternity with the God of the universe, who is so good, who is so in control. He didn't earn it, he didn't deserve it, but he's able to have that relationship in a world with no pain forever and ever and ever, because of Jesus alone, not because of anything he has done. And he sees that and he recognizes that and he's like, man, the suffering of this world can't compare to the glory that's to come. And so it is well with my soul. No matter what I go through, no matter what wave comes at me, no matter what mountain comes at me, I will be okay because I have Jesus. And guys, I want that to be our prayer tonight, too. That in a moment, Zach and Tara are gonna lead us through the same song, it is well. And I don't want you to just be thinking about anything. Don't think about what you're going like after this, where you're going or what you're gonna eat, or who you're gonna talk to. Don't just think of the words mindlessly, but really ask yourself do you believe? Do you actually believe that no matter what this life throws at you, that it is well? That it is okay because God is that good despite the bad things happening. And so if y'all could stand with me.