Hey girl! Today, we are rounding out our series on decreasing anxiety and increasing calm! I'm excited to share 2 more tips with you today on how you can recalibrate in this area! Here's a little recap of what we have covered: 1. Go on a walk outside in God's creation. 🌧 2. Listen to worship music or check out the Dwell app. 🎶 3. Make sure you are getting enough magnesium. ✨
Here are Tips 4 + 5 for decreasing anxiety + increasing calm: 4. ⛅️📆 Create margin. 🍃🗓 This week, or even just starting with today, see what space you could free up on your calendar or what clutter you could clear in your life to make space to think more clearly and breathe deeper. That may look like rescheduling a hangout or saying no to an event to slow down your pace of life. Or, it may look like turning off the TV, radio, or phone so that your mind can reset. We tend to be far too overstimulated these days which doesn't help our stress levels or nervous system. Building in buffer and margin in your calendar can be super helpful for getting our stress levels back under control and preventing them from going up so much in the first place. We were created with the need to rest. This is a beautiful thing. Our need for rest reveals our dependence on God. He is our Creator, Sustainer, and Provider. “For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.” —Acts 17:28 ESV 5. 📝🙏 Write out your prayers to God. ✍🏻💕 To be honest, there have been a couple of things that I have been putting off because of fear and anxiousness. It's crazy how big we can make things in our minds sometimes rather than just simplifying them and taking the next step. Right?! But, then I realize there are some things that come up in life that we simply don't have control over. It can be extremely difficult to calm down and slow down our brains when our nervous system kicks into overdrive. I know the feeling of my heart starting to beat faster, my chest tightening, my breathing becoming more shallow, etc. But, I am grateful for these physical signs because in time, I have learned to become more aware of them and have learned that those signs are my queue to make sure I'm getting out of my head and giving those issues over to God that are starting to affect me mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. These physical symptoms also remind me to make sure I'm having enough margin in my day to manage stress, to go for walks outside, nourish my mind with God's Word, and even take my magnesium! ☺️ One of my favorite verses reads, “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.” —Isaiah 26:3 NIV I actually shared this verse in the first email in this series, and it just is so fitting to come back to as we close out this series today. Isn't perfect peace what we all long for? We search for it in SO many places! I know I do. In our appearance, in executing a “good enough” performance, in our relationships, in our living spaces, in our bank account, and the list goes on and on and on. Humans originally had perfect peace in the garden of Eden when God made them. Adam and Eve lived in the world that sin had not yet entered. 🌎 But, when they chose to act pridefully and go against God's Word (Genesis 3), the curse of sin, brokenness, and sorrow entered our world. Thinking we know better than God plagues the human heart. BUT God, sent His precious Son, Jesus Christ to save us from ourselves and give us love, light, and hope that we desperately needed. Jesus paid the ultimate penalty for our sin with His life and rose again victorious over sin, death, and Hell. We can't do enough "good things" to get to God. So, God came to us to restore our relationship even though He was the one who had been wronged. He freely gives forgiveness, hope, and peace to those who trust Him and believe in Him. "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” —2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV It's in and through Jesus— and only Jesus— that we can truly experience right standing with God and obtain the peace that we long for in this world and for eternity with Him to come. 🤍 When I type out “eternity” it still truly blows my mind (and should) that we actually get to experience this gift of grace and relationship from our amazing God and Creator. He loves us so much. I still think Narnia's “Aslan's Country” is probably the best mental picture I have of eternity with Jesus one day! 🦁 hehe One day, those of us who know and love Jesus will be headed to spend forever with Him. But even in the here and now, the good news is: in having a personal relationship with Jesus— we can have peace in this world and be His ambassadors bringing His light to the darkness. 💡 “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” —Jesus (John 16:33 ESV) So, as Isaiah says, we will be kept in perfect peace by trusting our good, sovereign, caring, close God who cares for us more than we could EVER comprehend. Can you believe His thoughts for us out number the grains of sand? (Psalm 139:17-18) God asks us to trust Him because He loves us and faithfully promises to work ALL things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. This is where true peace comes from. It all comes back to trusting God which is what Adam and Eve were asked to do in the beginning. 🌳 But, even the strength to trust, God will give us. So, my last tip for decreasing overwhelm and increasing calm is simple but the most profound and most important thing I could ever tell you or preach to my own heart today. 💛 Go before your kind-hearted Maker. Pour out your heart to Him. Tell Him just like the Psalmists did EXACTLY what you are feeling, and then submit those struggles to His loving care and trust Him. Even if it's been a long time or even if it's your first time talking with Him, he wants to fill you with purpose, joy, hope, and love. He wants a relationship with you— this is what we were created for. One way to talk to God is by journaling, which I find really helps me. 📝 Kind of like getting out of the house to go for a walk outside, journaling also gets me out of my own head and helps me go to God rather than trying to manage things myself. So, together, let's go before our God and good King. He is waiting for us with open arms. He has been and always will be faithful and trustworthy, and He is Peace. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” —Jesus (John 14:27 ESV)
Cheering you on,
Heather 💛
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