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Anxiety

             Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. (Psalm 139:23)

 

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  (Philippians 4:6)

 

One of the meta-thoughts (thoughts about thoughts) I’ve been considering over the past week is the idea that a condition is not the same as a feeling. Put another way, my feelings may not be my condition, or may not reflect my condition. One can feel “in love” without loving or being a loving person. One can be afraid while recognizing that there really isn’t anything to be afraid of.

When I was in Toastmasters, one of the things I learned was that there’s little physiological difference between anxiety and excitement, but we associate bad things with anxiety, and good things with excitement. And, we associate bad things with our situation when we’re focused on the situation, and good things about our situation when we’re focused on God.

Viktor Frankl’s experiences in German concentration camps taught us something more about our experiences. Reactions are not responses. Reactions are automatic and reflexive, often involving feelings, images, and ideas over which we have no control. Responses return us to thinking individuals with free will.

The problem with reactions is that we’re frequently trapped by them, and while they generate lots of energy, they don’t go anywhere. I notice this when I feel overwhelmed and anxious. I spend a lot of time and energy on the situation. Eventually, I calm down enough to pick something and act, but how much more I could get done if I’d shorten the screaming time and get started doing sooner.

Let’s consider the process.

Something Happens

Reaction – emotion of some sort

Response – brain reconnects

Action

(I had to laugh as I made the list. My previous dog, Honey, had issues. If you didn’t let her know you were there or didn’t get her attention before trying to do something to her, you could watch the process. She would freak out and attack, and after a little while, you could see her brain reconnect: “Oh, it’s you.”)

So, the keys are to focus on God as early in the process as possible and to shorten the reaction phase – making it more of a time of prayerfully observing and questioning. What is the real problem? Why is it a problem? What does God suggest you do about it? The sooner you think and pray, the better.

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