I have anxiety.  Okay, I know, some of you are thinking, “Anxiety is not a real thing!  Just take a deep breath and get over it!”  I wish it was that easy.  A lot of people get anxious while they are waiting on test results, waiting on a call from the mechanic to see how much the bill will set them back, and even as they get ready to go out on a date (I think…it’s been a long time :).  Those types of events are fairly routine for most people.  Your heart will pump a little faster, you may even start to break out in a sweat, but as soon as you get the answer you are waiting for (or not) your heart rate slows down and all is well.  But many of us deal with anxiety on a much bigger level.

I have stood in the middle of the grocery store with a basket filled with groceries in a near full-blown panic attack.  I hear my heart racing in my ears, I can’t catch my breath, my face is flushed and my ears bright red.  If I am able to reach my husband, I would call him and he would often be able to talk me off the ledge.  I’ve left my basket in the middle of the aisle and went home.  It can be debilitating.

But I’ve gotten really good 🙂  I know that the evenings are the worst time for me.  I will often walk outside in the freezing cold to catch my breath.  I start to worry, “Am I having a heart attack?”  Because yes, it feels like you are having a heart attack.  I wish I could say that I stop and “pray it away”….yeah, not that easy.

Life has been complicated lately and I have had to work hard to still my mind, be intentional about my prayer life and not pray for a certain outcome.  Unfortunately I’ve had to rely on medicine to help me more often than not lately, but I am grateful for the medical intervention.

If you struggle with anxiety, YOU ARE NOT CRAZY!  It’s not all in your mind, it’s not something you can just walk off!  Be sure you have a support system around you.  Even if those people don’t truly understand anxiety, make sure you have loving, comforting people around you.

When I can still my mind long enough to help me focus and keep my anxiety at bay, one passage never fails to flood my heart:

“Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than they are?  Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life?  And why do you worry about clothes? Notice how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth.  But I say to you that even Solomon in all of his splendor wasn’t dressed like one of these.  If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it’s alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown into the furnace, won’t God do much more for you, you people of weak faith?  Therefore, don’t worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’  Gentiles long for all these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Matthew 6:25-34

Visit The Mighty for some amazing stories of power and resilience from those living with anxiety.

Today I Am Thankful For:

1. a surprise visit from my son
2. pencils
3. new fabric
4. medical intervention
5. my neighborhood park