“No, no! Jesus didn’t experience anxiety!” we might say. I think this is a reaction to quickly judging emotions as bad and untrustworthy. Consider Christ’s prayer in the garden, as he neared death. We read quite disturbing words from Luke: “And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground”.
I'm no etymologist, but words fascinate me. Kardia, in many of its uses, has captivated my attention for a long time. As a Bible student, kardia appears multiple times as the Greek word for heart.
Not the organ that pumps blood through your body. Kardia is the figurative core of your being. It is the seat and center of human life, emotion, volitional will. It is the "causative source of one's psychological life in its various aspects." All that to say, your heart is a huge deal and deserves attention and care!
Even in our brokenness, we can learn to become the self God intended us to become; honest, genuine, passionate, transparent, vulnerable. And each of us has our own uniqueness that only we can express. Thomas Merton said that only you can love people the way you can love people. You are uniquely situated in the world to do what only you were made to do.
The mention of sex or pornography tends to capture a room and fill it with an uneasy tension as people panic for a change in topic. People would rather talk about anything else. We can’t deny that our culture is filled with sexual references and products designed to be just sexual enough so that it walks the line between pornographic and marketable. We post disgust about sexual exploitation and that we wish it would change, but we don’t address where the conversations must start.
When you read the word, addict, what character comes to mind? Who is this person? Do you feel pity for him? Disdain, fear, indifference? Do you avoid him? Is he you? Whoever you picture, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume none of us aspire to own the label. It alludes to weakness, selfishness, loss, unreliability, and trouble. But can’t we all relate in one way or another? And what is addiction?
So much has changed over the last few months, and it can all feel a bit overwhelming! With COVID-19 spreading throughout the country in March, schools moved to online classes virtually overnight, and kids quickly transitioned to staying at home all day. Any hint of normalcy seems like a blur, especially with the recent rise in COVID-19 cases in the Memphis area.
I dread yard work. I find deep satisfaction in completing to-do lists, and yard work is never fully finished. It can require a constant rhythm of maintenance, which invites the maintainer to sometimes step into unpleasant weather conditions, not to mention mosquito bites and getting dirty. These are not a few of my favorite things.
In November, my husband, Tim, planted around 3,000 tulip bulbs in our garden. It took him a few days to dig up the dirt, place the bulbs in the ground, and cover them back up. I did not help. I never considered myself patient or mindful enough for any gardening type of work. I did not think much of the tulips again.
This is the second part to a 2 part series on helping your child (and yourself) to cope with your anxiety regarding COVID-19. The following is a list of evidence-based practices for management of anxiety as well as some general recommendations derived from a fellow-anxiety-sufferer’s plentiful experience in ineffective coping. I did learn that there is a better way! Enjoy benefitting from my life lessons built on many years of painful growth. While these strategies may not rid you of experiencing grief and anxiety at this time, it is my hope that they will help you to navigate these uncharted waters with your head above the surface and, perhaps, to find joy and peace in the eye of the storm. Now let’s get to the good stuff…
I have become intimately acquainted with the feelings of fear and anxiety throughout the course of my life. I can distinctly recall the first asthma attack that I had on the soccer field as a small child… the jolt of panic, the surge of adrenaline, the fight-or-flight response propelling me to seek out my mother for help. This occurrence on the soccer field set in motion my life-long battle with anxiety, particularly about my breathing. Sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish between what “feels” like I can’t breathe versus when I really am not breathing well.
