Embedded Files
These are some things from my personal collection of tools and strategies that have helped me the most (in addition to prayer, of course).
1. EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) tapping technique -- on the spot when anxious or experiencing any unpleasant/negative emotion. Sends a calming signal to the brain, adjusts thoughts/perspectives/attitudes, dissolves unwanted thoughts and emotions.
2. Deep Breathing -- on the spot when anxious and also at random times to develop the habit
3. Thought Stopping / Mindfulness
4. A commitment to not allowing emotions to run the show -- just like I wouldn't let a drunk 12 year old kid drive my car with me in it!!
5. Researching anxiety and the above 4 topics online and on jw.org to get specifics. I copy & paste helpful nuggets and scriptures I find and save them on my computer by making documents for each topic so I can remember them and return to them. I also keep a few extra special nugget sentences in a notes app on my phone so I have them with me at all times.
6. Affirmations -- consciously choosing to think certain thoughts will create positive results. Affirmative statements go beyond the reality of the present into the creation of the future.
7. Doing at least one of these strategies a day -- I wouldn't skip a whole day of brushing my teeth, eating a meal, showering, etc. Emotional/mental health is equally or more important than those daily necessities, and they can be done in just minutes.
Details
videos
Changing Perspective
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN6g2mr0p3Q
Training the mind is often quite different to how people imagined it to be. Maybe they have an idea it's about stopping thoughts or eliminating feelings. But the reality is a bit different. An easy way to think of it is to imagine yourself sitting on the side of a busy road. The passing cars representing thoughts and feelings. All you have to do is just sit there and watch the cars. Sounds easy, right? But what usually happens is that we feel a bit unsettled by the movement of the traffic. So we run out into the road and try to stop the cars. Or maybe even chase after a few. Forgetting that the idea was to just sit here. And of course, all of this running around only adds to the feeling of restlessness in the mind. So training the mind is about changing our relationship with the passing thoughts and feelings. Learning how to view them with a little more perspective. And when we do this, we naturally find a place of calm. Will we sometimes forget the idea of the exercise and become distracted? Of course we will. But as soon as we remember, here we are. Back on the side of the road again, just watching the traffic go by. Perfectly at ease in both body and mind.
How Mindfulness Empowers Us: An Animation Narrated by Sharon Salzberg (2 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzKryaN44ss
Stress and Coping: Mindfulness Can Help (2 1/2 minutes)
https://media.healthwise.net/kbcontent/peacehealthvideo.prod.video/abp4939/en-us?version=14.3
What is Anxiety? (4 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfykKI2o-7Y
How to Tap with Jessica Ortner: Emotional Freedom Technique Informational Video (4 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAclBdj20ZU
https://www.thetappingsolution.com/tapping-101 (22 minutes)
then
Tapping Meditation: Releasing Anxiety and Worry (19 minutes)
(Note: this isn't the mind-emptying kind of meditation ... it's just a tapping session guided by a speaker to gently walk you through, with pleasant music in the background)
http://www.thetappingsolution.com/tws-videos/tapping-meditation-releasing-anxiety.php
HERE'S THE HOWs AND WHYs ABOUT EFT TAPPING
EFT basic instruction sheet + a list of all audio program topics I have
Some professionals whose anxiety videos I find helpful:
Emma McAdam
https://www.youtube.com/c/TherapyinaNutshell/videos
Brendon Bouchard
https://www.youtube.com/@BrendonBurchard/search?query=anxiety
TedTalk: This could be why you're depressed or anxious | Johann Hari (20 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB5IX-np5fE&feature=youtu.be
One of the many great quotes from this informative video: "The leading medical body in the world (the World Health Organization) has been trying to tell us for years, based on the best scientific evidence: if you're depressed, if you're anxious, you're not weak, you're not crazy, you're not a machine with broken parts. You're a human being with unmet needs. ... This is why one of the leading doctors at the United Nations, in their official statement for World Health Day in 2017 said we need to talk less about chemical imbalances and more about the imbalances in the way we live. Drugs give real relief to some people -- they gave relief to me for a while -- but precisely because this problem goes deeper than their biology, the solutions need to go much deeper, too."
Here's the video transcript if you'd rather skim read instead of watching:
https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_this_could_be_why_you_re_depressed_or_anxious/transcript
audio
Clearing Anxiety Tapping Meditation (14 minutes)
short stress relief EFT tapping audios that work well for me ... https://www.thetappingsolution.com/jessica-ortners-stress-relief-audios-free-download
reading
Clarity Point Coaching
https://www.claritypointcoaching.com/copy-of-depression
10 Unique Ways to Worry Less
https://coachkimgiles.weebly.com/blogarticles/10-unique-ways-to-worry-less
49 Calming Phrases –
designed for adults to say to children, but you can say most of these to yourself too for self-soothing
https://gozen.com/49-phrases-to-calm-an-anxious-child
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SPIRITUAL
An "Aha Moment" ... The opposite of anxiety is not courage [being scared but doing it anyway], or peace [there will always be conflict with your emotions because you’re imperfect]. These traits can help manage anxiety, but the real vanquisher is actually something else: TRUST. Trust in our core strengths, trust in our resilience, trust in the process, and trust even in the discomfort of our anxious emotions to deliver important messages and teach lessons. And most importantly, trust and faith in Jehovah God because no matter what it is we're worrying about, he says "I've got this. I can handle it. Just let me."
Faith and fear cannot exist together. Faith is described in Hebrews 11:1 as being certain of what we do not see. It is an absolute belief that God is constantly working behind the scenes in every area of our lives, even when there is no tangible evidence to support that fact. On the other hand, fear, simply stated, is unbelief or weak belief. As unbelief gains the upper hand in our thoughts, fear takes hold of our emotions. Our deliverance from fear and worry is based on faith, which is the very opposite of unbelief.
I've learned recently ...
~ We are powerless when dwelling in fear.
~ We are not perceiving accurately when in fear, so we're not able to make our best choices. The things it whispers to us are lies.
~ We aren't "showing up" emotionally for other people or being unselfish when we're operating out of fear, because fear makes us hyperfocused on ourselves.
~ When we're worried about the past or the future we've lost our connection to the present, so we're like a helium balloon that isn't tied to a solid object. The present moment is the only thing that's REAL, so we have to tether ourselves to it if we want to control anxiety.
~ Fear is noise in our head. If we become aware of our thoughts and how they affect our feelings and actions, we can quiet that noise.
~ Fear is a choice --- our subconscious programming chooses it., but we always have the power to override that. To know that our first reaction is not our only option. We can choose TRUST instead.
Ronald Curzan: Deal With Anxiety One Day at a Time (17 minute video)
(from May 2019 JW Broadcast)
https://tv.jw.org/#en/mediaitems/pub-jwb_201905_2_VIDEO
Patrick LaFranca: You Can Successfully Fight Discouragement (17 minute video)
(from September 2021 JW Broadcast)
https://www.jw.org/en/library/videos/#en/mediaitems/StudioTalks/pub-jwb-082_2_VIDEO
Shaken but Not Forsaken -- James Cauthon (10 minute video)
[it starts 46 minutes into the Gilead Graduation video] https://www.jw.org/en/library/videos/#en/mediaitems/StudioMonthlyPrograms/pub-jwb_201912_1_VIDEO
helps us deal with trials that shake us to the core. Beautiful points and scriptures.
Throw All Your Anxiety Upon Jehovah
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1994845
How Can I Deal With Anxiety?
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/teenagers/ask/deal-with-anxiety
Let Jehovah Soothe You
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2020286
song
Each Day Has Its Own Anxieties
https://www.jw.org/en/library/music-songs/original-songs/each-day-has-its-own-anxieties/?content=video
*** w98 2/15 p. 5 Cultivate the Spirit of Gratitude ***
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary defines gratitude as “the state of being grateful: warm and friendly feeling toward a benefactor prompting one to repay a favor.” A feeling cannot be turned on and off mechanically; it must spring unprompted from within a person. Gratitude is more than a mere display of good manners or a form of etiquette; it stems from the heart.
How can we learn to feel grateful at heart? The Bible attributes much of what we feel to our choice of thoughts. (Ephesians 4:22-24) Learning to feel grateful starts with meditating appreciatively on the kindnesses we receive. In line with this, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, who works in the mental-health field, says: “You cannot have a feeling (emotion) without first having experienced a thought.”
*** g92 10/8 p. 4 Negative Emotions—Can You Overcome Them? ***
Many who work in the field of mental health maintain that our feelings are caused by our thoughts. For example, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer points out: “You cannot have a feeling (emotion) without first having experienced a thought.” Dr. David D. Burns further states: “Every bad feeling you have is the result of your distorted negative thinking.”
Interestingly, the Bible likewise attributes much of what we feel to our choice of thoughts, so it emphasizes the need to control our thinking. Note the following verses:
“All the days of the afflicted one are bad; but the one that is good at heart has a feast constantly.”—Proverbs 15:15.
“Quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over, that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”—Romans 12:2.
“We are bringing every thought into captivity to make it obedient to the Christ.”—2 Corinthians 10:5.
“You should put away the old personality which conforms to your former course of conduct . . . you should be made new in the force actuating your mind, and should put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loyalty.”—Ephesians 4:22-24.
“Whatever things are true, whatever things are of serious concern, whatever things are righteous, whatever things are chaste, whatever things are lovable, whatever things are well spoken of, whatever virtue there is and whatever praiseworthy thing there is, continue considering these things.”—Philippians 4:8.
“Keep your minds fixed on the things above, not on the things upon the earth.”—Colossians 3:2.
Since your feelings are chiefly a product of your thinking, the key to overcoming your negative emotions is to control the thoughts that support them. With sufficient effort and time, you can learn to bring your thoughts under greater control. It therefore follows that you can do the same to your feelings.
(Philippians 2:13) God is the one who for the sake of his good pleasure energizes you, giving you both the desire and the power to act.
(Philippians 4:6, 7) Do not be anxious over anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication along with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God; and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your mental powers by means of Christ Jesus.
... “along with thanksgiving” … it’s impossible to focus on 2 things at a time. So if we focus on thanksgiving, we can’t focus on anxiety! And vice versa! What could we possibly be thankful for in the middle of a crisis that’s making us anxious? We could ask ourselves: has Jehovah given me any blessings in this situation (strength to cope, encouragement, supportive friends, etc)? Has a trial shown me a weakness I wasn’t aware of before? Now I can work on it. Or shown me an asset I wasn’t aware that I had? Or enabled me to develop more positive qualities? Have I gained insights and learned lessons? These are all things we want to be sure to thank Jehovah for so we can maintain an attitude of gratitude and not let anxiety steal our peace. No matter how bad it gets.
(2 Corinthians 10:5, The Message Bible)
We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.
worksheets
Gaining Control Over Your Negative Emotions
https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/family/teenagers/worksheets/gaining-control-over-negative-emotions
Cognitive Restructuring: Thoughts on Trial (put unwanted thoughts on trial like in a courtroom)
Some things I’ve learned:
Stress management is crucial to our health. The Fight or Flight response is triggered by stress. It floods the brain and body with hormones and chemicals that enable us to survive an acute threat. All creatures in nature can tolerate short-term stress but no organism can live in emergency mode for an extended period of time. It's a scientific fact that the hormones of stress down-regulate genes and create disease. Because of the size of the neocortex in human beings, we can turn on the stress response just by thought alone. We think about our problems and turn on those chemicals. Thoughts have tremendous power – they can make us sick. (In contrast, the right thoughts can make us well.)
The best way to manage strong unpleasant emotions is to change the thoughts and patterns of thinking that create them, so we can prevent them. I call it emotional birth control!!
Emotions are really just the chemical response to our thoughts, which can then in turn also create thoughts. If we have great thoughts, non-limiting thoughts, happy thoughts, we make chemicals that make us feel happy or good, and if we have negative thoughts or bad thoughts or contracted thoughts, we make chemicals that make us feel bad. The moment we start to feel bad then we start to think the way we're feeling, which then makes more chemicals so that we can feel the way we're thinking and think the way we're feeling. A vicious loop!
Neuroscientists have discovered that 95% of our brain's activity is subconscious. Our thoughts, feelings and behavior are generated from this vast underworld before we even realize it, so how can we stand up against that programming? Subconscious thoughts are faster, but conscious thoughts are stronger. Realize that our first reaction is not our only option. We can choose another way, reprogram/reframe. We have the power to choose to override those fear-based or negative or unwanted thoughts as soon as they come into awareness. Change them into something else so as to disable them and not give them any energy. Overpower them with a conscious thought that is empowering, positive, realistic, etc. It's hard to do, but with Jehovah's help, and lots of practice, we can learn it just like we can learn a new language or how to play a musical instrument, or how to do anything else we've become good at.
Because of the power emotions have to override logic, the scriptures tell us to control our words, thoughts, and feelings. In the heat of the moment if we let a strong negative emotion flare up, this hijacks the reasoning part of our brain (neocortex) and now we’re only able to unconsciously react, rather than mindfully respond properly. With our emotions driving the bus, we’re going off into the ditch! We will say or do things we’ll later regret. The emotional center of the brain (amygdala) takes over and shuts off the neocortex. So we are not capable of making good decisions in that state because our judgment is impaired. This is another reason Jehovah tells us to work really hard at controlling our emotions, to meditate/think before we speak, to put time and space between the urge to act and the action, which will enable us to collect our thoughts, respond mildly, and act wisely. He sets the supreme example of responding rather than reacting.
Studies have found that you're in this state of amygdala hijacking for a total of 18 minutes. For this time you are highly illogical, emotional, and basically in fight mode. You are not able to think reasonably for these 18 minutes. When this passes, you still have the Fight or Flight hormones racing through your body for another 3-4 hours, during which time you'll still be rather defensive, sensitive and prone to emotional reactions.
2 GREAT ARTICLES
An alternative to changing thoughts is to JUST OBSERVE our thoughts -- make no effort to control, analyze or change them because those efforts sometimes build more resistance. Allow. They’ll come in, and they’ll go back out. See your thoughts from a neutral point of view. Like sitting on a park bench – observing your surroundings, relaxing. No judgment on, no following, and no controlling passerby. Treat your thoughts that way, watch them go through. Allow them to be there so they’ll just flow back out. When we give momentum to the way we’re thinking we’re strengthening the neuro-circuitry in our brain, making it have more power over us. Neutralize the charge and we can turn thoughts where we want to go. Bring the awareness into the body rather than intellectual. Arms, legs, chest, etc. Then you’ll become PRESENT! So training the mind is about changing our relationship with the passing thoughts and feelings. Learning that we don’t have to interact with them. This takes away their power. Like how a child throwing a temper tantrum will eventually calm down on their own. Allow thought to arise without following it where it wants you to go, which is into another bigger thought and a bigger one … don’t become like a dog when she’s off the leash and finds a scent. She goes off completely unaware of her surroundings. She just follows it and she disappears and gets lost.
When the mind races:
You can't stop your mind, but you can choose to take your attention away from thinking. We need an anchor to keep us in the present moment. The inner body is a wonderful anchor for the state of presence. Lie still and ask yourself: can I feel that there's an energy inside my hands? In other words, can I feel that my hands are there without touching anything? After a little while you’ll be able to feel a slight tingling or aliveness in your hands. Immediately, thinking will slow down because it no longer has your whole attention. Now, can you incorporate your legs and arms? Your whole body? Increase your sensitivity of your own body awareness. REALIZE THAT PROBLEMS DON’T EXIST IN THE PRESENT MOMENT! Immediately things become more alive and less problematic when we go to sense perception. No matter how large a problem we may think we have, we are only dealing with the thought in this moment -- and the thought can be changed. Our freedom lies in our ability to choose a new thought to think.
When we get stuck on bad memories:
Realize they’re just thoughts rising in your mind. You don't need to identify with the thoughts any longer. The event is not happening here and now, it has already happened. These thoughts are not realities. Only when you believe that they are real do they have power over you. But when you realize it's just another thought arising about the past, then you can break its grip. Not even Jehovah can change the past. The essence of who you are does not lie in the past. What matters is what you are willing to do now. You are the present. No thought is who you are. The present is the only time we have the power to make choices. And your body doesn't know the difference between an event that's taking place in your world currently and what you're creating by emotion or thought alone, so most people are constantly reaffirming their emotional states and are stuck in a loop. The body is believing it's living in the same past experience 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year. Where attention goes, energy flows – so instead of focusing on (reaffirming) the negative, practice flipping to the positive and reaffirm that.
Guilt:
No human being can act beyond their level of consciousness. At that time, you acted like that/did a certain thing. The awareness was not there to act differently. Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn't know before you learned it.
Your mind is a garden. Your thoughts are seeds. Energy feeds them. In your mind is fertile land. The mind doesn't care what you plant in it, it will always yield results. You can plant vegetables or you can plant weeds. You can plant misery or you can plant happiness. It's all up to you because you are always reaping what you sow. Even though life isn’t perfect, you can still grow positivity – just like plants can grow in a greenhouse no matter what the weather is like outside. What we focus on expands. If we focus on our problems, they tend to increase. If we focus on the good things we already have, they have a tendency to grow.
In the brain we have to prune synaptic connections and sprout new connections. We have to unfire, unwire and refire, rewire new thoughts to condition the body into a new emotional state. We have to unmemorize emotions that are stored in the body. Just like if you're planting a garden you've got to get rid of the weeds and pull out last year’s plants. The rocks that sift to the top are like our emotional blocks, they have to be removed. The soil has to be tenderized and broken down. We have to make room to plant the new garden. Affirmation: “I can erase negative thoughts as easily as I can clean a dirty window. When the window of my mind is clean I can see clearly the negative thoughts for what they are and I can choose to eliminate them and reach for better-feeling thoughts.”
We get good at what we practice (practice makes perfect) … will we practice unhealthy thinking or healthy thinking? Controlling our emotions and our reactions is like playing a musical instrument well -- it's a skill that can definitely be learned. And the more we practice, the better we get at it. This inspires hope that it CAN be done!! It just takes focused effort, time, and patience with ourselves. Things that push our buttons are opportunities to PRACTICE this new skill that's being developed. It's all part of the process necessary to progress and grow.
We create our own world through our thoughts and emotions. The very power that created you has given you the power to create your own experiences. Every thought you think and every word you speak is creating your future. Choose to use this power to create a wonderful new future.
Emotional states are temporary. Don't give that temporary state a significant amount of significance. Just tell yourself “this is temporary, I accept it for now.”
By changing how you see things, how things see you also changes. How the world around you interacts with you also changes.
Negative thinking is a habit. It took time to develop. But every single habit that is formed can be broken.
Bad experiences: climb under the pain and find the lesson and the blessin’.
The words of a very dear wise friend helped me through a situation a few years ago: “Worrying is like furiously rocking in a rocking chair expecting to get somewhere. But all you get is exhausted.”
Fascinating, fascinating. Absorbing and practicing things like these has made a WORLD of difference in my life. They reflect Bible principles, which is why they’re effective. I find it so faith-strengthening to know that Jehovah God rewards every effort we make in this battle for self-control, and that his holy spirit is powerful enough to override our fleshly reactions and to make progress when we allow his spirit to do its work. That assurance gives me the “oomph” to keep going. And I have absolutely come to believe this: when out of humble obedience, respect, and love for Jehovah we make ourselves apply the scriptural principles that are really tough ... the harder something is personally for us to obey, the bigger the blessing is when we do it because we did it for him! The blessing is definitely bigger.
This matter has been such a struggle for me for so long that I love to share what has been working, especially when someone welcomes the info. And love to share how encouraging it is to remember how much Jehovah appreciates the effort of every one of us. Thanks for letting me share, it helps me too. I need the reminders of all these treasures. I welcome any treasures you’ve discovered too.
Just wanted to share some things that are helping me lately. Anxiety is a war I've been fighting since I was a kid. This enemy retreats only when I remember to use the arsenal of weapons I've accumulated and when I remember to use the battle skills I've learned. And I keep working to gather more weapons and to learn more skills.
The best weapon and skill is throwing all those anxieties on Jehovah God. He wants us to because he cares for us!! (1 Peter 5:7) Jesus told us to stop worrying and to take one day at a time (Matthew 6:25-34). I found over 40 places in the Bible where anxiety is mentioned, and most of those include advice on how to combat it. There is hope, AWESOME! For others who are waging The War, what insights have you collected over time that help you? I'd love to hear.
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