Bible verse to inspire stress relief, food freedom, health & wellness
Be merciful to me, my God,
for my enemies are in hot pursuit;
all day long they press their attack.
My adversaries pursue me all day long; in their pride many are attacking me.
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise—
in God I trust and am not afraid.
What can mere mortals do to me?
All day long they twist my words;
all their schemes are for my ruin.
In Regards to Racing, Negative Thoughts...
As you are going about your busy day, there can come a time when clear & focused thinking becomes racing, negative thoughts. Maybe it’s the inner critic piping up with shoulda, coulda, woulda. Or it’s the inner worrier that suddenly feels tied down with all the things that could go wrong. It could be the inner perfectionist that paralyzes your forward movement because your accomplishments are not good enough. There are so many different aspects that come together to make each of us a unique self.
When these feelings and thoughts arise, it triggers a stress response – body moves into survival mode (fight, flight, freeze or fawn). The body does not know the difference between physical threat or a mental perception of not enough resources.
At times these different views and this stress response can be helpful, helping us to improve or to keep us safe. Some of the messages could be from Holy Spirit encouraging us to grow. Sometimes they are not, but are feelings, gradations and whispers of shame, guilt, pride, loneliness that take us further from God instead of closer.
When you notice a mental flurry of negative self-talk, you want to PAUSE and BE PRESENT. Slow down your thoughts, calm and refocus. Usually this is most easily accomplished with physical relaxation techniques like deep breathing. Acknowledge your feelings & open your heart. INVITE PRESENCE. Pray and reach out to God. Find out how this situation is growing you and ask for Him to shine light and transform any lies you’ve told yourself, and to protect and guide you to grow with grace & grit. Using faith to build effective coping skills, magnifies the effectiveness of the typical secular approaches to stop negative self-talk.
RELATED: Prayer & Intuition As Part of Health Independence
Learning How to Be Enough & Have Enough
In my journey, for years I tried just the first two steps. It was not sustainable and I was not able to transform and reframe my self-concept consistently. I was only able to start effectively and sustainably transforming my thoughts when I returned to Christianity and started rebuilding my relationship with Jesus. For me, I needed God to be effective at breaking the patterns of “not enough” and chronic stress. I could not keep fighting this myself.
Prayer and Journal
Read Psalm 56. What are the adversaries that pursue you and twist your words?
What patterns of attack do you notice when you experience racing, negative thoughts?
How can you benefit from praising and trusting God and asking for His mercy during these situations?
What are tactics you can use to ensure that you PAUSE, BE PRESENT & INVITE PRESENCE to stop negative thoughts?
RELATED: Suggestion for Relaxation Techniques
My hope for you...
I pray that you can find more mental peace and calm. As you feel less stress, you will have more energy and focus to live a fulfilled life.
I hope that these words (or what you experience through doing this as a journaling exercise) can serve to inspire and energize changes that help you find improved work-life harmony and less stress.
If you are feeling a significant disruption of thoughts, moods, behaviors, or ability to relate to others and it is consistently impacting multiple areas of your life, I encourage you to seek treatment or intervention. There are resources and Christian counselors that can help.
Interested in other tips on how to boost your energy naturally & reduce stress? Check out these 8 ideas.
