Season of Peace

Finding hope from fear, depression, anxiety and panic attacks.

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How to Break the Cycle of Anxiety, Fear and Worry

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How to Break the Cycle of Anxiety, Fear and WorryAs most of you know, the cycle of anxiety, fear and worry can be exhausting. We try hard to break the cycle, but it seems like peace eludes us. Is there hope? Can we break the cycle of anxiety, fear and worry?

I believe you can! There are so many areas in my own life that have changed over the years–even the past few months–in this area of fear and anxiety.

Anxiety has a way of grabbing hold of your mind and not letting go. Most of you know what I’m talking about. You’re sitting at home reading a book or lying in bed about to go to sleep and WHAM! you’re hit with a tornado of anxious thoughts. All of sudden, your mind is spinning and your body starts to get jittery. The harder your fight those thoughts, the faster they come. You quickly spin into full blown panic.

There are two specific areas you need to address to break this cycle: the trigger and the root.

What is triggering the anxious thoughts?

Understanding the triggers of those anxious thoughts is important. You need to pray through what’s causing fear to arise in you. For some, it may be physical like too much caffeine or sugar. Or, it could be something mental like stress or wrong thinking patterns. Whatever the situation, it’s important for you to learn what is triggering the anxious thoughts.

There was a time I had to stop all caffeine, because it was pushing my body too hard, releasing adrenaline that was not good for me. Today, I’m back to one cup of tea in the mornings, and that’s all. No sodas, no coffee, and no energy drinks.

Another trigger for me is stress. I run my own business, and things are booming right now. I’ve never experienced such growth as I have the past year. It’s been wonderful but it has also been quite stressful. I’m learning more each day on how to delegate and how to say no (which is very hard for me). But, my emotional and mental health is far more important than just making money.

Take a moment during or after the anxiety attack to write down your thoughts. What were you thinking before the rush of anxiety? What emotions were you feeling and experiencing? Was there something that happened during the day that caused you stress, or got you thinking about about something? Write down your thoughts, your ideas, and your emotions. See if you can start to recognize a pattern.

What root is there in my soul that is causing these anxious thoughts?

Getting to the root cause of anxiety, fear and worry is absolutely essential if you want to find true freedom. Most people stop at the first step. Once they find out what’s triggering the anxiety, they simply avoid those triggers without ever dealing with the root cause of the anxiousness.

It’s like a splinter in your finger. You can clean it, numb it and cover it, but if you never remove the splinter–the very cause of the pain–it’ll never heal. It’ll just get more painful. In the same way, until you properly deal with the “splinter” in your mind and thoughts, you’ll never really find true freedom from anxious thoughts and worry.

How do you start?

There are lots of great resources available to help you learn how to break the cycle of anxiety, worry and fear. There are books, freedom ministry teachings and blogs. Find out if your church has a freedom ministry or counselors who can help you tear down the strongholds of fear and anxiety.

I’m reading a great book by Greg Boyd called “Escaping the Matrix: Setting Your Mind Free to Experience Real Life in Christ“. For those of you who are fans of the movie, The Matrix, Greg uses illustrations from the movie to talk about “patterns of thinking” or strongholds, as the Bible calls them. And, he walks you through how thoughts get lodged in your mind, and how we can break those patterns (or matrixes) of our mind. It’s an excellent book, and I highly recommend it.

Romans 12:2 explains, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

We must renew our mind. We must break those unhealthy patterns of thinking that are often rooted in lies that we believe about ourselves and about God. We must fill our minds with truth because if we know the truth, the truth will set us free (John 8:32).

Prayer: Father, show me how to renew my mind and break down these strongholds, these unhealthy patterns of thinking.

How to Stop Anxious Thoughts

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How to stop Anxious ThoughtsNow that we’ve wrapped up a couple series on The Love of God and Freedom from Fear, I want to share some simple, practical messages on dealing with fear, anxiety, and panic attacks.

Our struggle with anxiety and anxious thoughts primarily happens in our mind. What we think and believe often affects what we experience physically. Let me show you.

As you read this, imagine yourself holding a lemon. Look at it. Feel the texture. Smell it. Now take a knife and cut the lemon in half. The smell is stronger now. Close your eyes, and imagine taking a big, juicy bite of the lemon.

Did your mouth water? If you really imagined that lemon in your mind, then most likely, it did. I find this experiment amazing, because it proves that a thought can trigger a physical, chemical response in your body.  And, if that’s true, then surely anxious thoughts can produce chemical reactions in your body.

Here are four practical steps on how you can stop anxious thoughts:

1. Recognize

First, you need to recognize an anxious thought as simply that: a thought. It’s only in your mind. In most situations, there is no real danger. Too often, we’ve built a pattern of dangerous thoughts in our mind that really have no danger.

If we can start by recognizing those anxious thoughts when they come, and see them simply as thoughts, then it becomes easier to stop them. It helps to write down irrational thoughts when they hit. When you have a thought that doesn’t feel right or brings anxiety or confusion, write it down and take note of how it makes you feel. Keep a journal. This will help you recognize certain patterns in how you think.

2. Take those thoughts captive

When an anxious thought hits you, it’s essential to capture that thought immediately and think though where it’s coming from. Remember, the enemy can put thoughts into your mind and make them sound like your own. Don’t believe everything you think. Look at the fruit of that thought. Does it produce peace or fear? If it produces anxiety, fear or heaviness, then don’t receive it. It’s not from God. Reject it as a lie and ask God to give you peaceful thoughts.

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

The Bible says we must renew our minds and stop conforming to the patterns of this world (Romans 12:2). This world–with its horror movies, fear-inducing reality shows, depressing news broadcasts, and unstable economy–will not produce peace. Quite the opposite. My family and I no longer watch the news on TV. We don’t watch horror movies, nor television shows that would produce anxious thoughts.

3. Find a healthy release

Most anxious thoughts release adrenaline into your body, raising your heart rate and blood pressure. Guess what? That’s what adrenaline is supposed to do. It’s preparing you to face danger. The problem is that there’s no real danger. So, our mind starts racing around, looking for something that’s a threat because our body is screaming, “Danger! Danger!”

I have found exercise to be an extremely helpful release of adrenaline. At the end of the day, when anxiety levels are raised, I often go for a run or a bike ride. The exertion is very good for ridding your body of the excessive adrenaline. If exercise is not an option, then spend time in prayer, meditation and reading scripture. Flood your mind with God’s truth and his promises of peace over you.

4. Get to the root

I read a great quote last week from Alan Smith, one of the freedom ministry pastors at our church. He writes: If I’m struggling, it’s not because of what I’ve been through. It’s because of what I came to believe when I went through it. God heals me, not by changing my past, but by revealing truth and displacing lies.

This is so true! Everyone has lies and wounds deep within our souls that affect how we perceive the world around us. That’s why it’s imperative that we know the truth so that the truth will set us free (John 8:32).

If your church does not have a freedom ministry, then I encourage you to start reading and studying all that Christ has done for you. There are some great books on our online bookstore.  Also, check out our church’s Freedom Ministry foundation videos. They are wonderful! And, you can watch them online for free.

Prayer: Father, help me recognize the anxious thoughts when they hit, take them captive, release them and then get to the root so that I may find complete freedom in Jesus.