Illustration results for anxiety
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Obedience is seeking God with your whole heart. Performance is having a quiet time because you’ll feel guilty if you don’t.
Obedience is finding ways to let the Word of God dwell in you richly. Performance is quickly scanning a passage so you can check it off your Bible reading plan.
Obedience is inviting guests to your home for dinner. Performance is feeling anxiety about whether every detail of the meal will be perfect.
Obedience is following God’s prompting to start a small group. Performance is reluctance to let anyone else lead the group because they might not do it as well as you would.
Obedience is saying yes to whatever God asks of you. Performance is saying yes to whatever people ask of you.
Obedience is following the promptings of God’s Spirit. Performance is following a list of man-made requirements.
Obedience springs from fear of God. Performance springs from fear of failure.
Forgive and forget. Easier said than done, right? Well, now studies are showing forgiveness is not only good theology, but good medicine as sell. According to the latest medical and psychological research, forgiving is good for our souls-and our bodies. People who forgive:
benefit from better immune functioning and lower blood pressure have better mental health than people who do not forgive feel better physically; have lower amounts of anger and fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression maintain more satisfying and long-lasting relationships.
"When we allow ourselves to feel like victims or sit around dreaming up how to retaliate against people who have hurt us, these thought patterns take a toll on our minds and bodies,’ says Michael McCullough, director of research for the National Institute for Healthcare Research and a co-author of To Forgive is Human: How to Put Your Past in the Past (IVP, 1997).
InterVarsity Press, quoted in Lifeline, Summer, 1997
Video Illustration: City Slickers- Right atfter he is gored by the bull and they talk about it on the plane. It’s right after the scene of New York which says 1 year later. It’s his birthday and he is depressed and worried. Mitch has become a worry wart and it’s draining the joy out of his life.
Do you see what worry and anxiety can do to your life? It robs you of living-instead you just exist – you end up with no joy and no hope. It’s a sad state to be in.
Recently, a survey was made of 200 married adults in regards to forgiveness (1). The researchers were wondering how one’s ability to forgive others would affect their marital satisfaction and personal well-being. The results were astounding! This research suggests that there is a huge relationship between marriage satisfaction and forgiveness. In fact, it appears that as much as one third of marriage satisfaction is related to forgiveness. Not only does the ability to forgive impact the marriage relationship, it was significantly related to personal emotional distress. As forgiveness ability went up, individuals reported fewer symptoms of depression, anxiety, and fatigue! These results...
Nothing in life creates more deep seated anxieties than the false assumption that life should be free from anxieties and problems.
Aromatherapy means "treatment using scents". It is a treatment of caring for the body with pleasant smelling oils. The essential oils are added to the bath or massaged into the skin, inhaled directly or diffused to scent an entire room. Aromatherapy is used for the relief of pain, care for the skin, alleviate tension and fatigue and invigorate the entire body. It has been said that certain scents can help with the body’s digestion, respiratory, circulatory and excretory systems. Certain aromas can help to alleviate pain and reduce bruising. Some scents can help with arthritis and with common muscle pain. Some smells can relieve headaches and ease depression and even help to improve memory. All of this has not been evaluated.
It is known that odors we smell have a significant impact on how we feel. In dealing with patients who have lost the sense of smell, doctors have found that a life without fragrance can lead to high incidence of psychiatric problems such as anxiety and depression. We have the capability to distinguish 10,000 different smells. It is believed that smells enter through cilia (the fine hairs lining the nose) to the limbic system, the part of the brain that controls our moods, emotions, memory and learning. Researchers have tried odor experiments only in the work place. According to the publication Communication Briefings, one Japanese firm reports that air scented with lavender cut keypunching errors by 21 %. Jasmine-scented air dropped errors by 33 % and lemon in the air was even better- this cut errors by 54 %. Lavender reduces stress. Jasmine relaxes. Lemon stimulates. Odors do make a difference.
The other day I received an email from John Schwartz, a member of a group that mobilises people to help the needy. He writes, “there are many lepers in the world who have never experienced a hug or known what a human touch is!” That we are not able to touch them or embrace them is a sign of the fears and anxieties that dwell within us. St. Francis embraced a leper and he became a saint. That is the spirit of incarnation in human life. When we embrace what is normally considered as less human, we redeem the divinity of ourselves as well as of others. Otherwise we remain slaves of our own darkness.
Patience:
1. Is the ability to sit back and wait for an expected outcome without experiencing anxiety, tension, or frustration.
2. Is the ability let go of your need for immediate gratification and be willing to wait.
3. Patience is the trait that displays tolerance, compassion, understanding, and acceptance toward those who are slower than you in developing maturity, emotional freedom...
A man told his psychologist my anxieties are disturbing my dreams. I dream that I am in a pup tent, and then I dream I am in a Teepee. The doctor said I know your problem you are too tense.
Jesus calls us to be people who
Live in present-tense.
An average person¡¦s anxiety is focused on :
40% -- things that will never happen
30% -- things about the past that can’t be changed
12% -- things about criticism by others, mostly untrue
10% -- about health, which gets worse with stress
8% -- about real problems that will be faced
Stop trying to grapple with the what ifs¨ and let God take care of it. You simply make that long term investment in God’s kingdom day by day.
While touring Italy, a man visited a cathedral that had been completed on the outside only. Once inside, the traveler found an artist kneeling before an enormous wall upon which he had just begun to create a mosaic. On some tables nearby were thousands of pieces of colored ceramic. Curious, the visitor asked the artist how he would ever finish such a large project. The artist answered that he knew how much he could accomplish in one day. Each morning, he marked off an area to be completed that day and didn’t worry about what remained outside that space. That was the best he could do; and if he faithfully did his best, one day the mosaic would be finished.
Today in the Word, September 5, 1995, p. 32.
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