Anxiety can show up in your daily life as a feeling of unease or doom – as if something bad is about to happen.
When internal examination discovers nothing wrong, what is there to be anxious about, what is there to fear?
As you'll see, John is not afraid to share his personal journey of dealing with anxiety. He's also not afraid to take a traditional, psychological-textbook approach to the subject of anxiety while simultaneously challenging a lot of the traditional, psychological-textbook approaches to this subject. The mix is refreshing and empowering...and will cause some people in the psychology world to struggle with his conclusions. Those of us in the real world, however, love his conclusions-because they're applicable, they're crammed with common sense, and they follow a strong intellectual construct.
Talk about possibilities versus probabilities. That can help them calm their worries.
As mothers one of our big go-to’s when it comes to shame is “I’m not a good mom.” And we need to back off that a little bit. We all have emotions. We’re all going to feel things. We all have agency. But how do we respond? Understand that your children are going to learn from these experiences. We don’t have to “own it” ourselves or think, “I’m a bad parent because they’re depressed” or “I’m a bad parent because they’re anxious.” Back off of that and say, “Okay, so what are we going to do with that?”
Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel teaches key attributes of Christ that we can emulate: “Patience is the capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition, or suffering without becoming angry, frustrated, or anxious. It is the ability to do God’s will and accept His timing. When you are patient, you hold up under pressure and are able to face adversity calmly and hopefully”
The main thing to remember is, the alarms are not the problem; the fire is the problem. If you continually avoid the alarms, or medicate them down so low that you can function without making changes, your house will burn down around you. Medications can provide support as you chose to no longer hide from, avoid, or evade the fire.
So if anxiety is not a disease, it's not a new identity, and if medication isn't the ultimate answer, then we find ourselves in need of new questions. The questions are not: "What can I no longer do or enjoy now that I have anxiety?" or "How do I fix anxiety?" or "How do I cure anxiety?" The new questions we need to ask are: "How do I build a non-anxious life where the alarms aren't ringing all the time?" and "How do I build a life that offers me peace, purposeful work, resilience, deep relationships, and joy?"
One thing we know about anxiety is that it narrows our field of focus. It makes us acutely aware of the perceived threats coming at our own lives, right now. Our vision constricts, our ability to think rationally or big-picture dissolves, and we become obsessed with survival. We're zoomed in on our belly button while the ceiling above us is caving in. Everything in us gets tense. Scared. Life becomes us versus them - whoever them happens to be. And when we isolate ourselves long enough, the only enemy left is us. We declare civil war. Against ourselves. All our attention gets pointed inward. Almost without warning, it's you verses you.
As a former journalist (I don’t know… do you ever stop being one?) I see a huge shift from an attempt to remain neutral and to verify every story, to what we have today: Pravda-esque unproven propaganda, biased reporting, outright lies, and no accountability (and both sides feel this way about the other side.) No wonder people don’t believe what they’re being spoon-fed.
Psychologist Rollo May said, “It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way.” We panic, right? So, we dash about as if increased speed will bring the answer.
In last October’s General Conference, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a talk called “Daily Restoration” and spoke of a study done at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. To test the theory that people who are lost walk in circles, they took test participants to a thick forest and told them to walk in a straight line. GPS data showed that, despite thinking they had walked in a straight line, they had actually made loops, some as small as 20 meters in diameter. “Without reliable landmarks,” he said, “we drift off course.” It would be interesting to see if their pace increased as well.
I see this with those doubting their faith, as well. And they don’t always want to talk with strong believers because they sense bias. So, sadly, they talk with nonbelievers (who are also circling) and place their trust in the worst possible area.
When you can’t trust “experts,” newscasters, or public opinion, you need personal revelation more than ever. And when you’re doubting the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, you need it the most of all.
Anxiety is just the misuse of imagination.
The search for knowledge pushes back the unknown that encroaches, making the world more predictable and, hopefully, making us less anxious.
In our course we teach that "no thought lives in your head rent-free." Each thought you have will either be an investment or a cost. It will either move you toward happiness and success or away from it. It will either empower you or disempower you. That's why it is imperative you choose your thoughts and beliefs wisely.
At the core, humans are social beings — we need human emotional contact to thrive. If the skillset of forming strong, emotionally satisfying relationships is not established, and is replaced by the frivolity of social media, all of this makes one vulnerable to developing anxiety and depression.
Anxiety can show up in your daily life as a feeling of unease or doom – as if something bad is about to happen.