Have you ever dealt with an anxiety attack that left you crippled for hours? Or maybe you deal with heightened anxiety throughout your day and never really feel at peace inside yourself? Does it keep you from a restful night and being present with loved ones during the day? If so, keep reading because understanding anxiety and how to care for our nervous systems is important!
I want to be clear that I am not a doctor or professional when it comes to dealing with anxiety. I am simply speaking out of my own experience with anxiety as I share what I’ve learned about it and what has helped me find peace and presence over it. I’ve dealt with my own anxiety attacks in the past. I’ve also spent years of my life caught in fight or flight, which in turn over-stressed my nervous system and caused all kinds of other physical and emotional issues. It’s not fun. And we’re not made to live that way. The Bible has a lot to say about not being anxious. This is certainly not to shame us, but to encourage us that there is a better way. Ultimately, Jesus is the One who brings peace to our anxiety. He says to cast all our cares on Him because He cares for us. I want to encourage you to take your anxiety and stress to Him always and surrender it to Him. I also want to talk about some practical ways you can work with your nervous system.
So let’s spend a little bit of time looking into what our nervous systems do. Our autonomic nervous system has two different states. I’m not going to get super scientific here because I'm not a scientist! The state our nervous system should be in most of the time is a state of rest and digest. It’s a peaceful state where all is well and our body is able to mend and repair, digest, detox, process, sleep, etc. In order for us to maintain optimal health, our bodies need to be in this state most of the time.
The other state our autonomic nervous systems can be in is the fight or flight state. This state is triggered when there is perceived danger. It’s a life saver because it rushes hormones into our bodies that allow us to quickly react and do what we need to do to get out of a dangerous situation. After the danger has passed, our bodies are made to switch back over to the rest and digest state.
What can happen is that we can get stuck in fight or flight if we’re dealing with lots of anxiety or something is signaling our brains that we are not safe. It could be a trauma response or it could be from not knowing how to deal with stress appropriately. When that is the case, everything can feel like perceived danger.
So how do we help our nervous system’s learn to chill? Avoiding stress is impossible. But learning to deal with and process stress in a healthy way is possible! We need to be prepared so that stressful situations don’t catch us off guard. That’s why we need to create a personalized care plan for our nervous systems. Having a plan in place will help you navigate through situations that used to send you into fight or flight with much more peace and calm. I created a personalized plan for my nervous system a few years back and it has made a huge difference in how I’m able to handle stress! My body is no longer in fight or flight and, when it is triggered, it comes back out of it as soon as the danger passes.
To make your nervous system plan, you first need to spend some time thinking about the things that bring you the most peace. What are those things that cause you to take a long, slow breath and feel like everything will be okay? What is it that causes your muscles to relax and a smile to creep onto your face? This could be anything. It could be a sound like birds singing, the ocean, or even a specific song that fills you with nostalgic memories of carefree days. It could be a smell. It could be heat or cold. Go through all your senses and write down a list of everything that you can think of that makes you feel at peace. Everyone’s list will be different because what makes one person feel calm could actually make another person feel stressed! Your list is unique to you.
Once you’ve written your list, pick your top 5-8 and think about ways to have these on hand. I’ve carried a small bottle of lavender essential oil in my purse. You could have your special song downloaded onto your phone ready to pull up when needed. You can use visualization if it’s a location that brings you peace that you can’t physically be at. Get creative! Take care of your nervous system so it can take care of you!
Another super helpful tool is meditation. I meditate every day and have found it to be quite the game changer! That’s why I have created short, 5 minute meditations on my youtube channel. Just five minutes a day can have a huge impact! I really encourage you to make this a part of your daily routine!
Do you deal with anxiety? What has or hasn’t helped you find more peace and calm in your day? Leave me a comment, I’d love to know!
If you want a head start in your journey to becoming the person God created you to be, I’ve made some printable journal pages that are yours for free! You can click here to download those and use them each morning to really start your day off right!
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