How to manage anxiety through physical movement.
Anxiety is a terrible feeling. But it can be managed in simple ways. (This was written when I first started this blog but I felt it was timely to share it now.)
From Psychology Today:
The nerve cell connections between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are critical in anxiety. Anxiety results when alarm signals of possible danger originating in the amygdala disable the PFC so that it can not ignore or in any way regulate the signals.
Last week was full of anxiety—for lots of reasons. Once again, God was faithful. I kept putting one foot in front of the other while God directed me to the right path. Moving has always been the right strategy for me when I’m feeling anxious, and God supplied the strength to do it.
God requires our cooperation to manage anxiety.
So many times, we expect we can go to God with our struggles, and He will zap them away like a fairy Godmother or a magician. And I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen on occasion. But almost always, we are an integral part of God’s answers to our prayers. God seldom swoops down and rescues without something being required of us in the process. It’s not that God needs our help as much as it is that it is better for us down the road to have learned some things we can do for ourselves. As a general rule, God works in tandem with people.
The man at the Bethsaida pool.
Remember the man at the Bethsaida pool? No, he wasn’t suffering from anxiety as far as we know, but his example still works. He was crippled and had been for thirty-eight years!
Jesus took pity on him and told him to get up, pick up his pallet, and walk. Jesus didn’t pick him up and carry him to the pool. He didn’t find a bunch of men to carry him to the water or rig up some sort of device to drag him down there. He basically said that if the man would believe and do his part, he would be healed. It is to the man’s credit that he recognized Jesus had that kind of power. It is also to his credit that he got up and walked.
You see, the healing was never in the pool, not really. This story is about how healing came to a person when that person moved in response to Jesus’s words. Movement itself is healing in so many ways. When we get distracted, one activity leads to another, and we find ourselves becoming engaged in something other than ourselves.
Healing begins with movement.
Healing often begins with movement, and anxiety especially so. Why do you think patients are made to get up very soon after surgery these days? It’s because the medical profession has learned that movement aids in the healing process.
The next time you feel anxious, get up and move and do something, anything. If you don’t know what to do, clean something, organize something, anything. Even washing your hair could work. Listen to some energizing music and dance around.
Action leads to action, and action can interrupt anxiety.
So, no matter where you are today in your struggles, get up and walk. God will do the rest. I’m well aware that some cannot walk. But we can “walk” metaphorically by engaging our minds in constructive ways. Any movement directs our attention elsewhere and takes our minds off our present situation.
Try it. It works
I highly recommend this book by Max Lucado.
God bless, and I hope you have a good day.
