How Joy Can Bring Peace to my Anxious Soul
By Leia Brown
I don’t remember experiencing more anxiety in my life
than in my Sophomore year of college.
I was having a really difficult time with friendships, school, and everything felt incredibly overwhelming, including just getting up to go to class or eating. I was grappling with the fact that I was really an adult who had to start making my own decisions (now I know this is a lifelong struggle). The thought of making a mistake, choosing the wrong thing, engaging in conflict, etc., became something that really paralyzed me with fear.
Anxiety is a never-ending cycle leading to nowhere productive.
It’s full of irrational, intrusive thoughts and fears. It feels like being claustrophobic in your own body. From Imposter Syndrome to feeling out of control of my circumstances, there are so many things that cause me to feel overwhelmingly anxious on a daily basis. I actually can’t remember the last time I had a day without a single moment of anxiety. It’s exhausting. I don’t think that part of anxiety is talked about enough – Having your mind constantly reeling with anxious thoughts uses an immense amount of daily energy. By the middle of the day it can be hard to keep going. The question is, is there a lasting solution to the anxiety filled world we live in, something more permanent and tangible?
There are a lot of things that give me anxiety on a daily basis. Somedays are better or worse than others depending on what is going on in my life or around the world. Here are a few things that usually contribute to my anxiety everyday:
Comparison
World issues
Human rights
Anti-semitism
Climate Change
Cost of education
Mass shootings
Economics
This list itself could go on
The thought of letting people down
Money
Not being Jewish enough
Not knowing the parking situation for an event
Relationships with friends/family
Dating
Calling strangers on the phone
Overwhelming schedules
Public speaking
Feeling behind your peers in life
In terms of money, relationships, having a family, etc.
Insecurities
Not feeling worthy or qualified
Not getting enough sleep
Confrontation
Standing up for my own needs
Small Talk
Lack of control
Traffic
Not eating well
Forgetfulness
Not knowing why I’m anxious
That’s a long list and you might have gotten anxiety just from reading that (sorry), but I don’t write this to create anxiety.
I write this because it shows the reality of what an anxious person
lives with on a daily basis.
The American Psychological Association defines anxiety like this, “Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure.” In other words, anxiety is a physical response to wanting to control the uncontrollable. Some anxiety is unexplainable. It’s just there, looming, and ready to attack and make you feel depleted. Unfortunately, this is the experience of being an anxious person.
My generation, Gen Z, experiences more anxiety statistically than any other generation. Chloe Garnham wrote in an article for Healthmatch,
“Research indicates that Gen Zers are currently the most stressed demographic of people. The American Psychological Association (APA) reports that:
90% of Gen Z experienced psychological or physical symptoms as a result of stress in the last year.
70% of Gen Z say that anxiety and depression are significant problems among their peers.
30% of parents surveyed felt that their child was experiencing negative effects on their emotional or mental health due to social distancing and school closures.
Additionally, McKinsey Insights notes that 25% of Gen Z report experiencing emotional distress—nearly double the levels reported by older generations.
During the pandemic, those between 20–24 years old showed the biggest leaps in anxiety.” (Garnham 2022)
That’s a lot of anxiety! It’s hard for me to experience it, but also incredibly difficult to see the people around me struggle as well. The question it leaves us with is,
so what do I do to fix it?
Coping mechanisms can be like putting
a band-aid on a broken leg.
Every person, community, and generation experiences anxiety differently. And now more than ever there is so much information out there about how to cope with it all. Some popular coping mechanisms are: breathing exercises, yoga, music, therapy, meditation, journaling, exercise, being in nature, and so much more. My personal favorites are baking and listening to music. There are some ways that are better than others, but a lot of these things are just temporary solutions. Coping mechanisms can be like putting a band-aid on a broken leg.
Nothing I listed above is inherently bad, it’s just not permanent. For me, in spite of this daily experience of anxiety, a constant source of peace is rooted in my relationship with God.
God brings an overwhelming sense of peace and joy to my soul when I turn to him in the midst of my anxiety.
“Can being anxious add an hour to your life?”
For me as a Jewish follower of Jesus, the Bible contains God’s wisdom for navigating life. And more than any other biblical author, Jesus had the most to say about anxiety. It would take forever to unpack all that here, so I’ll just share something that Jesus said that has been an anchor for me.
Don’t be anxious about life, such as what you will eat or drink, or your body and the clothes you put on it. Life is more than food and the body is more than clothing. The birds of the air don’t have possessions, including a home, but God provides for them. And as a human being, are you not more valuable than the birds? Can being anxious add an hour to your life? If you can’t do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
Has looking in the mirror and analyzing your clothes ever made you feel better? Look at the flowers in fields, they just grow, not pick out clothes, yet they hold a lot of beauty. So why worry about how you look or what you’re eating? God knows exactly what you need. Seek God and these things will be given to you as well. So don’t worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Simply put, Jesus is saying that worrying doesn’t add anything to your life, that God knows what you need and if you rely on him and ask him, he loves you so much that he desires to help you. Jesus tells us in this passage that we have value in the eyes of God. Feeling a lack of value is often something that is the root of anxiety. Jesus’ words here have helped me in the darkest moments of my anxiety. And the best thing about them is that they are permanent and never changing.
It was a turning moment for me in understanding that worry really doesn’t add anything to my life, but it actually takes away from experiencing joy.
Back to my sophomore year in college; at the time, I really wasn’t making the best decisions because I couldn’t control this anxiety within me. It wasn’t until I was in a conflict with one of my best friends that kind of brought me back to reality a little bit. If I didn’t get a handle on how my anxiety was making me act then my friendships were going to suffer. Two questions came to my mind: what are the things that really matter to me? Is constantly overthinking adding any value to my well-being? This moment of clarity brought me back to what Jesus said above. I couldn’t enjoy my friends or my college experience because I was letting anxiety overwhelm every part of my life. I just sat there reading this passage over and over again really trying to digest it. It was a turning moment for me in understanding that worry really doesn’t add anything to my life, but it actually takes away from experiencing joy. I began to understand that God gives peace to those who come to Him and the things that really matter to me are sources of joy.
This doesn’t mean my anxiety is just gone. Fear and worry are a normal part of the human experience. God never promises that life will not be difficult and worrisome. It does mean though, that my relationship with God allows me to tackle my anxiety with a positive outlook. I specifically think of when Jesus says, “Can being anxious add an hour to your life?” The answer to this question is obviously no. So, when I am anxious and think of this question it allows me to rationalize how I’m feeling and say for myself, “It’s okay to feel worried about this, but letting it consume you is not a solution.” That one reminder usually gives me what I need to take a deep breath and pray. In these moments, my prayer is usually as simple as, “God, please give me peace about this circumstance and help me trust you.”
Joy is a powerful emotion that increases our serotonin…the joy that I experience is more powerful than the anxiety I face.
I look at all the ways that I might combat my anxiety, but God is the only one that is permanent. When I turn to God, life becomes more meaningful and full of joy. This joy comes from an indescribable amount of peace from God and relationship with others. Joy is a powerful emotion that increases our serotonin. And if you have experienced joy before, you know that the feeling is different from happiness. It’s a deeper feeling in your soul that has the ability to heal. So, I’m not cured, but when I drive around in my car listening to a good song with a friend and have a good laugh, the joy that I experience is more powerful than the anxiety I face. My anxious heart is cared for by God. He gives me those good things, just like he gives the birds of the air food and inherent beauty to the flowers we see everyday.
If there is one encouragement I could offer to you as a reader, it is this: take a deep breath and take this opportunity to talk to God. If you don’t believe in God, or have some baggage with God, please don’t immediately write this off. God is the most reliable source of peace for your life. There’s nothing to lose and a lot of peace to gain. If you do this and it resonates with you or maybe you just still have questions, you can find me at Upside Down Cafe and I would be happy to chat with you more.
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