Three Ways to Get a Grip When You Are Hanging On by a Thread
“Here is what’s true. Those around you that you trying to care for will pick up on your anxiety. ”
Preparing to launch a six month coaching intensive for women leaders, I have been wondering just how are the women in our nation are coping? Are they managing their emotional capacity and still have enough to lead others? How close are any of us to letting go of the thin thread of survival we’re hanging on to?
Are you okay or just hanging on by a thread? Do you have enough resilience to pull yourself up and out of swirling anxiety? A great resource for me has been “Managing Leadership Anxiety” by Steve Cuss, and his reminder that it’s critical to be able to notice where anxiety begins.
“The first step in noticing anxiety is to list how it manifests in your body so you can begin intervention early. Anxiety generally starts in either a racing mind, a spinning heart, or a tightening gut.”
Here is what’s true. Those around you that you trying to care for will pick up on your anxiety.
Anxiety travels.
Anxiety can become viral and go through the people in your bubble, your team or your organization faster crowd faster than you can blink your eye.
Your anxiety can quickly become someone else’s if you are not able to take a moment to step into a process of addressing the stimulus.
Here are 3 ways to get a grip when you are hanging on by a thread:
Ask God to help you choose the thoughts you will put in your mind the last thing before sleep and have readily available to access when you wake up.
Philippians 4:8 is a great reminder that you can choose to set your mind somewhere positive that will bring some relief and peace as you work through your day.
“Finally, brothers and sisters, fill your minds with beauty and truth. Meditate on whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good, whatever is virtuous and praiseworthy.”
Ask God to help you be present to the people around you even while you work through your anxiety. Steve Cuss says this:
“Internal anxiety creates distance between you and the person you are serving because you spend too much energy attending to your anxiety, or, worse yet you are in its grip but unaware of the squeeze.”
Ask God to remind you of His constant presence with you. God will never cause anxiety or remind you that you are hanging on by a thread. His arm is long enough to reach down to your anxious pit of despair and pull you up to level ground. He is the only one who can. Here’s some truth from Psalm 18:16-19, when your own anxious thoughts become your worst enemy.
“He reached down His hand from above me; He held me. He lifted me from the raging waters. He rescued me from my strongest enemy, from all those who sought my death,
for they were too strong. They came for me in the day of my destruction, but the Eternal was the support of my life. He set me down in a safe place; He saved me to His delight; He took joy in me.”
I pray that as you get a grip on the truth of God’s word and set your thoughts on His life-giving presence, you may still struggle with anxiety, but it will no longer have the final say.
Love you all,
Cathie