HELPING YOU OVERCOME ANXIETY
anx·i·e·ty
/aNGˈzīədē/
noun
- a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.
“he felt a surge of anxiety”
A UNIQUE APPROACH TO REDUCING AND OVERCOMING ANXIETY
If you or someone you love is experiencing anxiety, you are not alone. The path forward can be hard to find but solutions are available to us when we know what we are looking for.
THRIVEtoday looks at root causes and what is happening in our physical brains to find solutions. As a Christian ministry, our niche is helping people develop the skills needed to rewire our brains to grow joy, peace, and connection so people can thrive in their lives and relationships with God and others.
Building these relational brain skills is a key component to lessening the symptoms of anxiety and preventing anxiety in the future.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind… – ESV, Rom. 12:2a
QUESTIONS AND FEELINGS IN THE MOMENT
Anxiety can result in loss of peace, worry, difficulty resting, and physical tension or tightness. We get stuck focusing on the things we are worried about and lack the ability to shift our attention to what is good and life-giving.
Do you ever find yourself thinking or experiencing the following?
“The world is uncertain right now, how do I handle that?”
“I want a Christian solution/perspective on anxiety.”
“How do I know I have anxiety?”
“I regularly feel afraid of the future.”
“I struggle to manage what I feel.”
“My brain is constantly busy trying to solve problems or find ways to reduce pain in my life.”
“I don’t feel peace in my body.”
“How do I help someone else who is struggling?”
“How to manage negative thoughts as a Christian?”
How do I manage anxiety?
If you are a Christian looking for peace, relational skills help us to receive perspective, joy, peace, appreciation, and greater awareness of God’s presence. As we develop these skills we start increasing our capacity to remain peaceful and joyful even during the tough times in life, and start to reduce and overcome anxiety.
Building habits to reduce anxiety is the solution. Each of our 5 foundational skills will start to build your emotional capacity that can help with anxiety:
- Skill 0 – The Relational Circuits. Checking that you are in the right frame of mind to connect relationally with others – a crucial step to all of your interactions.
- Skill 1 – Share Joy. Learning how to experience joy in every circumstance.
- Skill 2 – Simple Quiet. Build habits that foster peace and calm so you can rely on them later.
- Skill 4 – Create Appreciation. Healthy minds are full of appreciation.
- Skill 13 – See What God Sees. When we can see people and events from God’s perspective it leads to a life filled with hope and direction.
A PATHWAY TO DECREASING ANXIETY
Intro Video
In this segment of ‘How The Relational Skills Address My Biggest Problems’, we address the all too common issue of anxiety and the unique solution THRIVEtoday offers to help you overcome it in your life.
Free Webinar
Anxiety is becoming increasingly common in our world – we all experience racing thoughts, feelings of restlessness, and irritability from time to time. When we get stuck in these symptoms, it can greatly diminish our ability to thrive in our lives and relationship with God and others.
After-Event Course
Chris Coursey will lead you on the journey of understanding the inner workings of anxiety. He will shed light on the different ways anxiety shows up along with simple solutions you can put into practice. You will come away with practical steps to build your emotional capacity, which will teach you how to overcome anxiety. Learn to develop the skills you need to find traction and avoid spinning your wheels in the future.
Feedback from our resources
MORE RESOURCES TO HELP
When we strengthen our foundation, life starts to improve.
- COURSE: The Foundational 5 Introductory Course
- Check out this course to grow your capacity to better navigate the ups and downs of life with more joy and peace and less anxiety. As you take the course, notice which skills you want to continue growing and follow our additional resources for that skill on our Foundational 5 page.
- This course focuses on the 5 core skills to help you grow your capacity and build muscle mass relationally, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
- Visit our Foundational 5 page
- Learn more about the 5 skills we recommend you start with and begin your journey to transformation.
- Shalom My Body Video on YouTube
- Chris Coursey demonstrates the Shalom My Body exercises from Chapter 6 in The Joy Switch. Practice along with Chris. Watch what happens when you try these exercises. If your relational circuit is dimmed or going offline, you should notice more peace and clarity once your relational circuit is online again. These fun little exercises were developed by Ed Khouri for the Belonging module in the Connexus curriculum, with Dr. Jim Wilder, as well as the work and writings of Dr. Karl Lehman. Enjoy!
- Chris Coursey demonstrates the Shalom My Body exercises from Chapter 6 in The Joy Switch. Practice along with Chris. Watch what happens when you try these exercises. If your relational circuit is dimmed or going offline, you should notice more peace and clarity once your relational circuit is online again. These fun little exercises were developed by Ed Khouri for the Belonging module in the Connexus curriculum, with Dr. Jim Wilder, as well as the work and writings of Dr. Karl Lehman. Enjoy!
Our podcast addresses the topic of anxiety and related topics in these episodes:
- E20 Overcoming Anxiety
- Rebecca shares her story about how practicing relational skills has helped her when she feels anxiety, and helps her stay joyfully present in situations that were hard before.
- E8 The Importance of Quieting
- Chris tells us the importance of quieting, the effect of quiet on our bodies, and why quieting is the loudest thing you can do.
These 30-60 minute FREE WEBINARS address issues to do with anxiety, fear, and worry and how we can gain God’s perspective and use new tools to combat our anxieties:
- Stopping the Cycle of Anxiety
- Anxiety is becoming increasingly common in our world – we all experience racing thoughts, feelings of restlessness, and irritability from time to time. When we get stuck in these symptoms, it can greatly diminish our ability to thrive in our lives and relationship with God and others.
- When Life Feels Heavy and God Feels Fars
- Join Chris Coursey for a discussion on some of the reasons God can feel distant, especially in this current season. Receive hope that things don’t need to stay where they are and next steps for moving forward. (This webinar was followed up with the online event “Defeating Your Barriers to Jesus”)
- Finding Peace for the Pit of Your Stomach
- A discussion on finding peace in turmoil | Join Dr. Jim Wilder, Chris and Jen Coursey, and Michel Hendricks as they address the questions so many are asking in these traumatic, turbulent times. They will lead you through a practice exercise to find peace and God’s perspective, and you will learn relational solutions for navigating the circumstances that we are facing.
- Unlock Your Healing | The Hidden Gem of Quieting
- PART 2 | In part 2, Chris Coursey shares about a hidden gem that could make all the difference in your healing process. Learn how Skill 2 (Simple Quieting) can help you get unstuck, heal in greater ways, and sustain the healing you have received.
- Peace in a Pandemic
- How can we as believers reflect God’s peace to a fearful world? In this free webinar, Amy Brown will look at this balancing act – how to access God’s peace, then meet others in their fear without dismissing their feelings or falling into fear ourselves. Never before has the skill of seeing life from God’s perspective been more important!
- Let’s Make Peace Contagious
- There is a peace that passes understanding, and our world needs us to share that peace now. Join Amy Hamilton Glaser for this conversation and learn a simple 1-2-3 process to spread peace in your community and beyond.
- Emotions That Drain
- Negative emotions are, well, negative! We don’t like experiencing them. In this webinar we discuss the “low energy” emotions of shame, sadness, hopeless despair and disgust. Kitty Wilder shares her insights and experiences about how to stay yourself and return to joy from these negative emotions.
- Fighting Fear
- From the very beginning, God’s children have been fighting fear. In the Garden, Adam and Eve hid from their Creator instead of running to Him for help. Fear is one of the greatest weapons in the adversary’s arsenal to rob us from enjoying God’s presence and hinder us from reflecting God’s character. Fears are the arrows that poke holes in our joy balloons! Fears deprive us from reaching our full, God-given potential.
Find more webinars and videos on our YouTube channel.
While the following books do not overtly address anxiety, they do provide teaching and exercises that will help you to develop joy, peace, and capacity. Growing your emotional and mental capacity is a key ingredient to overcoming anxiety.
- BOOK: The 4 Habits of Joy-Filled People
- 15-Minute brain science hacks to a more connected and satisfying life. Are some people just born happy? Most of us grew up thinking that joy is random and fleeting, instead of something we can actually count on and build our life around.
- This book is an excellent resource for those struggling with anxiety as that is the life story lens Marcus is sharing from and these are in one sense the 4 habits that helped him with anxiety.
- BOOK: The Joy Switch
- How your brain’s secret circuit affects your relationships – and how you can activate it!
- BOOK: The 4 Habits of Raising Joy-Filled Kids
- Joy-filled kids aren’t always happy kids, but they do know how to work for and wait for what is truly satisfying in life.
- BOOK: Relational Skill in the Bible
- This fun, flexible, eye-opening Bible study focuses attention on what matters most in life: relationships! Grab some friends and go through this excellent book together.
- ARTICLE: Studies show that more than 31% of U.S. people will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lifetimes. Read the full article here
- If you’re struggling with anxiety you are not in the minority!
- COURSE: The Foundational 5 Introductory Course
- This resource provides simple, yet effective ways to gain momentum in your relational skills journey, so you can increase your capacity and stay relational on the good days and the hard days.This course focuses on the 5 core skills to help you grow your capacity and build muscle mass relationally, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
- AFTER-EVENT COURSE: Overcoming Anxiety in an Unsettled World
- Anxiety is becoming increasingly common in our world – we all experience racing thoughts, feelings of restlessness, and irritability from time to time. When we get stuck in these symptoms, it can greatly diminish our ability to thrive in our lives and relationships.