What do you tell yourself?

If you suffer from physical symptoms of anxiety or panic attacks what do you tell yourself to push through the hardest episodes?

In particular, I suffer from dizziness and a feeling of my legs feeling weak and I'm always worried I'm going to pass out. In such situations I always have trouble finding one thought that will calm me down to get through it. What have you found to work for you?

Shellsy

I’ve made a list of things to say to myself and over the years have added to it. I look at my list every day before I go out. My anxiety was a fear of walking before others. I always felt I had to walk perfectly before everyone in order to keep them from knowing that I had anxiety. When anxiety comes on, my walk would become very awkward, my legs shake, and it becomes very difficult to keep going forward. My mind seems to “attach” or “latch on” to certain people that would trigger my anxiety, especially young people and peers. Here is my list:

• You just have to get up with confidence and accept whatever you got as if you were at home.

• Do not listen to a lie. SNUFF OUT ALL LIES. Pray away all lies.

• The flesh knowing fear is irrelevant when the mind knows the Spirit.

• All zones are safe zones. All people are safe. All moments are safe.

• Do not attribute to another person power they don’t have; power that God did not give them.

• Self-negativity is a lie.

• Do not hide!!!!

• Empower yourself with the power God gave you.

• Jesus healed you. Jesus empowers you.

• I will make up my mind beforehand to not worry.

• Today’s power does not rely on yesterday’s failures or successes.

• Do not bow down in fear to anyone.

• God did not give the spirit of fear: just as God did not give power over anyone that I would have to bow down in fear to, so too God did not give fear itself power that I should bow to it. Fear has no power over me who is in Christ.

• Father bless my initial steps with grace and power that my other steps may follow; in Christ I pray, Amen.

• Do not fear non-perfection.

• Let others reject or bash you, not yourself. As long as you don’t, = success.

• Do not assume others looking at you mean anything or will take away your strength.

• To whom of these should I bow down in fear to? To whom of these did God give power over me?

• By feeling comfortable in your own skin you win. Feel good about self.

• They have no power at all.

• Your position in Christ gives you power: Jesus’ power.

• Empower no one.

• Self-negativity only comes when in the presence of others. Most likely because I do not know them or really know myself and my potential before them.

• It is all about accepting self.

• To sum all of these up: believe in yourself and that you’ve been empowered by God.

• Meditating on depressed thoughts cannot heal depression. Meditate only on peace to be set free from anxiety.

• Accept your current state as how you would walk if you were at home.

• Feel comfortable in your own skin and you will have no fear at all.

• Do not believe the negative thoughts.

• Do not ponder others’ peace, it only weakens you.

What are some things you tell yourself Shellsy?

Well I struggle a lot with finding the right things to tell myself.

I've found that:

Jesus will give me the strength to get through this

helps a lot. Other things that help:

-I've been through this a million times. I can make it this time.
-Fake it 'til you make it.
-Even if my legs are wobbly they'll get me there.

I also try to distract myself with songs I've listened to recently - I find if I sing them in my head they're a great distraction, particularly positive, uplifting songs.

shellsy

Those are good things to tell yourself. Having something to tell yourself is a huge part of healing. I believe that anxiety made me an analytical person. I became analytical through necessity to try to come up with resolutions to overcome my situation. Finding the right thing to tell yourself can give you a lot of power and confidence when anxiety tries to show itself. I think to find these helpful statements take analyzing what exactly gives you anxiety. You'll have to analyze the root causes of the triggers. When you get at the root, you can then come up with power statements from those roots. Make a list of these statements and add to that list as more come to mind. Meditate on the list everyday before you go out.

God will help you come up with the list. Pray for God to reveal to you the statements you need to counteract the bad thoughts. Pray for God to reveal the root causes of your anxiety and the counterstatements against them. Keep this in mind: Truth heals. Jesus said, "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." That pertains to even our anxiety. Pray for God to reveal to you all truth. To open your eyes to the truth that you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. God's Word is truth. And pray that he shows you all the lies that you wrongly accepted as truth and that He gives you the power over every single lie. Pray that God takes away the power from all lies against you. Satan's only weapon against us is his lies. But no lie has power over us. The power only comes when we accept the lie. So ask God to give you a lot of truth statements that you can meditate on everyday that will lead to setting you free. God bless you.

How true statesman, I am very analytical with my anxiety. I analyze every little tingle or twinge. I just wish I could be more logical with my analysis. If my legs start to shake I tend to think "something's terribly wrong, my legs shouldn't be shaking" instead of thinking, "It's anxiety and adrenaline is making my legs shake...it won't last forever." It's hard to know where to place your thoughts when your mind is racing and sometimes it's hard to compose one clear thought and to concentrate on it.

Yesterday I found myself singing the chorus to Carrie Underwood's "Jesus Take the Wheel" when I was anxious at work. I allowed myself to hand over control to him and I found anxiety immediately released it's grip from me! It's amazing what a little faith can do!

Do you have any hints or guides for starting to read the Bible? Whenever I start to read it I get very confused with all the different people and the old time terminology. Is there anything that really helped you start to understand it?

Shellsy

Hi Shellsy. God blessed us with many good, accurate and easily readable translations these days. The first place to start understanding the bible is getting a translation best for you. Note that each translation has its own specified purpose. Some seek accuracy and they are called word for word translations. Others seek readability, and they are thought for thought bibles. Others seek combinations of both. I always recommend people should have more than one different type and study from one, but reference the others. I study from the NIV (New International Version), but reference others.

In my opinion, the NAS (New American Standard) and the ESV (English Standard Version) are among the most accurate. The NLV (New Living Version) is the most readable for understanding. The NIV is a good combination of readability (thought for thought) and accuracy (word for word).

Secondly, while reading, always pray James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” This verse is a promise. God will give us the understanding of His word just for asking. And he will not bring up an accusation of sin and deny us this request. In fact, if we are guilty of sin, the understanding of the bible is the very thing we need to correct it. That is why it says the God will give this without finding fault and it WILL be given him. This verse tells us to pray and ask for it.

Thirdly, the Holy Spirit guides us in understanding God’s Word. So ask for both God to reveal the understanding to you, but also that He continually fills you with the Spirit to help guide you.

Get a bible that includes study commentary. They help well to illuminate text and explain the historical findings behind passages. And find a good spiritual study partner, if you can. And finally, listen to great radio ministers such as Dr. Tony Evans, Dr. David Jeremiah, and Rodney Maiton. These things will tremendously boost your bible knowledge and growth.

I just wanted to give a word about your shaky knees. My problem is a shaky walk when I get nervous and others take note, increasing my anxiety, and making the walk much worse. The bible teaches that the body (the flesh) is separate from the spirit. We are the spirit and not the flesh. How we feel is all from the flesh. We cannot control how we feel. But the truth and reality is what God says that he did for our spirit, which was empower it with peace, and conquering power. We need to focus our minds on the Holy Spirit in us and the fact that He empowers our spirit despite of how the flesh feels. Eventually the flesh will start to feel how the mind governs it, but that may take time, but in the meantime, keep your mind on the Spirit, and not the flesh. The flesh accepts lies, the Spirit doesn’t. And Jesus said, “Then you will know the truth, and that truth will set us free.”

Thank you Statesmen, those were very insightful and powerful suggestions. Thanks for your help and I'm really glad I found this site. Planning on looking for a bible with commentary soon.

Thank you,

shellsy