Faith & Anxiety
Faith integrative therapy for anxiety in Colorado Springs
Physical Life vs Spiritual Life Principles
I have a bad reputation for killing plants. I try to keep them alive, but I just don't have a green thumb.
The other day my daughter looked at my most recent plant victim and jokingly whispered, "I'm sorry we brought you here to die." I jokingly said back in horror, "Don't say that! Speak words of life over this plant!" To which she exclaimed, "It needs water!! No words of life are going to save it!"
We had a laugh, but it instantly made me think about the concept of physical life vs spiritual life principles, and how we can end up frustrated and disillusioned when we try to apply spiritual solutions to physical life problems, or physical solutions to spiritual life problems.
For my dying dehydrated plant, no amount of prayer or "words of life" were going to save it. It had a physical problem, not a spiritual problem. It needed water to survive and without that practical need being addressed, my prayers would be futile.
Anxiety does not come from a lack of faith
A lot of my Christian clients come to me frustrated and disillusioned because they have been praying and applying Scripture to their anxiety faithfully for months, or even years, without any real change. Well meaning Christian friends have told them that anxiety is a problem of faith, and that if they would pray more, or trust more, or surrender more, then they would be healed. So they've tried and tried, but still come up short.
This often leads to them feeling like they are doing something wrong, or they are a bad Christian, or God's healing is for everyone but them, or even that God doesn't love them. But the problem is not with their faith. Anxiety does not come from a lack of faith - anxiety is a physiological response in your brain and body, and it often persists because applying only spiritual solutions to physical problems just doesn't work.
The Bible says that we exist as a body, a soul (mind & emotions), and a spirit.
Your body and your soul make up your physical life, and your spirit your spiritual life. They are all intertwined and each part impacts the others, so prayer and spiritual disciplines can absolutely impact your body and soul - but just like my plants need water to survive, sometimes your body and soul need very practical physical solutions as well.
From a Christian perspective, I always think of this in terms of how God created our brains and bodies to work a certain way. He created our physical being with physical needs, and ways to meet those needs practically. We understand this more intuitively with physical health than mental health. Most people wouldn't expect to eat whatever they want, never exercise or move their body, and still maintain physical health because they pray... most people accept that physical health requires physical disciplines to be stable.
Yet with mental health we tend to expect it to just be good, even if we do nothing much to support it. Or we think the way to stabilize mental health is just through faith and prayer. But mental health is part of your physical being, and also requires physical disciplines to keep it functioning in a healthy way.
When I show my clients how their brain and body work together to impact their mental health, and how to apply practical solutions and skills to change long standing patterns of anxiety, they find relief. When we're able to integrate these physical disciplines with spiritual disciplines, they tend to find the deeper and lasting healing that they've been seeking.
Integrating your physical life and spiritual life creates deep healing
I have clients come to me all the time who feel like they have tried everything to stop their anxiety and they are still stuck. Usually they are doing a lot of the right things, they may just be doing them in the wrong order, or they may just be missing one piece of the puzzle. I most often find that the missing piece is practical, physical life solutions that help to balance the brain and body. Adding this piece to the puzzle makes a tremendous difference, and usually brings quick relief.
