Anxiety.
Physically, it’s miserable. Emotionally, overwhelming. Relationally, disruptive. And the accompanying thoughts? They can absolutely hijack your mind. A mild concern of I hope they are safe traveling can spiral into intrusive images of the worst possible scenarios. Waiting for routine lab results can plummet into fears of incurable disease.
Yet, when you share what you’re going through, perhaps you’ve been met with hurtful responses that minimize and misunderstand instead of help. Just pray more. If your faith were stronger, you wouldn’t be so anxious. If only you were more spiritually mature you wouldn’t feel this way. Or simply: Stop it.
If only anxiety were that simple.
There are many strategies available for addressing anxiety symptoms, but there is an important first step that is often overlooked: reframing how you think about anxiety. Begin with these three questions:
1. Do you see anxiety as your enemy?
Our capacity to experience anxiety is a helpful function as part of the “threat detection system” in your brain and body that was created to keep you safe from harm. When anxiety is present, your body is doing what it was designed to do: seek safety.
But, for some of us, that threat detection system runs in overdrive, constantly elevated in the background. Or it triggers false alarms by predicting danger that isn’t there.
Anxiety is not your enemy. You were created with the capacity to detect potential threats and seek safety.
2. Do you think of anxiety as just a feeling?
Anxiety is much more than one feeling. Anxiety is a complex combination of physical symptoms, a variety of emotions, and accompanying thoughts that look different for each person. And anxiety can show up differently depending on the situation. The underlying causes of anxiety are also unique for each person and situation, and there is typically more than one cause triggering anxiety symptoms. Some of these are under your control and some are not.
For example, a chronic illness that triggers anxiety is not in your control. However, it is possible to reflect on which aspects of life remain within your control, such as how you care for yourself. The amount of coffee I drank on an empty stomach this morning, which resulted in some pretty intense physical symptoms of anxiety? That was totally in my control.
The complexity of anxiety is an invitation to pay attention and curiously reflect on your experience.
3. Do you try to avoid anxiety?
Anxiety feels miserable, so our first instinct is often to avoid it. This can especially be the case if you’ve ever been told that anxiety itself is a sin or something that “spiritually mature” people don’t experience.
One of the most important principles to remember in addressing your anxiety is, “Avoid avoiding!” Avoiding situations that trigger anxiety may provide some temporary relief but make the anxiety worse over time. What helps is learning to sit with the discomfort of challenging emotions and physical symptoms. In the moment, it feels like the intensity of the experience will never end. But it will. Emotions come and go. Peak and subside. Every time.
When you sit with this incredible discomfort, you can be comforted by a faithful God. Anxiety is not a sign that God has abandoned you. It is an opportunity to invite him in. You are known and loved by a sovereign God who wants to meet you in that experience. His wisdom is available to you as you seek to better understand your experience of anxiety.
Anxiety is an invitation to engage with God’s comfort and wisdom.
Perhaps you’ve struggled with anxiety for years, trying to rid yourself of it. Maybe you’ve tried to avoid dealing with it, only for it to wake you in the middle of the night, heart racing and panicking. Or perhaps it surfaces at the most inopportune moments, like right before an important meeting or while you are simply walking through the grocery store. It’s miserable. No wonder you’ve considered it your enemy and something to be exterminated and avoided. But what if you could approach it differently?
Anxiety is not your enemy. Anxiety is information.
Reframing anxiety is where we begin.
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See Anxiety Through a Practical, Clinical, and Biblical Lens.
Reframing Anxiety, by Karen Roudkovski, equips you to approach anxiety with curiosity, compassion, and confidence, helping you glorify God, in whom you have been fearfully and wonderfully made.
Drawing from clinical experience and personal insight, Karen offers practical tools to help you notice and regulate anxious patterns, create space between thoughts and feelings, and replace avoidance with grounded, faith-filled awareness—so you can experience greater calm, resilience, and care in your daily life.
Learn more about the book and how to purchase here.
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