Anxiety | Grit and Grace Life

In These Challenging Times, What if God Has a Purpose?

It seems that every conversation I find myself in has this sentiment as part of the discussion: “It’s been another crazy year, hasn’t it?” We seem to be looking at one another with disbelief, uncertainty, and discomfort. What do we do when we meet? What should (or shouldn’t) we say? Are we wearing masks, shaking hands, bumping elbows? Do we skate around the issues of injustice, destruction, hopelessness, and mankind divided, seemingly forced to take sides? Even saying “mankind” is currently taking a side. Are we mumbling through conversations because there is fear on every front—fear of misunderstanding or even harm? I step back from these encounters and think, “What is God doing?” In my lifetime, there have never been challenging times […]

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PTSD Threatened Our Love Story—Finding Help Saved It

By Rachel Hagstrom / Life & Culture, Audio Articles

(Listen to the audio version of this article here.) Near the end of 2007, a group of girlfriends and I took a trip to Hawaii. A few days later, I met my future husband in a restaurant that stood across from the iconic Waikiki Beach. The chords of a ukulele flavored that night. Sweet combinations of coconut-fragranced sunscreen and fried onions wafted through the restaurant, dulling the more pungent scents of sweat and spilled beer. A vibrant, three-dimensional painting of a “merman” hung on the wall behind me. Pete didn’t try to hit on me in a creepy way. Instead, he used humor—the gateway to my heart—and pointed to the painting while he referenced a line from the movie “Zoolander.” His back

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Ask Dr. Zoe — Going to Therapy Gives Me Anxiety, Please Help!

By Dr. Zoe / Ask Dr. Zoe

‘Sam’ Asked: Dear Dr. Zoe, I’ve been in therapy for going on two years now. I get anxiety thinking about what I should talk to my therapist about. He is nice and helpful, but there’s a few things that he just doesn’t get about my life and sees differently. I like that he challenges me to think differently, but there are parts of my life that I think you just don’t understand unless you’re living them. Sometimes I get anxiety just thinking about what I should talk to him about. I feel like I’ve gotten better enough, but I worry that I’m just lying to myself. I get anxiety thinking about what I should talk to my therapist about. Why have

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If You Deal With Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) Try These 4 Tips

By Katie Loudermilk Roberts / Life & Culture

My husband, Montana, and I went to New York over the summer of 2021. We were celebrating our one-year anniversary of marriage and my recent graduation for my bachelor’s degree in journalism. On our first day, we sat in a local diner trying to plan out our week so we could soak in as much of the city as we could. I am the planner in the relationship, so I was on my phone searching for fun things to do so I could coordinate our itinerary for the week. Montana was fascinated with the busy vibes of the city and kept saying “Look at that!” or “Oh wow, look at that!” I was getting frustrated because I was focused on planning, and

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How to Find Peace and Purpose in an Out of Control World with Dr Zoe – 164

By Smart Living with Grit and Grace / Podcast

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | TuneIn | RSS | More Darlene Brock and Julie Bender call on licensed psychotherapist and life coach Dr. Zoe Shaw to find out how we can begin to find peace and purpose in a world we can’t control. It’s no secret that the world feels a bit crazy right now. With everything going on in politics and the news, it’s easy to feel anxious and overwhelmed in your personal life. Rather than shrinking back, Dr. Zoe urges us to guard our minds and step into our strength and our convictions. She explains how we can better listen to others, refocus our energy out of the negative and combat the things that

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3 Ways to Face Your Worst Fears, and Overcome

3 Ways to Face Your Fears and Overcome

By Kitti Murray / Faith

I’ve written a book several editors like (but won’t publish) about how dying is essential to the emotional, spiritual, and even sexual health of marriage, and how I discovered this during the multiple times my husband’s physical health made me face my fears regarding death. Here’s a brief laundry list of those times: Cancer at 23, when I was his 21-year-old almost wife. Heart attack at 38, when I was 36 and the mother of his four, young children. First of many heart stents in his late 40s when I was in my mid-40s. And then at 52, when I wasn’t quite 50, major heart surgery. A tiny little stroke and a carotid artery stent at 56, when I was 54. I’ve

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In a Changing World, We Can Rest Assured That God Remains the Same

By Darlene Brock / Faith

It feels like we have been thrown to the bottom of life’s ocean by the circumstances that surround us. Unrest, political conflict, shifting truth, and polarization on virtually every subject have been hitting us from all sides, as if we are in an emotional tsunami without end. The feelings of uncertainty, fear, and even hopelessness ebb and flow weekly, even daily. We didn’t know it when the shift began in the spring of 2020, but the world as we have known it has been altered. I don’t see that becoming any less true in the days ahead. How to Find Hope When the World Seems Crazy Yet, I am not without hope. I have lived long enough to recognize God’s presence in

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Wise Words for Women in Our Grit and Grace Life – 162

By Smart Living with Grit and Grace / Podcast

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | TuneIn | RSS | MoreWith life traveling faster than we can keep up, many of us are facing storms that threaten to take our joy, sanity, and peace. What we all need right now are wise words for women to handle this grit and grace life. We don’t need a quippy cliché or a half-hearted platitude but real practical truths to apply as needed. To offer that, co-hosts Darlene Brock and Julie Bender take to the mic to share six insights on life that benefit every woman. Since they are taking a recording break for a few months, they wanted to leave you with these hard-won words of wisdom. After listening

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Ask Dr. Zoe – How Do I Stop Being a People Pleaser?

By Dr. Zoe / Ask Dr. Zoe

‘Paranoid and anxious’ Asked: Dr. Zoe, HELP ME! I know that this question, not even a question really, may seem bizarre and a no-brainier, but to me, it’s my life and I hate it! I’m such a people pleaser, always wanting to help someone out even if it means spreading myself far too thin. I’m always worried if someone doesn’t text me back, want to hang out, like my post on Facebook or return my phone calls that they are mad at me, secretly hate me, or they are laughing behind my back. I’m constantly paranoid about my friendships and even sometimes with my marriage. My anxiety will be so bad that I take it out on my husband and children. At

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This Is How God Matured the Anxious Girl I Used to Be

By Allison McCormick / Faith

In our home, we purge what has gathered in the corners of closets and the backs of drawers each year. We find new homes for jackets that haven’t been worn for the past few years, and we toss the reams of paper we no longer need. It is a freeing, satisfying time. This year my husband was looking through a box of treasures he’d collected over the past 40 years: cards from family members that have long since passed; notes from his son; handmade cards from children he’d coached. They all brought special memories of times he’d almost forgotten. At the bottom of the box was a letter addressed “Mac.” Seven pages of thoughts and emotions, handwritten, and badly faded. He called

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Why Your Self-Talk Drives Your Life (and How to Make It Work for You)

By Dr. Zoe / Life & Culture

Do you say mean things to yourself, but don’t know how to stop it? Can you think of a time when you know your self-talk got the best of you and sabotaged something really important (a job interview, a relationship, a business, or a dream)? Are you tired of holding yourself back because you can’t get control of your self-talk? You may be great at setting goals, starting relationships, or following your dreams, but it is impossible to accomplish them and keep your resolutions if you don’t get in control of your self-talk. Your self-talk drives everything in your life. I used to have crushing anxiety and fear. I have trained myself to be my best coach, supporter, and encourager. I have

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Ways to Rise Above Your Anxiety

By The Grit and Grace Team / Life & Culture

Do you struggle with anxiety? You’re not alone. The number of people who have made their battle with anxiety known is staggering. That doesn’t even account for those who are holding it inside. This may be personal to you, as it is to several of our writers. How do we combat anxiety? At Grit and Grace Life, we share our experiences and find ways to manage and cope. We have also asked our resident therapists for their expert advice. We hope these real-life stories offer you steps to overcome your anxiety. And, we want to encourage you that it’s not just ok to seek help—it’s often essential. We believe you can face this struggle head-on, find the answers you need, and pray that

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Leaning-into-Worship-Even-When-You-Have-a-Hurting-Heart

Leaning Into Worship With a Wounded Heart

By Meaghan Dawson / Faith

Normally, I am a girl who loves her worship. Set me up in the front row at church with the lights going and the praise pumping, and I will be hands up, tears rolling, scream-singing the words (because I know them all). I’ve lived enough life to truly understand the cost of His grace, the depth of my sin, and the beauty of His love, so worship could last for hours, and I would not complain. But as I sat in Bible study listening to two beautiful girls leading that day, my heart was in rebellion, willing me to resist. I was agitated. Annoyed. I didn’t want to worship. I wasn’t feeling the moment or the praise. Worship was not on my

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My Life Is a Canvas, God Is the Painter

By Rachel Hagstrom / Audio Articles, Faith

(Listen to the audio version of this article here.) For many of us, the new year is an opportunity for a fresh start. We’ll seize the newness of the season by taking intentional moments to reset and re-calibrate. We visualize what the next 365 days hold for us. Perhaps because I grew up in the home of an artist, I liken the new year to a blank canvas ready to be primed and painted with brilliant hues and brush strokes of far-off adventures, rough timelines, and enormous potential. The canvas is etched in lofty goals, dreams, and aspirations; our hopes and everything we resolve to one day achieve are saturated in its fibers. Each January, I’d have a vision and high ideals

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Is There Anything More Important Than Self-Love?

By Emily Valentine / Faith

Have you ever been told, “You just need to learn to love yourself,” after pouring your heart out to a friend about how discontent you are with yourself? I was recently talking with a couple girlfriends about real life aches and pains that left us feeling inadequate and empty, when one friend offered up the self-love philosophy as sincere, heart-felt advice to the other. She had personally experienced the crippling impact of self-hatred, and she was determined to make her outlook more optimistic and uplifting by exchanging her self-hatred for self-love. Since intentionally changing her thoughts to be more loving and accepting toward herself, rather than harsh and disapproving, she began to improve her own mental state, and she believed this could

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Dear Mom: I See Your Struggle With Depression

By Carolyn Gordon / Faith

Dear Mom, I see you. You’re fighting an invisible battle. A sickness that cannot be seen on an X-ray, no surgery to cut out the despair. You’re trying to take back what anxiety and depression have stolen. Life isn’t what we all expected it to be. Our family no longer lives under one roof. This season has been shrouded in guilt from the past, confusion for the future, and the loss of identities. This has been our family’s season in the valley, but some of us have found our way out quicker than others. The Mind Monster When I try to explain to my son what your “boo boo” is, he doesn’t understand why a superman band-aid and his kiss can’t make

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How a Simple Breath Prayer Can Calm Your Mind and Body

A Breath Prayer to Calm Your Mind and Body

By Rachel Hagstrom / Faith

We do it around 23,040 times a day and even more if we’re in a state of exertion. Our life cycles start and end with it, from our very first inhale at birth to our last exhale at death. I’m referring to the breath—the universal language of humanity and the vital force that fuels our existence. There’s no doubt that the breath is a majestic and miraculous phenomenon. Yet, most of us carry about our days largely disconnected from this incredible source of life, which can calm your mind and body. I first learned to pay attention to my breath as a third grader. I would lay awake at night, plagued with stomachaches and anxiety. In attempts to help calm me down,

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