Have you ever tried to run with weights or in harsh, difficult weather that makes a simple jog complicated? That’s what it is like to try to live life with burdens. You have a loving heart right? You care about people and have concerns for people right? I mean you aren’t a robot. Are you?
But with all of that care and concern, do you ever feel like it’s too much? I’ll be honest, I often feel bogged down by worry, fear, care and concern. It’s as if worry and fear are bitter winds keeping me from being able to press forward.
I have two younger brothers who mean the world to me. I was heavily involved in raising and taking care of them from a young age. Although they are not my children, it often felt and still feels like they are. So much so that they have even deemed me their second mom.
As an older sister who is about to be a mom to her own child, I find myself brooding over hundreds of thoughts about everyone’s well being. Will my child have or be this or that? Are we prepared to be parents? Are we creating the right environment for our child? Will my brothers make this mistake or that mistake?
Can you relate? Before we know it, we can spend hours, days and years worrying about our loved ones or about whether or not we have enough money or if we’re behind on investing in our retirement and how we’ll get out of debt. Worry and fear are crippling and it’s up to us to overcome it and choose to release our burdens. We can’t run into 2019 with 2018 holding us back and we can’t fully enjoy what 2019 has instore with 2020 and 2056 blocking our runway!
Can we make a decision together to live for today and not tomorrow or next week? Can we decide to let go of the reins and live without worry? Here are some things we can do.
- Breathe. Breathing seems overrated when your lungs are busy with worrisome hyperventilation. Let’s stop gasping when we finally come up for air after drowning ourselves in our fearful thoughts. How about we don’t even get in the pool of worry in the first place. Let’s choose to stop, and deeply breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth, letting go as we exhale.
- Talk to yourself. Whether it’s out loud in the grocery store’s parking lot or silently in your bedroom, coach yourself. Remind yourself that you are not in control of what your spouse, children nor parents do with their lives. All you can simply do is leave your burdens at the feet of the Almighty.
- Pray. OMG! Prayer has saved me from several extreme panic attacks. Without prayer, I would be curled up in a ball, in a ditch somewhere, with the weight of my cares pushing me further into the earth’s soil. Pray for them. Pray for you. Pray for your mind!
- Get the right resources. I loved reading Joyce Meyer’s Battlefield of the Mind! It certainly was a treat. Read it yourself and you’ll see the difference it makes when it comes to controlling your thoughts and emotions. Sometimes the right book or post is the break from our thoughts that we truly need.
- Trust God. When I start to worry about people or important decisions, I have taken on the responsibility to make sure everything turns out okay. That’s not my responsibility and the good news is, it’s not yours either. When my brothers would call or text me in the middle of the night because they were having a hard time and I’d miss it, I would feel like the world’s worst sister. Immediately, I would start thinking of all the things that could’ve happened to them because I didn’t answer. What if I never get to apologize for not answering? If you do this too, stop it, please! You’ll worry yourself sick. Trust the only one who knows the numbers of hairs on your loved one’s precious little head (see Luke 12:7). He’s the same one who will help you save enough to retire in thirty years and to lead you to the right decision about quitting your job and whatever else you’re facing today, tomorrow as well as next week.
This year, we can choose to live life free of worry, fear and heavy burdens? Lay your burdens down today and refuse to pick them up again! Will you do this with me? If you’re on board with leaving the weight of your burdens behind, let me know in the comment section below!
Thanks for reading and joining me in living stress and worry-free!
