Holding your pieces together

"Casting all of your anxieties on him because he cares for you."

1 Peter 5:7

Imagine being a puzzle. There are going to be countless influences on your life. People are going to influence you. Life experiences are going to influence you. Your own perception and interpretation of the world are going to influence you. When do you start allowing God to influence you and put these pieces together, along side you? Not for you. But with you.

Life gets hectic, and then to add depression and anxiety on top of it can only add to the chaos. Using the puzzle analogy, there are times that the pieces will not always fit together perfectly, there might be a few holes along the way, and then there may be some streaks of piecing together piece after piece, after piece. And then a period where pieces are present but don't fit or make sense. There will be times that everything is going smoothly, and then out of no where the puzzle feels like it is falling apart, it is not fitting together. During these times you may want to force the pieces into place. During these times you may want to give up on the puzzle all together. Both, are options. But they only solve the right now moment. This is what is called life. This is part of the daily makeup of your unique journey.

One of the ways that mental health impairs the puzzle making process is the side effects of depression and anxiety. Lack of interest. Lack of motivation. Negative thinking. Racing thoughts. Poor judgement. Poor impulse control. Poor decision making. Inability to make basic decisions. Inability to sustain interpersonal relationships. Etc. It also creates a state of urgency, a need to make things work out right now. Rather than allowing them to work out in God's time. You may find yourself again wanting to force things to fit your perception. Force pieces to fit together, when they just simply won't connect. One of the ways that you work to improve in these areas is through coping.

Coping skills are essential in working through and managing depression and anxiety.These skills can help make the hectic life more manageable. These types of skill help to decrease the symptoms of depression and anxiety, take the focus off of the chaos and put it into something more pleasing and interesting. They are a healthy distraction from the path that is taking you to a deeper, darker experience. A place many who experience depression and anxiety do not want to go. These skills create tools to stop that momentum and turn it around. One of the things that happens though, is that these coping skills start working, and then often you stop using them because you are "fine." Finding out a way to utilize these skills daily for when life gets tough, and when it does not get tough.

1 Peter 5:7 reads: "casting all of your anxieties on him because he cares for you." He calls for your anxieties and your experiences of depression, so that you might make time and have time for those things that are important to you. Spending time with others. Exercising. Cooking. Trying something new. Spending more time with Him. When the focus is on the symptoms that are being experienced, it is hard to take that focus anywhere else. This list from "Your Life Your Voice from Boys Town National Hotline" gives 99 coping skills that can be used when life gets to you. Using these skills as a preventative tool, rather than as a fixing tool. Catching triggers before they catch you.

Reflection:

How do you manage those times that putting yourself together is a challenge?

What coping skill can you implement into your routine this week, this month?

What has stopped you from coping in the past?

How does a relationship with Him, help you in coping and finding time to give yourself a break?

Prayer:

Lord, there are times that I feel like I am falling apart. My life feels so out of sorts. I feel like anything I do, pieces just keep crumbling before me. I have tried to manage it on my own. But Lord I know that You are there for me. To take my anxieties and feelings of depression away. You have asked for them. You have reached out for them. And I have still held onto them, in fear, in worry, in concern, because I have wanted control. Lord, now here I am, handing them to you. Maybe slowly, one at a time. But I am handing them to You. I pray that others will be able to hand them over to You too. So that they may feel the love and desire that You have for them. Lord, as I look at this list of things that I can do, I know that in all of them I can find a relationship with You and that in that I can find hope and healing. Lord please be with those who are fighting that many know little about. But that You are fully aware of and present with them in. I ask this and the prayers on my heart, in Your son's name. Amen.