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Three Methods that Helped Me Conquer Anxiety
I became aware of my anxiety, ironically, when suddenly I had less to fear. I found myself a single mother of four wonderful daughters and free of a narcissistic and cruel ex-husband. I was so used to feeling numb that when I began to reconnect with my emotions, all the fear I lived with for years came to the surface. My approach to life, similar to my father’s, is to get a few books on a topic and begin to educate myself, but somehow specific methods for curing anxiety proved elusive. The one thing that kept popping up in my research is that the brain is plastic, and we have…
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Imagination and Prayer: How to Encounter Jesus
I still remember the river we saw while on vacation in Yosemite my junior year of high school. The river’s perfectly clear waters shot past in a narrow channel, about hip deep. The icy cold chilled my parent’s feet as well as my brother’s, and mine as we sat on the edge. My mother, brother, and I decided to jump in. The cold rushed over me and after a few minutes, I got out shivering, but with the endorphin rush that comes from a dunk in freezing water. The memory of that state of well-being has stayed with me my whole life. I felt fully alive at that moment and…
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Prayer as a Competitive Sport
Sometimes it is possible to read too many books on one subject. One’s head gets filled with all theory and no practice. I found myself in this position a number of years ago when I had read as many books on prayer as I could get my hands on. I became very sensitive to the various approaches to prayer and observed carefully the people around me as they prayed. Some seemed to be in earnest, actually too earnest, as if trying to prove their sincerity. Others shouted at the devil, and still others read long and eloquent prayers out loud. The cool pastors were all very casual as if talking…
Healing Through Art & Words
