Trouble, trouble
I try to chase trouble but it's chasing me
Trouble, trouble
Trouble with a capital T
Way back in the late 1970s, when I first heard Horslip’s Trouble with a Capital T, I probably understood little about mental health. I certainly remember feeling anxious and down in the dumps as a teenager. Music has always been a great help to me. Perhaps, in a subtle way, it tells you that other people, and really cool people, can find life difficult too. I’d enjoy reading interviews with people like John Lennon, Johnny Rotten, and Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), and I wouldn’t feel alone.
I can’t say that I ever had severe anxiety, depression or mental health problems. But I see mental health in the way I see physical health. Some can have sudden, even fatal, serious issues. Others have long-term, milder, more chronic problems. And just as we can get short-term illnesses such as colds and flu, we can go through difficult periods when negative feelings loom large.
So, it’s part of life. The danger is that trouble can come with a capital T, and sometimes it’s we ourselves who put the capital T on it. One poor strategy is to always expect everything to be fine, or even perfect, and to attempt to immediately stamp out our negative thoughts and feelings. When the Apostle Paul asks us to rejoice in the Lord, I don’t think he’s presenting it as a key to perfect happiness. So many great Scriptural characters clearly found things tough in this life. Even Jesus himself was a “man of sorrows acquainted with grief”. Paul is asking us to be thankful for all that the Lord has done, is doing, and will do for us. That might help us to marginalize our negative feelings, but it doesn’t necessarily eliminate them.
Some years ago, I remember getting a bit burnt out at work. It was then that I started taking an interest in basic DIY strategies for mental health. It’s not always wise to deal with it on your own, but it’s good to have tools to address negative feelings. I still enjoy reading or listening to books such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Dummies or Mindfulness for Dummies. There was time when I felt a bit embarrassed about negative feelings as a Christian. Sometimes, in evangelical culture, people present the Christian way of life as the key to happiness. That’s very wrong. When we rejoice in the Lord, we simply rejoice in the fact that are lives are in God’s hands. We will be happy in heaven, but in this world, we face trouble. Jesus even warned us about that:
John 16:33
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
So, the war has been largely won, but it’s not quite over. People have compared the death and resurrection of Jesus to D-Day. From that point, everyone knew that the second world war was going to be won, but there were still battles ahead. Actually, the death of resurrection of Jesus makes the end much more certain than D-Day did. But the point is, we’re not going to be free of trouble. I sometimes think of someone asking me to randomly swap places with anyone around the world or down through history. I wouldn’t want to swap because I realize that I’m better off, even with all my little trials, than most of the billions of people who’ve lived on this planet.
When I was younger, I was more prone to want to chat to a Pastor or other Christians if I felt down. Nowadays, I address negative feelings by simply seeing them as negative feelings. If I get a sore throat, I cope by knowing that it’ll be gone in a few days. And if it’s something more chronic, like ongoing back pain, my experiences is that these things eventually go too, or we learn to cope.
I personally know two people from church circles here in Limerick who’ve created resources for coping with physical and mental issues.
And I mentioned the following guy a few times on this blog – Mark Williams. I bought his book on Mindfulness back in 2014. He’s Professor of Psychology and Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre at the University of Oxford, and he’s also an ordained priest of the Church of England. I’m prone to wonder whether people are evangelical Christians like me, but for the purpose of mental health, it doesn’t matter what he is. I’d probably avoid someone if they were from some weird and wacky cult, but the parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us that help can come from anywhere.
So what else do I do? Here are a few useful strategies
- Because negative emotions can show up in me physically, I try to calm the body to calm the mind. Deep breathing and body scans don’t necessarily yield instant results, but I’m confident that they can be helpful over time. And I enjoy doing them. I knew little about that when I was young. Maybe I even saw it as a little sinister.
- I enjoy walking, and that always calms me.
- Performing some simple repetitious activity is always helpful for me. It mightn’t be classified as mindfulness, but it has a similar effect on me. Examples include playing the guitar, especially following the notes and chords on a video or Rocksmith. Computer games can have a similar effect. Some people are negative about fun and games, but like sleep, I think such things are essential for our mental wellbeing.
- We can externalize what’s inside by identifying the feeling, and even writing it down. To be honest, I rarely bother writing things down, but the tool is there for me if I ever need it. I remember reading about a strategy where you write down the negative thoughts or feelings. Then, you write down the opposite of these – what you might want in a dream world. And then write down something in between that’s probably a realistic view of your feelings or thoughts. Even without doing analysis, identifying the feeling is helpful in itself. I can lie back and see positive feelings as little pretty white clouds and negative feelings as dark clouds. And in-between feelings will be slightly gray clouds. In this way, I can create a little distance and not allow feelings and thoughts to dominate me.
- I spend a lot of time reflecting on my life. I try to identify what happened every year, every month, and sometimes even specific days. Music is a great help to me in this. Today, I’ll be looking back at 1993. Because I’m at a distance from all these experiences, I can enjoy reflecting on the good times and bad times. I just wish that I had these magical feelings about the present, but maybe I will in another decade, if I live that long. And even if I don’t, I’ll be in heaven. Things will be better then in any case 😀.
If I’m a Christian, why don’t I just rely on God? Well, think of Jesus when he was on the highest point of the temple. Satan wanted him to jump off and rely on a miracle to save him. Jesus resisted. He reminded Satan of the command “Do not put the Lord, you God, to the test”. I assume that he simply walked down the stairs. If God supplies natural ways to heal, we can pray for easier ways, but we can also rely on all the natural resources that he provides. And we shouldn’t see such things as a threat to our spiritual wellbeing. Imagine a world where nothing could ever be fixed. I’m happy that I live in a world and in a body where issues are often addressed without me even realizing that there was an issue in the first place.
Here are hymns that I find helpful when I have negative feelings, or even when I don’t. They help shape my overall outlook on life, which might even help me avoid negative feelings and cope with them when they arise.
Hibernia Gospel 