How do you manage stress?
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Firstly, I’m not under great stress at the moment. And secondly, I think stress is part of life the way food and breathing is. Lions in zoos would probably be much happier out hunting than being cared for in a cage. But we think that animals don’t spend their time in unproductive ruminating. As humans, we can waste time worrying about what might go wrong in jobs, relationships, health, careers and so on.
So, in recent years, I’ve taken an intererest in things like mindfulness and cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). Even if you don’t have serious mental health problems, it’s still useful to find tips for handling stress. The funny thing is, long before I heard of mindfulness, I’d play music or play games, such as Tetris. And that has a similar impact to mindfulness – because you’re spending time focusing on something very simple instead of reliving the stress from work or anticipating what might happen tomorrow. In work, I always found it helpful to be among others who’d voice their frustrations or stressful feelings – so I didn’t feel so alone. And exercise, such as walking always helped me.
Some Christians like to tell people that the Bible is the answer to everything. It has the answer to the most important question – how to ensure that you’ll be in heaven. But much help with stress comes from common grace or common sense. So, an atheist or someone from another faith might be much better at handling stress.
But here are two passages that are somewhat helpful.
Philippians 4:4-7
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Matthew 6:33-34
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Some might read such passages and think that Jesus is offering a magical cure to stress. Jesus had quite a stressful life, as did the apostles and everyone in the early church. So, stress wasn’t eliminated. But beneath it all, we know that ultimately, it’ll be OK. I sometimes see this life as similar to playing a scary computer game – walking around dungeons being attacked by monsters 😀. But the game will eventually end, and I’ll be happy forever in heaven – or the new heaven and new earth – however you want to view it. And perhaps, we can learn to enjoy dealing with the challenges that this life throws at us rather than allowing them to upset us – or at least go some way down that road.
I sometimes mention this guy – Mark Williams, an Oxford Professor and Anglican Priest. He’s has some good resources on mindfulness. He doesn’t promote religion – it’s entirely secular. But even at a secular level, some meditation relates to gratitude, compassion and forgiveness, which relate to Christianity – but also other religions and general wellbeing.
Here’s his body scan meditation
I’ve sometimes heard Christians warn against meditation. They said that if you empty your mind, the devil will come into it. But meditation is about controlling your mind – it’s mindfulness – not mindlessness. If you worry about the devil, surely he’s gonna be more of a threat if you don’t maintain control. A body scan is quite simply sitting or lying and focusing on your toes etc. But there’s no reason why you can’t use that to calm yourself and then go on to meditate on helpful Bible verses. What you shouldn’t do is start thinking about things that might agitate you – like some insulting remark that someone made to you in church last Sunday or whatever. And you shouldn’t get upset if you’re not meditating perfectly.
Here are some hymns that might help with stress:
