Coping with Holiday Stress & Self-Care: Day 2

Releasing Anxieties

When we ignore or cling to our difficult thoughts and emotions, our stress levels and emotions intensify. Acknowledging those thoughts and feelings, validating them, and then releasing them can help reduce your stress and painful emotions and free you to feel hope and joy. So, we encourage you to give this exercise a try.

1. Take a deep breath and release it slowly like you’re blowing bubbles.
2. Allow yourself to notice what you’re thinking and feeling. How are you feeling in your body? Do you notice any tension anywhere? Maybe in your shoulders, jaw, or stomach?
3. What emotions come up?
4. Now, close your eyes and imagine that you are sitting on a soft bed of leaves watching a quiet brook. Listen to the trickling of the stream flowing over the rocks. Take a slow deep breath and exhale.
5. Watch leaves lazily floating by. Each one of your thoughts is like one of those leaves flowing downstream.
6. When you notice an anxious or painful thought, pick up a leaf, name it that thought or emotion, then put it back down in the stream to release it to God. Watch it float out of sight.
7. Take a deep breath in through your nose and slowly exhale through your mouth.
8. Open your eyes. How do you feel?

Do this exercise each time throughout your day when you notice a hard emotion or thought. Release your worries to God and receive His help and comfort.

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7)

Dr. Todd and Kristin Evans are celebrating 22 years of marriage. They are award-winning authors, speakers, and parents of two children with complex needs. Their new book, How to Build a Thriving Marriage as You Care for Children with Disabilities will release in May 2024 by Baker Books. They both earned their MA in Christian Educational Ministries at Wheaton College in Illinois and have served together in full-time ministry in church, camping, and retreat settings. Todd received his PhD from Vanderbilt University’s School of Engineering and currently manages his own business, and Kristin earned her MSW from the University of Tennessee and is a Licensed Master Social Worker experienced in couples, child and family, substance abuse, and crisis counseling.