Tag: Anxiety
-
fear is (not) a liar
Fear is (not) a liarBy Lindsay L. O’ConnorI used to try to divorce myself from inconvenient feelingsthat seemed to:- stand in the way of my goals- threaten my connection with people I loved or depended on- make me uncomfortable.Those poor dears!They cowered in the dark, shoved down, covered up,sealed tight by shame, guilt, and anxiety.Do…
-
savior complex
O God, Be to my loved one what I have been trying to be but cannot. This is the prayer that surfaced while I had a precious 30 minutes alone for a walk this morning. Particularly for those of us who have more porous boundaries (empaths, HSPs, Enneagram numbers in the dependent stance, folks who…
-
unedited
What would you say if you stopped editing yourself? Not in a public forum, but just alone with your Self, and maybe even with God. Part of my deconstruction has been finding the safety to stop editing myself in what I share with God. I used to be so bound up in behaving correctly and…
-
rooted
RootedLife is change and all change is loss.Even gain is loss of the empty spacethat the new thing now occupies.The emptiness may have been unpleasant, but it was also familiar,and for many of us, familiarity breeds securitydue to a sense of predictabilityand control.Loss—and therefore, change—breaks us wide openas we’re confronted with the realitythat we are…
-
free play
Free PlayWhat would you do if you weren’t afraid? Those dear protectorsonly want to keep us safebut sometimes, they hem us in, behind and before, so our little world shrinkssmaller and smallerand we can’t see a way out anymore. Many times, what they want most in the world is to be heard, seen, acknowledged, validated.…
-
children’s books for mental health awareness month
May is Mental Health Awareness Month! I keep hearing disturbing stats about the recent decline in mental health for kids, teens, and adults. Of course, there are many ways we must address this individually and collectively, but these are some really beautiful books to support children’s mental health. They cover topics such as anxiety, depression,…
-
before you go
before you go Stay with yourselfStay with this momentStay with this holy unfoldingStay with this goodness.When your wise body tells you “This is good,”Stay. When your chest is wide open,expanding the width of the whole world,so entwined with creationthat the very breeze feels likethe breath expanding your lungs—Stay.Linger on this holy ground. When you glimpse…
-
words that come from silence
words that come from silenceby Lindsay L. O’ConnorI want words that come from silence,like when the world began.Words born in noise have their place, to be sure,but there is so much noisefrom reacting without much thought,without checking in firstwith the body, heart, and mind,to see how the message might be refinedin the furnace of our…
-
in the ring
In the RingLindsay L. O’Connor Well today, I was just fighting with God.I mean fighting. I woke up early, stomach upset,and was just “doing panic” for an hour.I reminded God of all the lovely ways God has helped me through panic before,but God would not be moved. “We’ve done this before,” I said.“Remember the reassurances?The…
-
Anxiety Dance
Anxiety Dance I used to think anxiety was a moral failure, a personal flaw, an indication of a lack of faith. I thought if I tried hard enough and prayed often enough, I could send her away, her departure the reward for my spiritual growth. Then, do you know, the more I tried to get…
Lindsay L. O'Connor 