Worry, Stress, and Anxiety: What’s the Difference?
Emotions like worry, stress, and anxiety have important functions in our lives. We tend to label some emotions as “good” and others as “bad,” but all our emotions serve important purposes in our life experiences. The word “emotion” means to “move or excite,” so when we feel an emotion something is happening in our minds and bodies. We use words like “heartache” and “gut-wrenching” to describe our experiences because emotions involve our physical bodies too.
So, what is happening when we feel something? Our emotions are providing information to us about our circumstances, and we need to pay attention to them. But just because we listen to our emotions doesn’t mean we have to act on them. They are telling us something, but we often assume if we ignore a feeling it will go away. However, hurt feelings don’t vanish, and they don’t heal themselves. Oftentimes, emotions turn into something more significant and can come out in disordered ways like explosive anger or debilitating anxiety. We need to pay attention to our emotions to connect our current circumstances to what’s happening in our bodies.
Emotions like worry, stress, and anxiety can impact us physically. But they often get a bad rap. Worry, stress, and anxiety play an important role in our lives. Worry is the thinking part of anxiety. It has to do with thoughts. We say to ourselves, “I’m worried that she is mad at me.” Worry isn’t necessarily a bad feeling though. Worry helps us to solve problems. For example, if you worry about something, it will prompt you to action: “I’m worried that my back door isn’t sufficient, and someone could break in. So, I’m going to get it repaired soon.”
Sometimes our worry can grow into more extreme thoughts and concerns that are out-of-touch with reality. Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6:25 not to worry about our lives including worrying about what to drink or wear. Corrie Ten Boom famously said, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.” Our over-concerns don’t accomplish anything and can drain us physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
What about stress? Stress is the body’s physiological response to fear. Feelings of stress arise inside our bodies when we are reacting to something dangerous. Stress can be both instinctual and unconscious. It can also serve a purpose and help us to escape real threats. For instance, sweating from stress helps us stay cool; and adrenaline can help us to perform or motivate us to action if we need to run away. However, if stress is chronic, if we over-stress, it can have serious consequences like high blood pressure, heart disease, and other illnesses.
Anxiety is at the intersection of these 2 responses.
Anxiety can help to alert us if we are in danger. If you are standing on the edge of a cliff, your anxiety about falling will make you step back from the edge. Our fears can help to protect us in dangerous situations. Fear can be instructive, and the Bible assumes that we will experience fear in this life:
“When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you” (Ps. 56:3)
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life” (Matt. 6:25).
But our anxiety can also have negative consequences. Anxiety is rooted in the limbic system, the part of the brain that manages our emotions and relationships, and it can feel like a foreboding dread. Anxiety becomes disordered when we feel like we are in danger, but we are actually safe. Our anxiety kicks in when we are stuck in a small space like an elevator, and we feel like we might die if we don’t get off. Anxiety is telling us that being in a small space is dangerous and deadly. If our anxiety dominates our lives, our world will shrink because we will orient all our decisions on avoiding fearful circumstances. To manage our anxiety, we need to address both the worry and stress in our lives. So, what can we do?
Here are a few skills to practice to address the worry, stress, and anxiety in your life:
-Don’t avoid things that are fearful. Avoidance grows anxiety. Every time you get anxious and avoid something and survive, your brain increases anxiety in that area. Avoidance can make your world very small and unhappy.
-Build emotional muscles. When you make facing your fears a normal part of your life, it does get easier. Our brain is like a big muscle, and the more your practice something, the stronger those neural pathways get. For example, if you have social anxiety and dread going to a large social gathering, plan to meet a friend ahead of time so you’re not alone.
-Choose something that matters more. If you feel anxious before a soccer tryout or a big presentation, remember what matters most to you. Practice the willingness to do something that is challenging and might cause you a little anxiety. Anxiety isn’t dangerous, it’s uncomfortable. Courage doesn’t mean the absence of fear but choosing something that is more important than avoiding fear.
-Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness helps you to sit with your experience, your emotions, and your thoughts without needing to escape or avoid them. We live in a very distracted way and mindfulness helps us to focus on one thing at a time. The Bible instructs us to have the “mind of Christ” (Phil 2:5) and to “take every thought captive” (2 Cor. 10:5). When God commissioned Joshua to lead the Israelites into the promised land, He said, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Josh. 1:8).
Giving attention to our thoughts helps us to combat our fears, and meditating on a single verse or practicing stillness in prayer are good mindful practices. Lectio Divina (Divine Reading) was introduced in the sixth century by Saint Benedict and his followers. This form of meditation and prayer comprised several steps by which they focused on a particular text, thinking about it from various angles, praying with it, and meditating on God’s message to them through that passage.
Here’s an example of Lectio Divina:
Silence
Take time to be silent: prepare to communicate with God as He expresses Himself to you in the passage of Scripture you have chosen. After a period of quiet, ask God’s help as you enter this session of meditative prayer.
Read
Read a short passage of Scripture aloud several times slowly. Allow its words and meanings to sink into your soul.
Meditate
Meditation is like chewing. It is slow and thorough. Write notes about what you see in this passage. Make connections between the various sections. Ask yourself, “What do these words from God say?” “What do they mean?” Place who you are and what you do next to this passage and ask God to examine you. Continue to write your findings.
Prayer
Pray using the passage as an outline for your prayer. Read the passage phrase-by-phrase, responding to God after each phrase or verse.
Contemplation
Wait in stillness once more. Ask that God bring to your mind any areas of your life that you need to shape more closely to His design as revealed in this passage. Contemplate God’s love and power as it is revealed here.
Live It Out
What precisely ought you to be believing, thinking, and doing as a result of this passage? Make notes about how you hope to bring these words from Jesus into your current practice.
-Practice grounding. Our senses anchor us to our body and our surroundings. Ask these questions:
“What am I noticing in my body?”
“What am I noticing in my breath?”
“What’s happening in my feelings?”
“What’s happening in my thoughts?”
“What’s happening in my heart?”
Or, notice around you what you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. If you are feeling anxious (this works with kids too!) name 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste. As we activate our sensory experiences, our body will be grounded away from the fight/ flight response and back to a stabilized state.
Our feelings of worry, stress, and anxiety can often feel like a battle. But as Christians, the battle is a sign of life. That’s good news. Our struggle with our emotions isn’t a sign that something is wrong with us or with our loved ones. JC Ryle in his book, Holiness, says that Christians are known for both their peace and their warfare. We have peace with God because we are justified, but we are at war with sin in ourselves. The battle between our flesh and spirit is a sign that God is at work in us. But we don’t just let the battle wage on or give in to it. Rather, we engage in it.
Engaging with our emotional experiences such as worry, stress, and anxiety helps us to connect more deeply to our heart’s most intimate feelings. Prov. 20:5 says, “The purpose of a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.” God made us with deep and complex emotions and gave us hearts, minds, and bodies to engage them. Encountering the deep matters of our own hearts will connect us more deeply to the heart of God. And he walks with us every step of the way. Psalm 55:22 says, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.” Let us all draw near to God in our burdens and concerns and trust his ever-present mercy and strength to sustain us.
If you would like additional resources to address your worry, stress, or anxiety, please reach out to us at connect@barnabascenterhou.com or visit our website to connect with a counselor at https://barnabascenterhou.com/contact/. The Barnabas Center offers Gospel-centered professional counseling to members at Christ the King and our community, and we count it a privilege to walk with you in whatever season of anxiety, stress or worry you find yourself in, especially during this holiday season.
So, what is happening when we feel something? Our emotions are providing information to us about our circumstances, and we need to pay attention to them. But just because we listen to our emotions doesn’t mean we have to act on them. They are telling us something, but we often assume if we ignore a feeling it will go away. However, hurt feelings don’t vanish, and they don’t heal themselves. Oftentimes, emotions turn into something more significant and can come out in disordered ways like explosive anger or debilitating anxiety. We need to pay attention to our emotions to connect our current circumstances to what’s happening in our bodies.
Emotions like worry, stress, and anxiety can impact us physically. But they often get a bad rap. Worry, stress, and anxiety play an important role in our lives. Worry is the thinking part of anxiety. It has to do with thoughts. We say to ourselves, “I’m worried that she is mad at me.” Worry isn’t necessarily a bad feeling though. Worry helps us to solve problems. For example, if you worry about something, it will prompt you to action: “I’m worried that my back door isn’t sufficient, and someone could break in. So, I’m going to get it repaired soon.”
Sometimes our worry can grow into more extreme thoughts and concerns that are out-of-touch with reality. Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6:25 not to worry about our lives including worrying about what to drink or wear. Corrie Ten Boom famously said, “Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.” Our over-concerns don’t accomplish anything and can drain us physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
What about stress? Stress is the body’s physiological response to fear. Feelings of stress arise inside our bodies when we are reacting to something dangerous. Stress can be both instinctual and unconscious. It can also serve a purpose and help us to escape real threats. For instance, sweating from stress helps us stay cool; and adrenaline can help us to perform or motivate us to action if we need to run away. However, if stress is chronic, if we over-stress, it can have serious consequences like high blood pressure, heart disease, and other illnesses.
Anxiety is at the intersection of these 2 responses.
Anxiety can help to alert us if we are in danger. If you are standing on the edge of a cliff, your anxiety about falling will make you step back from the edge. Our fears can help to protect us in dangerous situations. Fear can be instructive, and the Bible assumes that we will experience fear in this life:
“When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you” (Ps. 56:3)
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life” (Matt. 6:25).
But our anxiety can also have negative consequences. Anxiety is rooted in the limbic system, the part of the brain that manages our emotions and relationships, and it can feel like a foreboding dread. Anxiety becomes disordered when we feel like we are in danger, but we are actually safe. Our anxiety kicks in when we are stuck in a small space like an elevator, and we feel like we might die if we don’t get off. Anxiety is telling us that being in a small space is dangerous and deadly. If our anxiety dominates our lives, our world will shrink because we will orient all our decisions on avoiding fearful circumstances. To manage our anxiety, we need to address both the worry and stress in our lives. So, what can we do?
Here are a few skills to practice to address the worry, stress, and anxiety in your life:
-Don’t avoid things that are fearful. Avoidance grows anxiety. Every time you get anxious and avoid something and survive, your brain increases anxiety in that area. Avoidance can make your world very small and unhappy.
-Build emotional muscles. When you make facing your fears a normal part of your life, it does get easier. Our brain is like a big muscle, and the more your practice something, the stronger those neural pathways get. For example, if you have social anxiety and dread going to a large social gathering, plan to meet a friend ahead of time so you’re not alone.
-Choose something that matters more. If you feel anxious before a soccer tryout or a big presentation, remember what matters most to you. Practice the willingness to do something that is challenging and might cause you a little anxiety. Anxiety isn’t dangerous, it’s uncomfortable. Courage doesn’t mean the absence of fear but choosing something that is more important than avoiding fear.
-Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness helps you to sit with your experience, your emotions, and your thoughts without needing to escape or avoid them. We live in a very distracted way and mindfulness helps us to focus on one thing at a time. The Bible instructs us to have the “mind of Christ” (Phil 2:5) and to “take every thought captive” (2 Cor. 10:5). When God commissioned Joshua to lead the Israelites into the promised land, He said, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Josh. 1:8).
Giving attention to our thoughts helps us to combat our fears, and meditating on a single verse or practicing stillness in prayer are good mindful practices. Lectio Divina (Divine Reading) was introduced in the sixth century by Saint Benedict and his followers. This form of meditation and prayer comprised several steps by which they focused on a particular text, thinking about it from various angles, praying with it, and meditating on God’s message to them through that passage.
Here’s an example of Lectio Divina:
Silence
Take time to be silent: prepare to communicate with God as He expresses Himself to you in the passage of Scripture you have chosen. After a period of quiet, ask God’s help as you enter this session of meditative prayer.
Read
Read a short passage of Scripture aloud several times slowly. Allow its words and meanings to sink into your soul.
Meditate
Meditation is like chewing. It is slow and thorough. Write notes about what you see in this passage. Make connections between the various sections. Ask yourself, “What do these words from God say?” “What do they mean?” Place who you are and what you do next to this passage and ask God to examine you. Continue to write your findings.
Prayer
Pray using the passage as an outline for your prayer. Read the passage phrase-by-phrase, responding to God after each phrase or verse.
Contemplation
Wait in stillness once more. Ask that God bring to your mind any areas of your life that you need to shape more closely to His design as revealed in this passage. Contemplate God’s love and power as it is revealed here.
Live It Out
What precisely ought you to be believing, thinking, and doing as a result of this passage? Make notes about how you hope to bring these words from Jesus into your current practice.
-Practice grounding. Our senses anchor us to our body and our surroundings. Ask these questions:
“What am I noticing in my body?”
“What am I noticing in my breath?”
“What’s happening in my feelings?”
“What’s happening in my thoughts?”
“What’s happening in my heart?”
Or, notice around you what you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. If you are feeling anxious (this works with kids too!) name 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste. As we activate our sensory experiences, our body will be grounded away from the fight/ flight response and back to a stabilized state.
Our feelings of worry, stress, and anxiety can often feel like a battle. But as Christians, the battle is a sign of life. That’s good news. Our struggle with our emotions isn’t a sign that something is wrong with us or with our loved ones. JC Ryle in his book, Holiness, says that Christians are known for both their peace and their warfare. We have peace with God because we are justified, but we are at war with sin in ourselves. The battle between our flesh and spirit is a sign that God is at work in us. But we don’t just let the battle wage on or give in to it. Rather, we engage in it.
Engaging with our emotional experiences such as worry, stress, and anxiety helps us to connect more deeply to our heart’s most intimate feelings. Prov. 20:5 says, “The purpose of a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.” God made us with deep and complex emotions and gave us hearts, minds, and bodies to engage them. Encountering the deep matters of our own hearts will connect us more deeply to the heart of God. And he walks with us every step of the way. Psalm 55:22 says, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.” Let us all draw near to God in our burdens and concerns and trust his ever-present mercy and strength to sustain us.
If you would like additional resources to address your worry, stress, or anxiety, please reach out to us at connect@barnabascenterhou.com or visit our website to connect with a counselor at https://barnabascenterhou.com/contact/. The Barnabas Center offers Gospel-centered professional counseling to members at Christ the King and our community, and we count it a privilege to walk with you in whatever season of anxiety, stress or worry you find yourself in, especially during this holiday season.
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