Managing Stress and Anxiety with God's Help

What's up everybody? I'm about to get started, about to share something with you guys that I learned the other day as I was teaching a self-reliance class for my church about managing stress and anxiety. So I'm excited to bring this to you guys today. Just got to make sure my streams are live. If you're watching this, please participate. This is not just for me. I teach it because I want to learn it better, and I think it's extremely helpful to know these things. We aren't taught how to manage stress very well in our lives. So, uh, I feel like having this and relying on God to help you overcome the stressful things in your life can help you extremely. So let me, let me go live, and I think we're good to go. I think you guys can all hear me. If you guys can hear me and you want— you're watching this, just give a 1, just let me know. Just, you know, it stinks to do a stream like this and have, you know, nobody here. Okay, let's get started. I think I'm live. Today I want to talk to you guys about managing stress and overcoming anxiety. We face it all throughout our lives. We face anxiety, we face things that are tough to overcome. And I believe with God's help, we can overcome all things. But there are specific tactics that we have been taught and that can help you guys overcome the difficult things in life. And today I'm going to explain what stress and anxiety is. I taught a self-reliance class for my church last night, and this came directly from the manual. So I wanted to share with everyone because I felt like it was super helpful for me. So I'm gonna explain what stress and anxiety is, and about 12 to 14 practical things that you can do to overcome stress and rely on God to help you with those things. So let's dive right in without further ado. Alright. So, everybody, this is what stress and anxiety is, alright? And I found this very insightful and very helpful because I did not know that some stress is good. Everyone faces stress and anxiety like I've said, but some of it is okay. Some of it is good. I'm gonna read some of this to you guys so you guys can see. Hopefully, you guys can see the screen pretty decent here. As I go through this. All right, so stress and anxiety are normal parts of life. That's the first thing to know, right? These words describe ways that the brain and body respond to any demand, such as a— such as a problem at work, a test at school, or an important decision. Normal amounts of stress and anxiety can help you focus, reach your goals, and protect your body. For example, if you have some stress about your job, you will likely come to work prepared and focused and focus on your tasks. And I can attest to that. That's so true. The other day, I was doing a masterclass for my real estate business and I had to prepare a slide deck. And it took a long time to like prepare, but there was a deadline. I needed to present by Thursday. And on Thursday, I wasn't quite done. I was like halfway done. But, you know, I was extremely stressed. But that stress enabled me to come to work prepared and focused on the task. And I was able to crush it., and I was able to get it done. Now, so stress— some stress is good, okay? And I never would have thought that. I would have been like, "Ah, stress is bad." Like, you don't want to be ever stressed. You want to be happy all the time and not have to worry. But that's not the case, okay? Sometimes stress can enable you to persevere and go forward and crush it, alright? So, stress and anxiety help keep you alive. That's important to know. But feeling stress and anxiety too often, or for too long can cause significant problems and lead to mental illness, alright? If you are dealing with too much stress, alright, if you're too— too stressed, like a little stress is good, but if you're dealing with too much stress and anxiety, you might get sick often, have headaches, feel angry, have drastic changes in your appetite, or experience a lack of focus, alright? So, definitely don't want to have those things. You don't wanna be too stressed. Stress— some stress is good, but, um— If you're feeling these side effects of get sick often, headaches, feel angry, drastic changes in your appetite, experience lack of focus, you need to handle that problem, right? And look, my baby— I'm going live, but my baby's awake. She's like, "Come and get me." So I'll be as quick as I can. Alright. So you may start to feel overwhelmed by your job, or you may not want to go to work because you fear something bad will happen or that you will not be good enough. These are signs that you are feeling distress or debilitating levels of stress and anxiety. So if you don't even want to live life, or if you don't want to go to work, like, that's, that's not good, right? Some stress should push you, but it shouldn't make you like not want to go to work, go to school, persevere, press forward. Stress and anxiety can impact your ability to feel the Spirit, or the Spirit, the Holy Ghost. Like, if you're, you're religious, we believe that we feel the Holy Ghost as we center ourselves on Christ. Or distort your understanding of spiritual promptings, which again is how you feel the presence of the Lord and how he guides you. Sister Reina Alberto said, if we are constantly sad, or if our pain blocks our ability to feel the love of our Heavenly Father and his Son and the influence of the Holy Ghost, then we may be suffering from depression, anxiety, or any or another emotional condition. Okay, so that in a nutshell is what stress and anxiety is. Sometimes it's good, but if it's debilitating where you can't go to work or it's like you can't function, you need to seek help, like medical help. But there— if you are stressed and you're like, man, I think I can manage it, I just don't have the tools. That's why I wanted to go live today to share with you guys what I was able to learn to help you manage stress. Okay, this came directly from the manual and I want to share it with the world because I think these things are extremely helpful. All right, let me tell my baby real quick. I'll be be with her. Hey baby, I'll be right there. Okay, I'm just finishing up with the live. I love you. I'll see you soon. I love you. Shane, she ain't having it. She's stressed. She has anxiety. I'm just kidding. Hey baby, I love you. I'll be right there. I swear. I'm coming. I'm coming. I'm gonna finish the live. I should be like a couple more minutes. All right, she don't care. So I'll be quick. These are some ways to manage stress, and I'm gonna go over them quick. All right, and if you guys have any ways that you manage stress or anxiety, throw them in the chat. I'd love to hear in the comments if you guys watch this later. Want to learn from everybody. So number 1, okay, if you're a person of religion and faith, which I invite all of you to be, uh, believe in Christ and follow him, number 1 way to overcome stress and anxiety Talk with God. Know that he understands. Imagine him sitting close to you, listening and offering support. God has gone through— Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down, experienced all the pains and afflictions and temptations that we've all or anyone ever will face. He knows how to succor you. He knows how to, uh, like, help you through those problems. That's what succor means. Um, he knows how to help you through those, those trials. If you pray, he will help you. Okay. That's, that's tactic number 1. All right, number 2, ponder. Okay, that's meditation, reflection. Reflect on times you felt blessed by the Lord and see his hand, seen his hand in mercy in your life. Be still and know that I am God. Okay, so reflecting, pondering on wins. That's the book Psycho-Cybernetics. This is not just something that in Psalms, right, like they, they made it up. Like, this is something that can truly help you that's written in many books that talk about reflecting on, and pondering on the good things of life and remembering your wins so you can remember, hey, I am blessed. Okay. Look at your expectations. This is a huge one for me. I create my own stress because I set expectations that are unrealistic in my job, in my life. Like, I'm like, oh, I'm going to pay off this amount of debt, for example, in a week. It's like, well, dude, you just added a ton of stress on yourself because that's— it's possible. Anything is possible with God's help, but pretty unrealistic, right? For example. Or I'm gonna sign up 1,000 people tomorrow for my business. That's unrealistic expectation. Maybe in your business it is, but like, uh, but for me it's like, okay, that's probably not very realistic. So, uh, look at your expectations. Sometimes our greatest worries and stresses come from when life doesn't turn out the way we hope or planned. We can learn from our stressful experiences. All things— and these are scriptures at the very end that kind of explain it— all things shall be given shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good. Therefore hold on thy way. Okay, take a short break. This is something huge. I, when I work, I work throughout the whole day. Like, I don't take breaks. I, I, like, I feel like if I take an hour lunch or 30-minute lunch, like, I, I'm missing out, like I'm, I'm slacking. So sometimes I work all throughout lunch, I don't take breaks. If you're not taking breaks, that's a huge stressor. That's gonna, like, your body isn't meant to just go, go, go, go. You need to rest. That's why the Lord gave us the Sabbath day, to keep it holy so we can rest from our labors We're not meant to just be machines that just go, go, go. So take a short break. Take several slow, deep breaths, stretch, and relax physically. When your body and mind are calm again, you will be able to think more clearly. Take a walk, get some food or a drink, or just sit and think for a few minutes. All right. Next one, be aware of when you're stressed. That's a big one of being self-aware and knowing, hey, you know what, maybe I don't feel like top of my game right now. I'm pretty stressed. Sometimes you may not realize you're stressed. You may experience difficulty sleeping, get angry easily. This is a problem I have. I'm very— when I get stressed or anxious, I'm like, boom, like a short fuse. Okay, but then when I realize, okay, what's stressing me out, then I'm able to bounce back. Feel depressed or have low energy. Check in with yourself at least once a day to see how you are doing. Now for me, the way that I check in once a day is I plan my day before everything. In the morning, I wake up early and I plan. And this is a planner that I built, and I think it's helpful for stress management because in the very bottom of my planner every day, I do self-reflection where I ask myself questions like, you know, what was hard yesterday? What can you do to improve? What behaviors did you have and do that were not in line with, like, God and what you believe to be true, like what is good? So when you reflect on things,. It does help you change. If you're not self-aware and don't reflect, then it's really hard to change because you don't, you don't take the time to acknowledge like what you're doing wrong. Okay. All right. We're almost done. Baby, I love you. You're gonna be all right. Hold on. Daddy's almost done. All right. So focus on gratitude. I've talked to you guys about the importance of keeping a gratitude journal. Huge. All right. I got other videos that express— like, not express, explain how I keep a gratitude journal. It's very simple. I've been doing it for years and years, 7 years plus consistently. So, I have a good structure, I feel like, of keeping a gratitude journal, what to write and what not to write. Be active. If you're stagnant and don't— like, with people that work in offices and just work in general, most of it can be done sitting down on a computer. So, if you're just not active and you're stagnant all the time, like, you Yeah, it can create stress. Your body needs to move. Okay, limit technology use. Oh my goodness, this is a huge one. I have been trying to reduce my screen time for the last couple of months because I've realized it's insane how many times I pick up my phone and look at it. I actually just downloaded an app. Actually, I didn't download an app. I just changed the color of my iPhone to grayscale, which is proven to reduce your screen time by 30% because it's not fun to look at your phone when it's in black and white. So it's working. I just did it. And, you know, if anyone's looking to limit their technology use, turn their screen black and white or grayscale, and you will— you're gonna not want to use it as much because it's colorful and vibrant and attractive to the eye. You're just like, oh my gosh, I don't even want to look at it. Do that. That's, that's helpful for limiting technology use. All right. Be kind to yourself. Be positive, have good self-talk. Help someone in need. When you help someone else, refocus your energy by serving someone else. Our ultimate goal is to love others like Christ did. Okay, that's the ultimate goal, even when we are struggling. So if you can get outside of yourself even when you're stressed and focus on others and love others, that's going to help immensely with stress. Okay, Christ gave us an example of this love when he forgave his persecutors and made sure his mother would be cared for even as he suffered on the cross. Incredible. Jesus Christ was suffering and he cared about others and his mother than his own suffering. Okay, great example. As hard as it can be, We can get better perspective on our lives when we stop thinking, stop and think of others, and look for ways to help. This has been true in my life. When you serve, you kind of forget about your problems, right? Okay. Try a relaxing activity. Go for walks. I have a sauna in my home that like when I bought it, there was a sauna already. It's incredible. That really helps me to relax, going in the sauna, hot tub, going on walks. Do those things. Stay connected with friends and family. Spending time with family can really reduce stress and friends, so don't neglect that. Take it one step at a time. This is one of my biggest problems. I try to take on more than I can take, bite more— bite off more than I can chew. That's like right now I'm going live and I need— my baby is like, "Hey, come get me." That's stressful to me because I didn't think she'd wake up yet. She usually wakes up at What is it? Okay. She wakes up at 7. It's 7:09. So it's my bad. She's doing what she's supposed to. Her internal clock woke her up. She's ready. Okay. It's my bad. But I'm trying to take on more than I should. That's very stressful to me. I need to perfect myself and be better. Practice mindfulness. Use this exercise in the previous activity. Okay. It talks about mindfulness. Breathing. Being still. Okay, those are extremely helpful things. So that's what I got for you guys today. I am going to wrap it up because my baby is like, yo, Daddy, turn that live off. No one cares what you have to say about stress and anxiety. Come and meet my needs and get me. So I'm gonna go get my baby. Hope this was helpful for you guys. I want to share this with the world because I know that God is real. He is our Father in heaven. We are his children, and he sent us his only Son, Jesus Christ, to help us through our pains and afflictions and our— the things that we're going to go through in life. And there's manageable ways to overcome stress with his help. If you are facing a lot of stress and anxiety, pray, ask God for help, implement these things that he's given us to improve our lives. It will help you, I promise. Hopefully this is helpful. Let me know how you overcome stress. Love you guys, have a great day, and we'll see on the next one.