Breaking Strongholds Part 2

Adventist Radio London inspiration for the song We Welcome the Talking Point with Ray Sen, Pedro Angela discussing the hot topics and answering your questions Saturdays five to seven pm on Adventist Radio London. It's talking Point. It's talking Point. It's talking Point, It's talking Point, real conversations. You need to have good afternoon, good afternoon, good afternoon, or should I say good evening, good night? I'm not sure. I can't see your side. Welcome to

Talking Point, the conversations we really need to have. As always, I am joined by my trusted co hosts. That's Angela and Pedro Petrol. You there, How are you guys doing? I say hi to the folk, give me good evening. Welcome to Talking Point. Hi Zan, Yeah, Hey, Pedra, Yeah, I'm okay. Actually I say that I'm exhausting. Actually all those weeks where I mean, every week, every time someone says to me, how am I? I say I'm tired, But the

fatigue and exhaust is really good. Oh yeah, so I'm really tired today. But thank the Lord, it's a sabbath. When it was a sabbath, it wasn't the most RESTful day for me, but I was glad for it to be honest and to be at church and kind of you know, to praise, worship, et cetera. So, yeah, it's been a busy and it's been a busy Sabbath. It's been usual. But I'm good. So yeah, here we are. Hopefully you can get some some rest tomorrow. Hopefully you can. I can put your feet up. Maybe possibly.

Oh no, I can see from the expression that that might not happen. I'm good, You're good, all right, No worries, No worries? Uh, Pedro, how are you say? Hill? Mike check if you will? Good afternoon. Everybody. Welcome to Talking Point. You're a little quiet, I'm signy. Would you like me talk loud? Yeah? There that voice? I tell you so this one. Hello everybody. You welcome to Talking Points. How you guys doing? Just like Angela. Yeah, it's been a crazy week, a lot of a lot of long distance

dropping this week. They're going back to that again a little bit. I had to talk to my manager, okay, and I went to church today. So now you know, I'm arrested after this because I worked tomorrow actually to help out because they're shorthanded. So I'll be working six days this week. Wow, so literally, like they say six days you shall work in the seventh days arrest. Thank God for the sabbath me. So yeah, I go look back to work on tomorrow. So I'm not looking forward to

but you know, it is what it is. Yeah, yeah, my week was pretty good. The weather. The sun came out a little bit today, which is nice. Yeah. Nice. It's the sun, the cold sun that you like, Petro. You like the cold sun, don't you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I don't like the sun. I know from the island, but I don't like that. Very strange, indeed, very strange. Indeed, right, have we lost Petro? Yeah, I don't. I don't understand that. And people, I'm sure listening

are puzzled. But yeah, I hmmm, I don't like it too hot. I have to admit it's already. It's already the thirteenth. That's that's the more scarier part. Well, we've lost we lost you for a minute there, Petro. I don't know if it's your your internet connections. We lost you for a moment. Sorry, what were you saying? Scary? That is what there's the thirteenth already. Yeah, don't blink and let's it'll be under end of January. Every year that goes by, its seems to

go faster. It feels like we just celebrated in New Years and there's already thirteen days in. I was like, I know, almost halfway through, right, unbelievable. Scar, Yes, it is before we know it will be Christmas? Dare I say it again? When I used to do work, I used to work for a magazine where back when, so we were always working so far ahead, so to me, these went even quicker. So it feels like that. So sometimes I'm often thinking, often planning and

thinking about things ahead. So at this point of the year, we would have been planning things for like March April, may you know, started doing and I always remember it was like Christmas in July. Yeah, yeah, so it was for thinking and now it just seems like it's just it's happening fast, you know that? So yeah, everybody, So my week was good New Yeah, ups and downs already. I can already feel that I'm gonna have to hold on for the ride. There are gonna be some highs.

I know that I've had. I have some really wonderful things planned, but there've already been some lows, so I am just holding on and trusting God and hoping that nothing will come to derail me. But it is, it's been already three weeks in or two weeks in, whatever it is. You see, I've lost time. It's already been sort of full of ups

and downs and challenges. And not just for me people, I speak to my friends, family, you know, who's not got bad reports from the doctor, you know, loss of life, et cetera, et cetera. And me just I'm just thinking, whoa, you know, just be ready,

be ready. It's that time that season. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, it will take a lot of faith, a lot of prayer, and I think that, you know, the theme that we've got for this month really will resonate with so many people bringing down strongholds, because that's what you know, we're facing on a day to day year or year. It's a battle. It's a challenge. And but God, that's my final answer, my final line. But guard full stop. Yeah yeah, definitely, definitely,

Oh God. Yeah, I mean, you know, at the same time, even though it just feel challenging because I'm the same, but I still want to be hopeful that it's going to be positive and you know, I mean sometimes it's funny because Monday coming, I think is if I remember rightly, if they coin it blue Monday, because it's like that third or or third Monday in the month, and you know, we're looking at Heal's

in the UK. The weather has been a bit gray and dull. There's been a few sort of bright days, which has been I'm really thankful for because even though it's cold, I don't mind it being like that. That's pretty good. But you know it is, yes, that time of the year, but it is great. Not a lot of light, and you

know, people feel quite low after the highs of Christmas as well. Sorry to cut you, but after the highs of Christmas, you're just like on a new Year, you're like, yeah, you know, you're around people and you're kind of going back to you've gone back to work, You've gone back to kind of normality. Yeah. I mean, I think when it comes to this stubb of the year, I try to wear bright clothing, simple thing, but use color as my kind of you know, don't get

much sunshine, so I'm going to wear bright colors. I'm going to try and brighten up on what happy so yes, yeah, that's what I think. Nothing be so smile. You know, it goes a very long way. I know it's a simple thing, but not beat attitude. A smile on your face can make such a difference, not just to you, but for those around you, you know, those you might meet random people on the streets sometimes. I mean, I know they'll think you're crazy, but

but a smile and a helloa, good morning? How are you won't hurt at all? Won't hurt? Alison? Do you want to jump in the conversation here? I didn't ask you beforehand, but I know I did see on your status that some wonderful things are happening on your side on your end. Good evening again, Allison, and thank you for joining Talking Point. Those of you who do not know, they must know by now you are a author, psychotherapist, practice and a very regular In fact, I say

all the time, you are a Talking Point honoree. And you've been on the show a number of times, no stranger to Talking Point and Adventists Radio London. And you're back with us to do a series and we get into that just after our break. But how was your week and how are you doing? I'm doing good. Yeah, it's good to see everyone. My my week was busy. My weeks are normally busy, but you know, it's it's been. It's been a busy week, but it's been a good

week as well. I've you know, I've just literally published my latest book during the week. So it's out on Amazon and it's it's called Relating for Success. Congratulations, thank you, thank you. Oh yes, it's it's it's been busy, but it's been. It's been good, thank god. So if you want to pick up a copy of your book, then we can go on Amazon and purchase that hard copy and it all be sent across to us. Absolutely, the kindle version should be available within the next couple

of days. Perfect Perfect. I will talk a little bit more about that during the course of the series, and certainly at the end we can talk about what's next for you. But absolutely good news, and I'm looking forward to get a copy. Remind me of the title, and it's called Relating for Success, and it's focusing on positive relationships, especially within organizations. It's suitable for every type of relationships, but the focus really here is on relationships

within between organizations. We spend lots of time at work, yes, and lots of time with people at work. So yeah, that's that's the focus for this one fabulous looking forward. Looking forward, I am going to sort of play before we get into it, a spoken world piece and the topic

or the message in that is anxiety a fight to be okay. And that is because today we are following on on our series bringing Down Stronghold, and the topic or the message for today is as a man thinketh worry, fear and an anxiety and Allison, you're going to be presenting on that and sharing on that, and I thought this was quite a useful introduction to it. For those of you who are listening and want to join the conversation, you can join us on zoom. The idea is seven seven one three nine eight

six two zero nine. Again that's seven seven one three nine eight six two zero nine. You can join us on zoom. Allison will be presenting slides and having a discussion there that will follow through onto the radio. If you aren't able to join us there, that's fine. If you do want to be part of the conversation, the usual ways are available to you studio at Adventist Radio dot London, studio at Adventist Radio Dot London, or you can

text us eight text us. You can text us eight triple to eight hope space and then your message or what's up that's zero seven four five nine six four two eight nine eight, and you can be part of the conversation. You can send any questions that you may have, and I'm sure Allison would be more than willing to answer them for you. Let's pray, Father,

we bless you. We thank you for another week, another Sabbath day of rest, and another program, another important conversation that we want to have today that we hope will make a difference to someone listening. Certainly we hope that it will make a difference to all of us. Be with the technology that it will work well. Be with Allison as she makes the presentation. And again, Lord, we ask for your Holy Spirit to take absolute control in Jesus' name. Amen, all right, let me share this one. It's

anxiety, a fight to be okay by k soul. Initially I didn't know what to call it, but I remember when I first felt it. I hated the way it made me feel, but still I couldn't let people know that I held it. It weakened me, but I refused to let people see the weakened me. It felt like it was eating me from the inside out, and it made me want to tear the uneasiness from my insides out.

My heart beats suited for house music, along with the heart pace, each thought race, no route to it, the nervousness, the worry. It sprouts too quick, the panic becomes organic, and I guess I just got to plow through it. So I do my best to remain The butterflies and my stomach results in sweaty palms. Friends keep asking me why I'm so

quiet. I tell them I'm just tired and that nothing's wrong. While all alone, I just want to go home and be alone because large crowds make me feel small and as though I'm in danger, and I desperately try to keep my eye on every single stranger. Meeting a bunch of new people brings so much pressure to my chest, and I don't talk a lot. I often watch and I let them do the rest. Sometimes I'm scared, scared

to succeed. I mean, what if I can't keep it up, Scared of how I'm perceived by the people who show me love, and when the news reports another senseless killing. I am soon in gorge and an intense feeling, thinking of the worst outcomes. I'm worry about my friends and family, constantly wondering if we're all soon seeing a tragedy. I'm asking God to protect them and to look after me, while I'm looking over my shoulder and around every corner to make sure no when it's after me. And I know that's

irrational. Sometimes I feel so nervous I don't even speak properly. I know what I want to say, but the message I try to convey comes out sloppy. See See it's the overthinking, the self consciousness, the sleepless nights, the nauseousness, the feeling as though I can barely breathe. But I try not to be obvious. I feel terrified and paralyzed, and yet I

force a smigle through all of it self diagnosis. I'm calling it. This is anxiety, and it resides in me so vibrantly, but I keep it inside of me, quietly, outwardly smigling inward emotions collide so violently, And if I can be a person who struggles with a moderate level of anxiety, imagine those who deal with it severely, and how every day for them is a fight to breathe, a fight for peace, a fight to be okay. I really liked and I hope you were able to hear that. I

really liked the ending. Well. I liked it all, but the ending spoke to me a fight to be okay. And there's a slogan. I don't know where it originated, but it's okay to be not okay. I don't know, and you've have you heard that one? Because I think it comes from the idea that we put on the facade. We put on our cape, we put on our mask, and we don't let people see the real art. We don't let people see that we are struggling. We don't

we're afraid to say we're struggling. We are ashamed to say we're struggling. And I like that. He ends by saying, it's okay, it's okay, and we are fighting to be okay, but it's all right not to be okay. Yeah, I have heard that, and it's it's an interesting one because you want to be okay, and we are encouraging to say it's

not to be okay. I guess what it is as well, is it's it's okay to be not okay, but I'd like to add to that, but you should still do something about that that, whether it's reaching out to people and what have you. You know, I think the idea of you know, I think we should be able to embrace our feelings or emotions and everything that comes with that. There are going to be high as lows, good days and bad days, but I wouldn't want you to stay in that

place. So it's okay to be. So it's okay to not be okay, but it's okay to fight to be okay. Yeah, yes, And I think you know you would want to. I think it's when and I guess this is the kind of thing, you know, when things are up and down, and I guess if things start to become a regular thing. So if you are feeling very low, that's a continual thing. They often say three four weeks something like that. You really should be reaching out for

some kind of help and support. And that could be from friends, family, if you're close and got that kind of laship with people, or it could be going right through to two a GP or a therapist. So there's odd one. Because we're not comfortable and we're not comfortable in that place, like he said, we don't want to kind of admit that things aren't going great and we need help and everything else. You know, we're very used to trying to be strong and you know, trying to do everything, get

everything done. The idea of that being the case could be seen as a failure. So there's so many things wraps up him. Now. Yeah, yeah, he explains, yes, And I like that he's explaining it's a struggle. And Alison, I know in your presentation you will get to that it's a struggle. It's it's not something that happens, you know, by the snap of a finger or any other magical one that we might might waive. Is a struggle. It is a fight. Sometimes it's a daily struggle.

For most of us, it is perhaps a daily struggle. But by God's grace, with as you said, Angela, with the support that we can have around us or we can reach out to, then it is a fight that we can win. Absolutely God can give us the victory for so, I'm I'm looking forward to this conversation Alson. I know you'll take us back a little bit, cause we did start the series last week but I'm

looking forward to what we can learn about these very serious issues. I mean, the the Spoken Word goes on to give statistics, but they are relevant to the US, but I know and I will we will share some statistics for the UK. But anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental health illnesses and so many are silent or silently fighting it that it's important to have this

conversations. And I'm really really happy that Allison decided that she was willing to do this series with us and to raise awareness for these really important topics and issues. Alison, can I at this point then throw the conversation over to you. Let me just remind persons who may want to join on zoom it's seven seven one three nine eight six two zero nine. Just come on feel

free. We'll let you on there. There'll be a presentation and there'll be opportunities to share your comments, to commentary and to ask your questions as well. Okay, thank you so much, Xenia. Good evening everyone, it's good to be back with you this week. Yes, we did start the series last week. We had an overview and introduction of the series, so if you've missed it, I will do a quick recap on some of the key things that we looked at last week, and then we'll move on to

this week's topic. So, just by way of recap, the text that we're using as the focus text is taken from Second Corinthians, Chapter ten, verses three to five, and it rates for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war against the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not cannal, but mighty in God, for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,

bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. So that's the focused text for the rest of the series. So the reason why we are doing this really is just to encourage people to live life more abundantly. Christ said in the Gospel of John ten verse ten, I have come that they

may have life, which means us, and have it more abundantly. So we really want to experience abundant life for ourselves and for those people around us to experience abundant life mentally, physically, emotional, emotional, and spiritually. We're looking after our wellbeing. So last week we talked about strongholds, understanding

strongholds, what are our strongholds? And we talked about the fact that when Paul was writing to the people in Corinth, he used the analogy of a stronghold, a tower with very high walls and a portress and captains inside, you know, defending, strategizing, just making sure that people are safe. And really, what is a stronghold. A stronghold in physical terms can be a fortified place, a place where a particular course of belief is strongly upheld.

From a kind of mental psychological perspective, and when we're looking at it spiritually or mentally, we're talking about walls of resistance in the mind. So if we think about a portress, if we think about, maybe, for example, the walls of Jericho, we were thinking about very high walls. We're thinking about a mighty tower. We're thinking about a very strong construction.

And when we think about it in psychological terms or in mental terms, we're talking about walls of high walls of resistance in the mind, things that are arguments against the truth, the character and the knowledge of God. We're talking strongholds can be kind of positive things that keep us safe from the enemy. But in this perspective from in this series, we're talking about what the enemy uses to keep us down, so some of the strongholds that he uses to

hold us captive. So we're talking about things like fortress of lies in the mind, including sometimes things that physically speaking we might think are true, but not the truth according to the world of God God. So strongholds from a spiritual perspective in this context is anything that's an obstacle to our wholesome purpose, growth and fulfillment in life. It does hold us captive and stops us from

living life more abundantly as Christ has really purposed for us. So we talked about the impact on our mental and emotional wellbeing, and last week we talked about the fact that when we have the strongholds affect in our lives, we then develop what we call core beliefs. Core believes normally will be negative beliefs about ourselves, about the environment, the world, about us around us,

or about other people. And these core beliefs are things like, well, you know, I'm a failure, I'm not good enough, I'm stupid, the world is too scary, a calm cope. Some of these negative things that we probably keep repeating to ourselves and which have formed strong beliefs in our minds, and the coblists will then impact on our thoughts, which will impact

on our feelings, which will then impact on our behaviors. And that keeps it kind of vicious cycle of negative thoughts, feelings, and behavior going. And as a result, we tend to potentially view ourselves in a very negative way. We have negative perceptions of thoughts about ourselves that are really ingrained, or we could have negative views about the world or about the future. So, you know, we are looking at bringing down these strongholds, and this

week we're focusing on worry, fear, and anxiety. So what we're going to do today is that we're going to first of all, understand what worry, peer and anxiety is, and then we'll talk about the impact of worry, peer and anxiety on our wellbeing physical, emotional, spiritual, mental wellbeing, and then we'll go on to talk about how we bring down the strongholds of worry, peer and anxiety, and then we'll conclude. So we'll sort

of break things down into four sections. And I'm just giving this overview so you know, people can start to think about any questions that might have along the way. So let's start with understanding worry, peer and anxiety. The key text is Proverbs twenty three seven. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. When we talk about thoughts, thoughts are very important, a very important aspect of our lives. The average person has approximately forty eight pots a

minute. It might not seem like it, We might not realize that, you know, we have that many thoughts, but we do have that many thoughts on average. Some people slightly less, some people slightly more, but not on average, approximately forty eight thoughts per minute, which means approximately seventy thousand thoughts a day and approximately for an average person twenty five million thoughts a

year. When we think about our brain, and I know that sometimes because we don't see our brain, we don't think about our brain much, but we do, hopefully all have brains. And the brain is very complex machine, and it's the powerhouse of the body. And the win does have about

one hundred billion cells. And the cells in the brain, the longer living cells that powered by something what we call neuro transmit first that develop pathways in the brain and the thoughts that we have created a reality by going down the same frequency in the brain over and over again. So if you think about walking down a path, and if you keep stepping on the same section of the path over and over again, that you form a pathway. And it's

a similar thing that happens to the brain. Our thoughts carry electrical impulses that fire messages in our brain and form deep pathways which determine our thinking habits, which thereby affect how we feel. So if you think about well, if you think, oh, today was quite rubbish, you're not going to feel happy, not that you thought today was rubbish. You will feel probably a bitlow, a bit sad, and that's probably going to impact on behavior.

And we'll help we look at that a bit more when we talk about the kind of visual cycle of anxiety. So the thoughts that we have repeatedly become ingrained in our minds. And one of the things that we'll talk about later is the fact that thoughts are just thoughts. I think we mentioned this like

last week. Thoughts are not actually necessarily reality. But the thoughts will start to become a reality for us the more we think about them, because we'll start to connect emotionally with them and will start to behave in ways that will reinforce those thoughts. And that's how really we start to form strongholds in our minds of worry, of fear, of anxiety. So let's start by looking

at worry. What actually is worry. Worry really is a set of mental and emotional responses to something that's unknown, something that's uncertain, something that we anticipate will happen, but not necessarily happening. So we have worry that is based on something that's actually happening, and that's what we call real worry. And then we have worried that's based on something that we anticipate might happen,

and that's what we call hypothetical worry. So you know, there's various degrees of worry, and in reality, worry is something that we all experience, and it's not necessarily always bad to worry. You know, I think that if you're crossing a road, I think you should be a bit concerned or a bit worried about whether there's a car coming or not. So you know, to the extent that the degree of worry that we experience is proportionate to

the threats that that might be in the environment. That's okay. It starts to become a problem when there's no rational reason for having a worry, so there's no threats or the level of threats is really very small compared to the extent to which we worry. And sometimes we worry about things that might happen which there's no evidence that will happen, have not happened, and then that becomes a chain reaction of hypothetical worries, so worrying about something that doesn't actually

exist, and then we have fear. So we're talking about worry, fear, and anxiety. What is fear. Fear is usually experienced in response to an immediate danger. So we've seen, for example, a dog that looks a bit scary or alion and we kind of that trigger us fear. And this is happening because we have a part of the brain called the amid dealer,

which it's like the alarm system of the body. So when when we see something in the environment that we think it's that that poses a level of thread, the aniic dealer, which has no kind of logical way of reasoning, will be triggered and that will fire off messages to parts of our body and that will produce adrenaline in excess, which will cause us to want to escape, run or fight back to protect ourselves. So that's where the fight

or flight response comes from. So Pierre is usually experiencing response to an immediate danger, and when when we perceive that there's a danger, we do have biological chemical responses that are happening. And normally, if it's just peer it dissipitates once the thread is no longer present, and then we have anxiety. Anxiety is where we have excessive or hypothetical worry. We've just talked about worry,

and we just talked about sometimes worries can be real. So we have an exam and we're worried about how we're going to perform in that exam. That drives us to do something, drives us to do some revision. That's a real worry. We can do something about it. We have to do something about it. A hypothetical worry we think that if we go out there, somebody might attack us. Well, there's no evidence that there's somebody out there. It's just something that we're thinking about. It might never happen.

It hasn't happened. There's no evidence. That's a hypothetical worry, So when that becomes excessive, then that starts to create anxiety. Anxiety is also based on irrational and sometimes rational beliefs. So you know, if you think about the media, there's a lot of stuff going on that all. There's conspiracy theories out there that will rationally cause us to have a level of excess worry, excess fear causing us to feel anxious. Anxiety could be based on past

experience, past experiences with no basis in the present time. So something's happened in the past that we focus on and there's no basis, there's no evidence, there's nothing to suggest that that same thing is going to happen. But because that information from past experience is taught in our minds, we worry, we have anxiety. Anxiety is also an attitude of a strong desire to control the future. And I know that a lot of us want to have control.

We want to control everything. We want to control what's going to happen tomorrow. And there's nothing wrong with planning that we can't we can't ultimately control everything. We can plan, but we can't control everything. Anxiety often spirals out of control and eventually becomes a disorder. A disorder is something that impacts on our day to day living. So we'll have a look at the various anxiety disorders in a minute. But yeah, when we have this hypothetical,

worries become a chain reaction. Sometimes people actually think, well, actually it's a good thing to worry. Worry is good because it gets me doing things, and then the other people who think, I must never worry now in both situations, that just creates anxiety. Anxiety can manifest in different ways as different types of anxiety disorders and increase, and it's increasingly common among all groups

of people. We live in a world where everyone's very busy. Everyone's trying to achieve everyone's trying to you know, multitask can do one hundred and one things at once. Everyone's trying to meet expectations on social media, within their communities, within family. So people are feeling more and more pressured, and more and more people are suffering from different types of anxiety disorders. And it's

happening across all groups of people within society. So how does the cycle of anxiety happen So normally most of the time festival it starts with thought thoughts. So we have thoughts like something bad's going to happen to me, I'm not going to be able to cope, And with that we start to feel a rush of adrenaline. That adrenaline, because it's excess chemicals in the body, will cause us to feel tense, will make our hearts to raise bit even

faster. Sometimes our breathing becomes shallow, we become shaky, light headed, sweaty, headaches, chet spains, all sorts of biological reactions can go on because of anxiety. Sometimes people think, oh, I'm quite unwell, and you go to the doctors and they say, actually, there's nothing wrong with you physically, go and see a therapist eventually, when after they've exhausted all

the texts. Sometimes that's what anxiety does. Let's remember the brain is a part of the body that's very complex and where chemicals are being it's triggering chemicals to be produced in the body that will cause physiological responses. So when we have thoughts that something that's going to happen, we have the rush of adrenaline. We start to feel anxious. That's followed by behaviors, behaviors where we want to either escape, run away. We want to avoid situations, we

make excuses, we want to isolate ourselves from other people. That when we engage in these behaviors, which at that moment in time feel safe, we call them safety behaviors. What those safety behaviors will do is that there will reinforce the thoughts that will reinforce the anxious feelings that will then again reinforce those behaviors, and that becomes a vicious cycle, and that's what keeps the cycle of anxiety going. So we've talked about worry, We've talked about fear,

we've talked about anxiety. There is a difference between There are differences between the three. Sometimes we use the word the terms interchangeably, but there are differences anxiety versus worry. What is anxiety? Anxiety is persistent, it's unchanging with circumstances. It is something that you feel happening, and it's constant. It affects your daily life or physical health. Health is inescapable. You really start to need to do things to help yourself or start to need to get seek

some help. It's overwhelming, okay, And anxiety disorders can be quite serious psychological issues that would need the intervention of a professional. So that's anxiety. But when we talk about worry, we're talking about something that's temporary. If it's not hypothetical that keeps going on in excess, it's just a worry. It's circumstantial. It does an impact on daily life. Necessarily, it can go away once you away, when you know the outcome. So you can

worry about something. I worry about the fact that if I don't look when I'm crossing the road, I might get hit by a car. I've looked to the left, to the right, across the road. I don't need to worry anymore. What's common to fear and anxiety. What's come on to anxiety and worry is feelings of fear or concern for people and situations. Okay, so anxiety. When we come across anxiety, what do we see in

somebody who is anxious. It's like an iceberg. So I've got on the screen an iceberg, and when we have looked at the tip of the iceberg, we only see about a tenth of the iceberg, and most of it is submerged underwater. The behaviors that we see at the tip of the iceberg. So when somebody's feeling anxious. We see anger. Sometimes that's manifesting us

anger. They can't sleep properly. We see people being avoidance, negative, challenging, defiance, you know, all of these behaviors that are manifested. But it's really important that we understand the emotions that drive what we see as the tip of the iceberg. So some of the emotions could that maybe something feels insecure in a particular environment. Maybe there's been disrespected and they don't know what to do, the feel offended, the feel stock in a certain environmental

situation, Maybe they're grieving. Maybe that feel that feel helpless or ashamed, or maybe the feel embarrassed or disgusted, or maybe the feel lonely or tired, or that feel rejected. Rejection is another topic that we're going to look at in the series. Depression is another topic that we're going to look at.

Anger, it's another topic that we're going to look at. All of these things are the emotions that are underlying the behavior that we see as anxiety, which can manifest as avoidance, anger, negativity, challenging, defiance behavior. So the Bible says that be anxious for nothing, but we prayer suftly and in thanksgiving, make your request known to God. God who knows each one of us, will understand the feelings that sits underneath the anxiety that we

see manifested. So when we see people around us who are anxious, when we see people around us who are perhaps displaying a level of anger that we actually don't understand, perhaps maybe let's try to find out what other emotions are underlying. Because if we can think of the root cause of the issue, then we can really start to effectively address the issue. So that's looking at

anxiety, worry, and fear. I think we can just kind of take some time now and when we come back, we'll be looking at the impact of this on our well being. Wow, thank you so much, Alison, Already I feel full. I really like the analogy that you've given there of the iceberg. It just goes to show that we don't really know the

full details. It brings me to the point where you know, you don't know how people are living you until you've walked in their shoes, and you don't know what's going on with people just based on the tip of the icebod that you've You've shared the anger and all that may just be what's underlying. You know, they may be embarrassed, they may be hurting, they may be sort of grieving and all that, but what we see is the attitude that we don't know how to explain and may offend us or you know,

et cetera. But we start judging or pulling away without going in depth and trying to understand what people are going through. And yeah, I really like that analogy really did and you did anything come out at you from that first?

Yeah? I think also just kind of it was really interesting to hear the differences between you know, worrying and how it can I guess ultimately it feels like it's when you're worrying spirals out of control and how you and allow yourself to get to that point because worrying, I mean as in you sort of sitting. Then there are things that we are going to worry about, which it seems quite normal and natural. But I also think sometimes when we

let it go too far, that's when we're gonna being problems. And it just reminded me of a quote the Couple that are quite similar, like worrying is like being in a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but you go nowhere, or worrying is like Karen an umbrella just waiting for it to rain. So are different kind of aspects of that in the sense of, you know, with the rocking chair, yes you can worry, but

actually it's not really helping the situation. You think, oh, I'm thinking of all these things, and you know, just in case someone have you, And that's when we start to overthink. Our thoughts take over and starts to spiral out of control, you know, and that kind of then feeds into the other thoughts that continue until you know, we get too anxiety. And that's a really simplified version of what you know, we've been talking about

cerdainly with like Karen an umbrella waiting for a rain. While I might think I've I'm prepared and what have you, actually perhaps not, because that's where sometimes the irrational the irrationality comes in where you're just thinking what if, what if? What if? But actually sometimes you just have to kind of you know, you carry on, allow things to be happening. What have you. I'm also being prepared, but to a point where you go to the

other extreme is ever going to be helpful. So it was quite interesting to sort of see how easily I guess at times we can let our worry fed into the anxiety and sometimes there is a lot of irrationality with it, you know, and you know, all to be all do it, I'm sure, but how easy it can go from one thing to the other. So, you know, I think that's kind of that's what was coming to mind during that, and how sort of it's easy to me to say don't worry.

But you know, I've been there was a popular top up people though, don't worry, be happy, And you think, I wonder how easy that that possibly could be. Yeah, so maybe we're going to hear some obvious heaps and tips on how we can combat that. But sometimes if we spend a lot of time worrying and we couldn't you know, we've been talking a little bit about, Yeah it is you know, we're also standing on

God's promises and remembering what it's going to do for us. That'd be anxious for nothing if we really believe that would be we shouldn't be shouldn't it be easy to be able to do that? And that's kind of a question, is it put out there? But yeah, that's that's what my thoughts were. I'm not sure where thank you, Angie. I'm not sure where Pedro is. I'm not sure if he's there or he's sort of working in the background. I know he was having internet trouble, but that brings me nicely.

We're going to take a break on the song, but just a question to pose to our listeners and if anyone's on zoom, I'm not sure, what are you worrying about? Oh there is, I bet you. No worries, No worries? What about you? Did you have any quick takeaways from from that? First? For me personally, I would the other way.

I start thinking about you know, you talk to people or people sometimes are a certain way to watch you, and you take we take offense by it, and you say, oh, they're just mean or they're just nasty. But now, looking at like that Iceberg thing that Allison put up, you don't realize what they may be going through, and they may not.

It's not that they're taking it out of you. It's just you just happen to be in their line of sight in a sense, and so like now, it just makes you think, like now, maybe if we were to be more mindful, just bele just be more concerning or more like you know, try to find out or just in a in a Suddain way, just you know, not take have kind of thick skin and not take it personally

sometimes and just like action, you know, is everything okay? Because that's just the different things like she said, like you see all that that you don't realize that along with somebody being angry, it's so much stuff why they're angry? Are they embarrassed? Are they depressed? Are they you know, it's like it's so many different factors that you now just start thinking about, like what's really going on with this person? So you start caring about the

person like, Okay, is this something I can help you with? Is this something that's going on? It just got me thinking like in that sense and just the way we deal with people on a daily basis, Yeah, it's it's an opportunity to spring into action. Really, I think that's what it says to me. You know what, let's let's see if we can care for that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Like I'm not messing up there and they just they're just nasty. I'm not even gonna deal with them.

But we don't really look at you know, don't get me wrong with pet some people are nasty. Let's let's let's let's make that listen. My wife will tell you. I give you a chance, and if you still show it that then I am done. But yeah, you can, you

can try and care. And some people are just quick to just you know, cut, just like I'm not, you know, but sometimes you have to get to the underlying factor of you know, of why they are the way that they are, you know, because like as I said, there's so many factors that could be going on in that person's life and they're not even mad at you. It just happen. You just happen to be there. So it seemed like they're taking it out on you, but they're not.

They just got so much other stuff going on in their life. Absolutely, Uh, the question I want to ask our listeners and again it's eight trip two eight, I'm space, I'm hope space. And then your message or zero seven four five nine six four two eight nine eight you can send a WhatsApp or if you're further afiel, it's studio at Adventist Radio dot London and you can still join us on zoom. Let me find the details to share with you. It is. The idea is seven seven one three nine

eight six two zero nine. Again, that's seven seven to one three nine eight six two zero nine. And we want to just kind of get an idea of what you are worried about at the moment. What are some of the things that you are worrying about. I know, and I've said it time and time again, You're maybe tired of hearing it. I am worried. I've got a sixteen year old black boy raising in a community that's not all together safe. Again. I put my butt guardline there because really that's

all I can do is trust him. But I worry. I mean, these streets are unsafe at best, terrifying at worst, and I worry about him. And that's me as a parent. Don't don't ask me what I'm worrying about as a daughter, Don't ask me what I'm worrying about as an employee manager. This goes on and on and on, and what what are some of the things that you're worrying about? And do you think do you think that as Christians it shows that we have a lack of faith if we

do worry. That's a question I want to know. Does that make me an immature Christian or a weak Christian. If i am worried about my son, or I'm worried about how I'm going to make ends meet, I'm worried about my health or my family's health. What do you think about that? Again? Looking forward to hearing. It's better when it's interactive. Get on board and let us hear what your thoughts are. Our song comes from Bethel Music. I love this one. No longer slaves you all around me with

a reality. You surround me with song of deliver from my head Ony Lorma. I'm no longer sly. I'm a child God, I'm no longer slave. I am a child good for my mother's woe. You have chosen me love half calm. I've been born again to a family. Your blood flow through my f I'm no longer miss sleep saved Fee. I am but joy God. I'm no long misletaved Fee. I am but joy God. I'm no saved fee. I am cho go. I'm not saved feel a joy.

It's God you play the sae must be is at tun. You excuse me said, let's try jo you spread the seeth, you your last face. You excuse me said, SA, are you struggling to cope with life? Conflict, bereavement, fear, relationship, anger, depression, negative thoughts, trauma and uncertainty can all cause emotional imbalance. Don't struggle alone. CCS,

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to listen. Well. Welcome to Talking Point with Ray Send you poo Joe Angeler discussing the hot topics and answering your questions Saturday's five to seven pm on Adventist Radio. Linding this talking Point. It's talking Point, it's talking Point,

It's talking Point, real conversations you need to have. Welcome back to Talking Point and we're in the middle of our series bringing Down Strongholds, led by Alison A. Wuku, And this afternoon's topic is as a man thinketh worry, fear and anxiety just before we went on break, I was asking the question, what are you worried about? We're still looking forward to your answers that we will impact later. What are you worried about? And do

you think that worrying anxiety shows a lack of faith? Alison, I'm going to throw it right back over to you so that you can pick it up from there. Okay, thanks An. So, just before we went on the break, we looked at actually really understanding what worry, fear, and anxiety are. And now we're just going to look at the impact on our wellbeing because, like we said, we want to look at the how these things are impacting our wellbeing, how strongholds are being formed and impact in our

wellbeing. So let's start by looking at the impact physical symptoms of anxiety. I think we've touched on some of them, so increased muscular tension, we

have discomfort, headaches. We talked about having the excess adrenaline, and that's what really is causing chemical reactions in the body, causing muscular tension, rapid breathing, we feel sometimes light headed, shaky, We might feel pins and needles, rising blood pressure, pounding, heart changes in the blood supply to a digestive system, which can cause nausea, sickness, also urgency in needing

to use the toilet, butterflies in our stomachs, and more. There could be more chest pains and all sorts of you know, you can just imagine if you have a lot of anxiety, how you feel. It's different for different people, but definitely some people most people won't feel some of these physical symptoms. In terms of anxiety disorders, now we're going really going into the mental health aspect. So we have what we call common anxiety disorders. These

are the anxiety disorders that we see quite frequently within society. We have what we call generalized anxiety disorder GOD and generalized anxiety disorder is basically when we just worry about most things, including the fact that we're worried, you know. So it's that just general tendency to worry. And when we talk about generalized anxiety disorder, we start to look at, you know, what a person's believes are. Remember at the start I talked about core beliefs, and beliefs

are very important what we choose to believe. If we choose to believe that it's necessary for us to worry all the time, then we're going to adopt a mindset of worry, and we're going to be constantly worrying, or sometimes we might think we mustn't worry about anything whatsoever, And so the least worry or consent we have just generates even more worry because we're worried about the fact that we're worried, and then our lives become this ball of worry, and

it can be quite debilitating actually, because it can stop us from just experiencing normal day to day life because we have then all this production of adrenaline in the body, causing all of physical symptoms as well. It keeps us in a form of hyper activity, which means that our brains, the part of our brains that would normally be able to make decisions and think and problem solve when we're come, it's not able to function properly, and that includes us

spiritual well being. So the Holy Spirit communicates with us through the mind and through the front whal low. We need to be able to have a clear mind in order to interact with God effectively. So it's really important when God says, don't be anxious, don't worry, he understands just to answer your question partially, Zenya. He understands that we will worry as humans, and that's why he says, don't worry. So that's generalized. Anxiety is just

worrying. There's no definite, specific thing that we're worried about. It could be about why, it could be about home, it could be it's everything and anything. And then we have social anxiety disorder, and social anxiety is where we are preoccupied with the fact that other people are judging us negatively.

Other people are scrutinizing and negatively evaluating us. So what we do is we develop a sense of focusing so much on ourselves, how we don't look right, how something doesn't look right on us, how everyone else in the room is looking at us and criticizing us and judging us negatively. Or it could be when we're performing. It could be when we're doing public speaking. We think, you know, people are not even listening to what we're saying,

but they're just criticizing us. Social anxiety causes us to focus on things that we perceive are wrong with ourselves, and that makes us even more anxious. In actual fact, it's likely that everyone's going about their business not really thinking about you, not not to not flatter people, but nobody's spending all day every day just looking at you to criticize you. And that's that's the cause

of the social anxiety. I just want to say that, you know, sometimes where we're from collective cultures where people kind of have a say on what other people are doing, Individuals within those types of cultures can very quickly develop social anxiety, and then we've got what we call specific phobias. So that's

when somebody has something specific that they have a fear. They have a fear for heights, for example, they have a fear for spiders, for example, they have a fear of needles, of cotton, it's something specific. Terribly afraid of animals, terribly afraid of dust, or something that's a phobia. That's a fear that's irrational, and that can really take over somebody's ability to just experience life normally, god with friends, you know, have a

nice social experience because they have a specific phobia. It can stop people from getting the types of treatment that might be necessary if they have a phobia for needles, for example. So it's an irrational fear for something specific, and

that becomes a disorder. It gets when that fear gets in the way of our day to day normal life, and then we've got what we call panic disorder and agrophobia, and panic is where is This type of anxiety disorder is quite different from the other types of anxiety disorder in the sense that with panic, you start to feel the physiological effects of the anxiety before you notice the

cognitive effects the thinking what's going on in the mind. So when we go through maybe a certain experience or something happens in our lives, our body will register the impact. So if it's a heart speating very fast, and you know, a breathing is shallow and normally we get kind of chest pains and we feel like we're going to die, we can't. It's actually quite scary because you are not in control of what's happening in your body. But that's

a panic attack. And for a lot of people, once they've had a panic attack once, they're likely to have it again because they panic about the fact that they're going to have another panic attack. So with panic attacks, it's more the physiological symptoms of anxiety happening before the cognitive symptoms of anxiety. And then agrophobia is where people feel kind of the fear of being trapped in a particular space and they have developed an anxiety. Because of that, we

have what we call obsessive compulsive disorder OCD. Now OCD is quite serious anxiety disorder. I think a lot of people down played. I hear a lot of people say, oh, it's my OCD, it's my OCD. OCD can really negatively affect every aspect of a person's life. This is where a

person has an obsession in their thoughts, in their way of thinking. So they think something and because what they're thinking is it's so intrusive, what they do is they develop behaviors that they think and hope will neutralize the thoughts, the intrusive thoughts that they're having. So the obsessive is the intrusive thoughts, and the compulsive is the behaviors that they're engaging to try and neutralize the thoughts.

Now, those behaviors will only reinforce the intrusive thoughts. So if you think, well, if I don't check my door five times before I go to bed, something terrible is going to happen. Or there are people people who will switch their lights on and off about ten times, or check things, you know, or they have to wash their hands so many times. All of these compulsive behaviors will reinforce the intrusive obsessive thoughts and that keeps a

cycle going. And at it's where OCD will impact on relationships, will impact on a person's day to day life. That people who have not been able to travel, people who have not been able to have people in their houses, people who clean their houses five times a day, hoover their houses ten times a day because they have to keep doing these things, and it's quite serious. OCD is quite serious. We have also health anxiety, which is

where something is scard that they're going to have a particular illness. So and we can all be kind of worried and concerned that, you know, if we don't leave a healthy lifestyle, you know, our blood pressure is going to go up, or you know, sugar level is going to go up, or we're going to kind of have a cold or have a flu.

But in this case, this worry consumes the individual, so the point that they spend all of their time checking the internet doing search about this illness that they're concerns are going to have and all of the activities that they do to kind of research this illness. All that does is reinforce the fear of the illness, because at the end of the day, you will find if you're

looking for negativity, you'll find negativity. So if you're looking for negative stuff about, you know, particular illnesses, you go on the internet, you're going to find that information and that's going to make you more anxious. And you know, people with health anxiety will scan their bodies and if there's any little pain or anything, will connect it to that thing that the thing that illness are the thing that they're going to get. Now, if we think

there's something wrong with us, what do we do. We go to the doctor, We go and get examined, It gets investigated. But people with health anxiety, that's not even enough. Even when the doctors are saying we've checked you out and there's nothing wrong with you, they are still convinced that they're going to get this illness, you know. So that's another one that

can be quite tricky to treat. And then we've got post traumatic stress disorder, which is where we've had a major traumatic event like maybe a road traffic accident or sexual abuse or really bad physical abuse or death, we've lost something very close to us, and that we experience trauma, what we call trauma with the capital T. And this is one big major event that really keeps

playing back in our minds. So with PTSD, what we experience is all of the effects of that event playing back on us over and over again, and not effects just mentally, but also physically. We literally experience the way we felt maybe when we had a or traffic accident, the kind of tension, the hihyper vigilance, the smell, the sounds, anything that triggers any memory takes us back to you know, that place and what there's a lot

of avoidance of any triggers of that event. So that's PTSD is also quite a serious anxiety disorder. Can we have people who have more than one. Absolutely, If we've got somebody who was, for example, let's just say sexually abused as a child, it's very likely that they suffered PTSD. They keep getting that, they keep re experiencing that event over and over riggain.

They could probably possibly have health anxiety. They might think, oh, you know, because of this, I'm going to It's possible that have contracted an illness or a disease. A lot of the time, you know, people who have been a bit used will feel maybe dirty, will have an obsession with or intrusive thoughts about, you know, that same thing happening or the fact that that dirty. You find people cleaning themselves over and over again.

I've seen come across people who actually use bleach and detergent to clean themselves, clean their hands, and you know, when you delve deeper, you find some really horrendous stories about what they've been through. People who have panic attacks as a direct result, could have panic attacks as a direct result of that. Could have if something has been kind of sexually abused by the opposite sex,

could have a specific bubia for anybody of that opposite sex. Might might just have totally avoid them, would have a fear, an irrational fear that if they're around anybody like that that are going to kind of be abused again. They could experience social anxiety because they could think, well, everybody knows what's happened, everybody thinks that it's my fault, and would stay away from people. And the more you stay away from people, the more that social

anxiety is reinforced. And of course they would worry about everything and anything, so could have generalized anxiety disorders. So a lot of these disorders are called

mobid. They are existing alongside each other. It's really really interesting. It's really really important that you know, we understand that anxiety can be quite a serious mental, psychological emotional illness, and that we help people we understand potentially, you know, what might have triggered that anxiety, and understand that, you know, sometimes it's not their fault. You know, sometimes we can be quick to say, oh, don't worry, don't worry, it's fine,

you know, and yeah, maybe it will be fine. But like we had a look at the eyesbreak, imagine somebody's gone through kind of very difficult early life experiences, maybe neglect, maybe physical abuse, maybe verbal abuse, maybe emotional abuse or sexual abuse, that sort of thing. You know, the embarrassment, the rejection, the helplessness, all of those emotions that

we looked at in the anxiety iceberg could come into play. And you know, we might not really understand because we don't expect everyone to go around telling us what's happened to them. But I guess the point is we can be a bit more compassionate and for some of us. Some of these things have happened to us, and yes, we can be compassionate to ourselves as well. So those are the kind of common mental, emotional, psychological impacts of anxiety, right, I think I'm just going to pause there. Yes,

because it feels like I've talked a lot about people might have questions. Yeah, perfect, And I like how you have shared you use the analogy of the person who may have been sexually abused and saying how all of this can compound and they can Did you say coexist or comobid? Is that the term

that you've used. So you could be OCD, you could be traumatized, you could have panic attacks or as a result of something that happened several years ago, something that happened once, or very major effent that happened so long ago, but it still sort of impacts how you live your life today, and that we can't minimize, you know, the impact of these things on people. We can't minimize how difficult life can be for some people or for

all of us in some degree. And it's important I think for me from having these conversations, from seeing I'm being part of these presentations, is understanding that we are all here for each other. We need to be compassionate hearing, and as you rightly said in your very last sentence, we also need

to be compassionate and caring with ourselves. And did you yeah, no, as you said that, I mean again, that was a really thorough run down of some yeah, sort of the different disorders, which there are many, and I guess, I guess my question would be, it was interesting

actually looking at some of those. They're obviously from what I'm looking at, those diagnosed diagnosed conditions, but I think sometimes there is there are some times a tendency of people to kind of use some of those terms, just kind of use them, which I don't know where that kind of minimizes what's actually going on for them, or minimizes the kind of the terminology, And it's

kind of that necessary recognizing the true impact of some of these disorders. You know, So when you were talking about OCD, that's a really that's a really serious condition, but actually sometimes that's kind of used quite Dare I say it flippantly, as in, you know, somebody who's very neat entirely, for instance, might sort of talk about OCD and really minimizing it minimizing that should impact and the effects of it, which sometimes then may people may not

necessarily take those things very seriously and recognize just quite how serious it is. You know, I may have an anxiety disorder, but you know, okay, somebody could think, oh, you're anxious about something. You just worrying

it again, minimizing what it could be and what have you. So that's what I was kind of as I was as you were talking, as thinking, it's some of those terms monology, and I guess that's because I think it's great, you know, we're having this conversation, so we're having an understanding what these things are, but actually to recognize the depth of some of these things, you know, and whether that's kind of to recognize there could

be you could be displaying signs and symptoms of some of these things and not actually going out to get help. So hopefully this is raising awareness in that respect, but also not to kind of minimize what you might have gone through

and the impact it may have later on in life or have. You know, if other stuff's going on for you and you're kind of wondering what's going on, maybe it is time to actually, you know, go out and try and get some help and talk to somebody about it, see what's happening, because there's always reason that everything that happens sometimes, so you know, it's about and it's about raising awareness because some of these you know, the

terminology or terms that we use, you can either kinds of awareness maximize that or sometimes we use it without necessarily recognizing, you know, and how we then treat others can be very key as well, because we when not take other people serious, y, not be kind enough to people, or empathetics. So yeah, there's a lot, there's a lot there. I'm not

I'm not asking anyone to be a therapist, but not at all. I'm trying to create awareness and I think by some time having terminology around things, having language around things will help people identify and maybe you know, prompts people to encourage others to get help or get help themselves. So it's not asking you know, the Christian population to suddenly diagnose people, and you know,

it's just the awareness. Like you said, yeah, that's what I was actually gonna that's just as about to mention, when you think of anxiety, you just think of like OCD or the PTSD. That's like the most the two common ones, but you brought up so many different ones that we probably don't even realize exist but are there, and it's just given, like you said, awareness of what's gonna Well, what specific phobia for me will be

more being a phlebotomis. I hear it ninety five of patients when I go to draw their blood, Like I don't like needles, and I see some philbitomis just say it's just a needle, give me an domination, stick them, and they don't realize how much they just injured that person's mental capacity at that moment. Personally, I don't. I'm a philibotomist over twenty years. I don't like needles, so I actually do have a fear of them, so I understand. So I'm more calm with them in that aspect. I'll

talk to them more. But we just don't understand that because like you, like you said, you know, you just just say, oh, it's not it's just a needle. You should be afraid, or like you said, like you know, you say you got OCD, but you really don't have OCD. But that's just the term we used to be to be funny. It's just I think in life, we have to learn certain things.

We just need to stop saying certain things because it does minimize the real effect that it has on people, and we're kind of like, you know, just pushing them to the side, and then it makes them feel even less likely to express themselves or say that, hey, I got this problem, because I think if I say, they're just gonna think it's a joke. The more you know, they they take a lot more punishment than they need to take because we're not being aware of they actually could be going through some

you know, going through something that's not only point. That's what I got from it, but I didn't realize that so many different anxieties. I'm like, my goodness, gracious, my head is about toplode. I'm sorry. It's good way it's not. It's like, I'm like, wow, I need to look up all this stuff and kind of like get a general you know, because in all honesty and working in healthcare, a lot of people

have these issues. And if we can better understand the different types, I could be a better healthcare worker because now I can I can kind of recognize it. I'm not, like you said, I'm not trying to be a professional but just allow me to recognize, you know that, hey, maybe this person's got you know, suffering a little bit from that. So it's good to know, you know, knowledge, is it's good to know?

Yes, absolutely, Alison. I will take a music break now, but just to ask you before we go, Uh, Pedro said that OCD maybe and some of the others are more common. Is that is that the case in your practice and in your experience. Are some are more prevalent than the others? Yeah? And I'm just going to say, because there are some that I have heard of and some I haven't, just as Pedrol is saying, but is it the case that we're not aware or is it that there

are really some that are more prevalent than others? I think generalized anxiety disorder we see a lot of. So some of some of the disorders are core morbid. And we're saying more and more PTSD and whether that's because people have become I think it's because people are becoming more aware. So people are talking a lot more about some of the past traumas that they've had. And you know, for a lot of people who have had PTSD, a lot of the time it comes with panic attacks, as well, So we see a

lot of these disorders coming together with something else. With COVID. Health anxiety went COVID and OCD. Health anxiety and OCD went off the roof because, as you can imagine, if you already had OCD and you were told to wash your hands with COVID, you were doing that even more. You were

cleaning, tidying your house even more. And then the health anxiety, we saw a lot of that a lot more because people worried that they were going to get COVID, they were going to get other health conditions as well, one of them being with long COVID. A lot of people have chronic for take syndrome as well, So you know, there's all sorts of things happening,

you know. At the same time, I just want to say, you know, we are Health is a whole, it's about the whole person, and anything that's affecting us physically is also impacting on us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. So when we talk about wellbeing, let's think about holistic health, not just physical wellbeing. Yeah, well said all right, I will take I think Andrew, this was one of your choices. It's Kirk Franklin all things. Can I talk to you? I know you guys were

questions. What's the hardest thing you're going through? To talk about? Talk? Life will change? Talking about things I can do well, talking about nights, time goes away and my dreams, telling me e race, talking about all things. I said, I can do all things. I understand it. Bast always be so withstards and no one ever planned you talking about all things, all the biggins of small things. I'm so sure I can do all things, talking about town stand my mind. I'm out of funds

and out of time. I need a blessing. I need you to do all things. See I understand that at all. Interested in case, I'm so with goods and no one ever planned you tell talking about all things things, get a souls. I can do all days things. Let's go I can do. Just because he's silent time doesn't mean that he's still. He's not only preparing it for you, He's preparing you. Put it. Let's go things. Lessing begins as he sees you. Yes, let's sing.

See the blessings coming. We had to get your reddit for it. Are we talking about? Are we talking about? Come on again? Love? People? Say, I think it's a possible you can't about you shut rap by. He's a good guy. He's a good guy. Come on, he's a good god. He's a good Come on all things by. Kirk Franklin may have a chance a little later to play Hello Fair. It's another

very good song, applicable song from Coke Franklin's collection. You're listening to Talking Point and we are having a powerful conversation led by alisoner Wilkou on worry, fear and anxiety as part of our series bringing Down Strongholds. You can still be a part of the conversation. It's eight triple to eight Space Hope and then your message or studio at Adventist Radio Dot London. And of course you can watch up us now on zero seven four five nine six four two eight

nine eight. If you still want to come, there's about half an hour ago to go. If you don't want to come, onto the zoom it's seven seven one three nine eight six to zero nine. And the questions we posed were what are you worried about? What are you anxious about at the moment? And I know we all are. Does that reflect lack of faith? You think that worrying reflects lack of faith. Let me know your thoughts on that. Alison, back over to you. Thank you so much.

So just to quickly recap, we've had a look at understanding worry, fear and anxiety. We've had look at the impact of worr if, fear, anxiety on our wellbeing, and now we're going to talk about, actually, how do we bring down the strongholds of worry, fear, and anxiety. Remember we talked about strongholds being things that hold hold us captive, which are based on a particular belief or like worlds of resistance in the mind that stopped

us from living the purposeful life that God has promised. So how do we bring down these strongholds of worry, fear, anxiety. From the last week session, we talked about the stronghold having the walls of lies. So the wolds of lies you think about a mighty fortress, you think about high, big walls, and we need to bring down the walls that of lies that the enemy plants in our minds. It's a lot of the time we worry

about things that the enemy makes us feel we should worry about. We think, well, this thing happened in the past is going to happen again. So we become hypervigilance. We worry excessively or hypothetically, and then it becomes anxiety and we can't do anything. We've heard about the various anxiety disorder us that really stop us from living day to day life as God has purposed for

us. John eight thirty two. Christ said, then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free, bringing down the walls of lies. Need us to know the truth. What truth is? Are we talking about the word of God? The word of God will say at us free. If we go to look at the Gospel of Matthew chapter twelve, verse twenty nine, it says that there is a strong man behind the stronghold, a dominant negative force that keeps a person captive. And in the case

of worry and anxiety, that force is fear. Fear is what keeps us captive. It makes us feel anxious. We need to understand the force behind the wall. The wall. We have a wall. We want to bring down that wall. How do we bring down the world and Matthew twelve twenty nine or else, how can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil

his goods, except he first bind a strong man. If you don't know how to deal with the fear, how are you going to bring down that strong So we need to understand what is it that is causing us to be afraid, What is it that's causing us to worry excessively? And we need to have an objective perspective in our thinking. If we are afraid, if we are worried excessively, we need to understand where that's coming from. Is it from something from the past. Is it worrying about something about the future

that we have no control over. If we don't understand what that forces that's keeping us captive, we're not going to be able to bring down the wall of lives. The wall of lives will remain built very highly in our minds and we will not be able to bring them down. Also, we need to bring down the towers. Remember we talked about the fortress having towers, and we liken the towers to our imagination, towers of unhelpful imagination. How

do we do that. We understand fear, what we're afraid of, and we understand how it impacts us. Fear makes us exaggerate our challenges in our minds. Okay, so we start to imagine things and kind of magnify things in our minds, and when we do that, we're building towers by making the problem bigger, we're kind of magnifying the problems in our minds. That

builds towers of unhelpful imagination. So instead of paying attention to our problems and making them bigger in our minds, we can exalt God and trust in his power and his promises. Last week we talked a lot about God's promises. God's promises are very powerful. So rather than feed the fear and feed the unhelpful imagination, why don't we look at God's promises. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Call upon me in the day of trouble,

and I will leave you. The Angel of the Lord and comes around those who fear him. So let's look at the promises of God. Let's look at what God is saying, and let's be patient and not give up. It gets easier and better we practice and consistency. So you know, our imaginations are things that are conditioned in our minds over the time. To bring down the towers of unhelpful imaginations, we have to keep looking at the promises, keep reading the Word of God, keep praying, keep being consistent.

And that's not gonna you know, the towers of unhealthful imagination will not just disappear overnight. We need practice. We need to make that lifestyle, the word of God, prayer, relying on the promises of God man. And then we have to bring every thought thought into captivity. So we talked about the fortress, the strongholds having captains inside who would strategize. And these are like captive, the thoughts in our minds that hold us keep us captive.

How do we bring every thought into captivity? Again, Let's remember that we're either captive of our thoughts or thoughts control us. So we can have our thoughts captive, or we can allow our thoughts to control us. But let's you know, we are not our thoughts. We said this last week. Let's remember we are not our thoughts. We need to make our thoughts

captive, but first we need to be aware of them. We can use scripture to bring down the thoughts into to bring our thoughts into captivity and lead them where God wants us to know what God where God wants us to go. Rather and again, let's be patient, let's not give up. From a practical level, we can manage our worried thoughts. I have what I call what we call a tree, the worry tree, and it's just a way of processing our thoughts. So on the screen, it's a tree,

and it's like a plow chart on the tree. So you're going through a process where you're noticing, first of all, that you're worried. Remember we have about forty eight thoughts a minute, all right, so we're thinking thousands of thoughts every day. And when we have a thought that causes us to worry, let's trans zooming on that thoughts and think about, Okay, what is it that I'm actually worried about? Because sometimes we don't actually know what

we're worried about. We know we're worried about stuff, and there's a lot of stuff going on in our minds that we can't actually put a finger on actually where that worry started. What was the thoughts that started to worry, because perhaps it's become a chain reaction and we don't even know where the warr is started. So notice the worry. What am I Ask yourself what am I worrying about? And then The next question on the worry trade is that

can I do something about this? And if the answer is no, then let the worry go and change your focus of attention. If you can't do anything about it, how is worrying going to help you? Apart from cause you to have migraines, cause you to have maybe chest pains, high blood pressure, how is it going to help you? If you can do something about it, then you need to make a plan. What are you going to do about it? When are you going to do it, and how

are you going to go about it? What resources the unique? Make a plan and are you going to do it? Something about it now. If you're going to do something about it now, then go and do it, because once you've done it, you've done what you can and then you can focus on something else, like what you're having for dinner this evening, or what you're buying from the shop tomorrow, or change your focus of attention. If you're going to do something about it later, then make a plan when

are you going to do it? And once you've planned when you're going to do it, it's in the diary. Change the focus of attention. Think about something else. You've done all you can now the worry Tree for people who are listening. There's an app on I think Apple Play you can get if you look up worry Tree. It actually takes you through this process and you can actually put things in your calendar and then let the worry go. I think it's quite a good app. I think there are various versions of

the app, and you can get the basic version for free. But look it up and see if you can get itself on the app. That's going to help you practically on managing your worry. Okay, so bringing down strong holds of fear, worry, and anxiety on a spiritual level, I've got something. Here's an acronym from Warren. He's an evangelist for those who don't know him, and I like what how he uses think and the T is for test every thought. The age is helmets of salvation. The I is

imagining book thoughts from the Word of God and the promises of God. The end is for nourish your mind daily by connecting with God and the right people. And K is for keep on learning about things that edify and build you up. Think all right, So on a spiritual level, just think, test every thought, put on the helmets of salvation. Imagine book thoughts from

the word of God and the promises of God. Nourish your mind daily by connecting with God and the right people, and keep on learning about things that will edify and build you up. I don't know how many people listening have heard the prayer of serenity. It's a very simple prayer. And if people really look at Philippians four six to seven that says, do not be anxious for anything. With prayer and supplication, make a requests known to God.

I think it's kind of like this prayer, some sort of that scripture, and the prayer says God grants me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. So, in conclusion, when the strongholds of anxiety, fear, and worry are brought down, you will notice that your mind is a powerful thing, and when you feel it with positive thoughts, your life will to change. You can correct your mind. If you can correct your

mind, the rest of your life will fall into place. These are quotes God, and there's a prayer from an unknown authought. God grants me a mind free of worry, a heart free of sadness, and a body free of sickness. And Jesus Christ himself said, I have come that you may have life, and have it to the full. So let's remember Philippians four six to seven. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding. Will God your hearts and minds in Christ Philippians four eight. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. And Matthew, one of my favorites, six twenty

five to twenty seven. Therefore, I tell you versus Christ saying, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body what you will wear. Its life. It's not life more than food, and the body more than clothes. Look at the beds of the air. They do not reap, store away or store away in bands. You get your heavenly father, really teach them, And are you not much more valuable? Than there than they can any one of you by worrying at

a single hour to your life. And John first John for eighteen says there is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out all fear. And Romans talk to says, and be not conformed to this world, but be y transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God. And finally, Philippians two five says, let this mind be in you, which is in Christ. For God second Timothy one seven has not given us a spirit of fear, but

of power, of love and of a sound mind. So thank you so much everyone for listening. It's been good to go through this with you. And I will hand back over to Xenia for discussions, comments, questions. Thank you, perfect, Thank you so much. Alison Well said, well presented. I think we were talking offline and Pedro went wow, and I'm wowing online. And it's the impression I got when I first heard the series.

It's just so full. Pedro, what's what's your takeaway from that from that last second from the whole program, Yes, I can hear you now. I thought the whole program of information just wanted to say that last memory verse that you gave Alison, My wife uses that memory verse all the time. She loves that mem verse. So I know that when you said that one, I knew right off the back. She's alwayss caoding that one. But it's a it's a lot to unpack, but it's worth unpacking for me.

I just think it just opened up my mind to just think about the different aspects of mental health and anxiety and just to be more what's the word, I can't think of the word, but just to be more mindful of the fact that these things do exist, that we need to be more diligent and understanding them and not so just to like push them to the side and

act like they don't exist, because they do exist. And I appreciate, like Zenga said, I do appreciate the whole aspect because it's it's definitely opened up my brain too to start thinking more and want to investigate more and read more to get a better understanding for future, you know, and about to be fifty. So the fact that it took me fifty years to even thing start thinking about some of the stuff, like man, like wow, I didn't even think you know, I guess you no matter how you get,

you're always learning something. Definitely, I definitely read a lot today, so thank you, and she yeah. Likewise, I mean, there's there's there's a there was a lot there and it's kind of a lot to unpack, and I guess I'm going to go away. But what I loved actually was the kind of tools that we can utilize because as much as you know, sometimes we worry about things because we sometimes think, oh, maybe you can't

do anything about it, or there's no solutions. Actually there's a way to deal with the worry in itself, and then maybe it's about using that opportunity as ways to kind of find solutions for things. So I love the idea of you've got the worry tree in a bit of a flow chart to really kind of get you to think about it in a logical, rational kind of way. You know, you're going through asking questions about is it you know, can you do something about it? And if you can, yes,

let's go ahead and see. If you can't, sometimes just let it go because that's literally what we need to do. I love them. I love the acronym of think and again it's we're talking about how these strongholds sometimes they start from those thoughts that start to overtake us. There's negative impact, there's

negative thoughts that we have and allow them to take hold of us. So the idea that we're putting on the helmet of salvation and utilizing those to kind of influence our mind in a really positive way, in a God connected way,

to nourish, to learn to uphold. And you know, just there are so many we talked about this last week, so many texts and you've quoted some great ones at the end there about God's promises how we can change our minds as it were, and focus our minds more effectively, more positively. So I loved all of that. So again, you know, we're talking about how things impact our mind and we have to be mindful that these

the enemies is, you know, is powerful. I think sometimes really underestimate, you know, how powerful he is and how much of an influence we are. How we are influenced and bombarded with messages of disaster, no hope, all of those things, and actually, you know, we've got to sometimes work really hard to try and counterap that. But you know, I'm glad to know that we're not on our own doing this. You know,

God is more and more powerful and it is connecting with him. So there were some yeah again some gems there, and you know we talked about, you know, connecting the word, recognize that God's word is truth, and that we want to we want to connect more and learn more. So give me. Had a bit of a challenge last week to trying to find a texted day because there are there are hundreds promises, so you're then to fix

on there. So you know, Alison, you shared about six or seven throughout, so you know, if there's at least one for every day next week? So yeah, that was coold. Do you have do you have one that isn't listed there that you've sort of is your go to? And that's my question for anyone listening, actually, what what is your go to text? I think we all need one or you know, one for each day of the week really to be fair. So what's your go to text

in these situations or trouble? I think actually, and I think as you might have been mentioned as a forty first saty one, there's that wait on the Lord or man up with wings and I think sometimes we're like I feel really tired right now and really quite You've had quite a stressful week, and I sometimes think of that, thinking, you know, if I'm trusting in him, he will give me the strength and even if it's not today, at some point I will get through it and I'll be able to run and

not just walk orpe be able to pick me up when I've fallen there. So that's always I mean, for me, it hasn't memories. So it's one of the first sort of text I member when I kind of got reback ties that I actually remembered. I'm saying, I don't recall it now, but it meant so much for him because you know, at the end of the day, sometimes I can't just do it on my own. And that's

really what a lot of this to do is to do with. You know, it's not We're trying to work and we're finding out ways in which we can you know, make a change, bring those bring our strong holds down. But it's not about me doing it alone. I may have to draw on ultimately God's help, but other people's help as well, and programs like

this. While we're talking about it, even that's a great starting point because it's raising our awareness, showing us that I might be going through things or other people will be going through things things, and how we can work together and work with other people to kind of do that ultimately be kind, you know, came to ourselves and to other people. Recognizing that people are going through we can offer support, to encourage people to get support or to help

ourselves. Then that can only be a good thing. So that's that's probably one of my ones that I have other ones, noted all of those to add to my list. So I'm going I just want to tell you real QUI sorry you were one. That's what the tour you were one going go on. But sometimes you do separate. Tell me what's yours to that I grew up? That won't be the best one for me that I can think of. Want about it being a performed as well. Okay, I think

God doesn't want us to be like the world. He wants us to be ourselves but also have Him in us. And if God is in us, then everything else will work out and he will lead us down the path we're supposed to go and people will notice a difference in you. And I think that's if we can do that in life, if we can go through life where people see a difference in you. It actually makes people change themselves sometimes because they realize, no matter what they do, or no matter what they

say, you're still going to be you do. That brings me nicely to our question. I did pose it to our listeners, but I haven't had a response, and so I'm posing it to you, Alison. I've put you in the hot seat, and it draws really from what Petro's just saying. Can I conclude is it wrong to conclude then that if we are men and women of faith that we shouldn't struggle or is it that we shouldn't struggle as much as what's the answer to that? Well, how does our faith

impact our fear and our struggle with fear? I'll just start by saying that should and shouldn't. It's already a problem for me because that you know, should shouldn't These are rules that we make and that actually cause anxiety. We can say that ideally it would be better if we kind of took us struggles to God, and then the God of peace that passes all understanding will help us. Now, if we don't have worries, we'll never be able to

appreciate peace. So I don't know if that kind of have to answer your question. But you know, if we think about Christ in the Garden of gethse Many, I think it was for of anxiety he had lo and you know, he asked for the cop to be taken away from him if he wasn't anxious and worried about what was going to happen to him. So, you know, I think there's an understanding. God understands. God created us, and he knows us inside out, and he understands all of the challenging

emotions that we experience. You know, we're not just there to kind of present ourselves as happy all the time. But he understands that in our trials and tribulations we will feel the anxiety, and therefore he encourages us to come to him and pray to him with supplication and thanksgiving. Make our request onto him. He says, cast all your cares upon me, because I care about you. If he knew that we were never going to have any cares, he wouldn't ask us to custom on him. So let's be real,

as Chris, and let's be real. The only way that we're gonna connect with the world and represent Christ and help others to come to know Christ is if we're real. And I think it's not authentic or congruence. If anybody who is listening or any one of us turned around and said, I don't worry anymore because it's not Christian to worry, I think that would be a lie. So God understands when we worry, but it's what we do with

the emotions, with the challenging emotions that we feel that's important. He says, go to him. You can go to him with anger, with depression, with anything, and that's okay. So and He will make us to experience the peace. I mean personally, early last year, I had health scare. All right, I had a healthcare and I was worried. I was very anxious, and I prayed efficiency for six to seven and I felt so much peace. That's what took me through that period. And I trusted

God. I believed in God. I said to him, I know that you'll take me through this and I'll be okay. But I was still worried, and we kind of really reflecting on that prayer, he helped me to appreciate his peace, which passes all human understanding. So it's okay for us to worry as Christians, but like Angela said earlier, Ron, it's okay not to be okay, but then do something about it. Go to God, read your Bible, lean on the promises of God, pray and sick

sick sick professional help if you need to. Absolutely, we thank you very much, Alison. We're out of time, and if we we when we not, if we when we come back next week, that's a good place to pick up perhaps, is that when when do we know and this is a question to ask and put on on the banner next week, when do

we know that it is time to go and seek professional help? Because yes, as you've said, we ask Christians, we need to keep it real and these are struggles that we will have and we know where to go. We know God is our help and our health and our strength, but we also equally need to know that there may be times that we need other support and He is still in charge of that. He sends this other support, he puts these structures in place, He gives people wisdom and understanding, so

it doesn't show weakness or lack of faith to use these resources. So thank you very much for that, and We'll touch on that a little bit next week, because we are back next week with another leg, another episode, another part to the series bringing down Stronghold, and really looking forward to that. What are we talking about next week? Very quickly, Alison, what is the topic that we've got for next week? We're dealing with depression?

Depression week lovely, I'm not lovely, but okay for me, I think I want to just close it with three minutes over the over the hour, Pedro, if you can pray for us, but for me, what I want to take away from from this program is, or what I want to end with, is your serenity prayer. It's a lovely prayer. It's one I've heard said over and over again, and it's a good reminder today and

I think I may even post it. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Thank you so much for that reminder, Pedro. Sorry, I'm going to get the bishop coming in saying it's time. But if you could close yourself, I could have. Indeed I could have could have, but I did ask you so I know you're,

you're, you're already we go through this new week. As we start this week, we want to ask Lord that you will give us the knowledge and standing and and the spirit in our soul to if we are dealing with something that is just not right with our spirit, our soul, that you will have us to come to your brayer, to go to somebody for help, to try to have the problem rectify yourself, have an a follow with your

help. We thank you that you have brought us this far and this long, and react that you will continue to be with for us and watch over us and everything we do, and say that we may be ready for when you come to pick us to take us back for eternity what our brain Holy name. Amen, thank you, thank you for staying with us, thank you for joining in. And as we said, we'll be back next week. We'll share the details again so that you can be part of the conversation.

Thank you, Allison. It's good night from me Zanya. Good night for Angela and Pedro, and good night God, bless you and I have a wonderful week. Blessing Adventist Radio London. Inspiration for the song