Part 2

While feeling anxious is very normal, we all develop patterns of response that complicate our experience. Those responses, often learned early in life, can keep us from handling anxiety with awareness of the presence of God. For example, most of us process anxiety by worrying. We hit auto-play on our thoughts about the problem, and the moment we wake up, we start processing. Usually that processing is our attempt to find “hope” in some solution. But what happens if that solution doesn’t materialize? Hope is extinguished and worry intensifies. If the solution does materialize, it can actually cement our pattern of worry. Examining our responses can help us learn our patterns so that we can begin creating new patterns. New patterns have to be rooted in something bigger than us, which is another benefit of this investigation of understanding our desires, values, and beliefs.