Q & A Archives
These are Questions & Answers posed by ordinary people looking for guidance. Dr. Judy Baus has thoughtfully answered each person and feels that these responses just might help someone else in their time of need.
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01/09/2010 04:41 PM
Dear Judy
I feel over the top stressed out all of the time, wound tight as a top. It’s starting to affect my relationship with my family and friends. I want to learn how to handle this overwhelming feeling and relax? I wish I could find a remedy somewhere, no matter the cost, that would just melt my problems away. Can you help me?
Dear Uptight One,
I can empathize with you because years ago, I was feeling so overwhelmed, I was almost immobile. The simplest tasks seemed insurmountable and the hard tasks would put me in a real dilemma. Even when I knew I had the skills to do the task, it just weighed me down. Being stressed all the time lead me into depression. But I did find help, which I’ll share and hope it helps you.
You did not say if you are a Christian. My worst problem with stress came before I became a Christian. At that time I had no skills to bring myself out of the hole I was in. I thought a little drink would help and a little pill would do it for me, and then the little drink led to many drinks, and one pill led to many pills. I’m sorry to say that many years of abusing both alcohol and prescription drugs almost wrecked my life, my marriage, and my son.
I read many self-help books searching for ways to pull myself out of the cycle of overwhelming pressures, substance abuse and depression. I was desperate to find help, but the self-help books didn’t help one iota.
I am happy to say that in time, I responded to the help that had been there for me all the time. I began looking up to the one who created me and everything around me and in our great universe. And that is God. I began reading the Creator’s manual, the Bible, for His solutions to my problems. I figured He should know best since he created me!
I read in the Bible that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). When a person is feeling stressed all the time, they feel like they are perishing. But God says whoever believes in His Son can have everlasting life. As I searched the Scriptures, I found that by accepting Jesus Christ as my Savior and turning my life over to Him, all the promises in the Bible became mine. Wow! What a self-help book! I say self-help because I had (and have) the privilege of helping myself with the Word of God by reading it and believing it and stopping the stressful and overwhelming patterns of my life. And you, and anyone, can do the same.
Here’s how I relax. I look at my calendar and I get my priorities in order. The very first thing that I do each day is find strength in the book of promises that belong to me, the Bible. I also talk to my creator in prayer. I read God’s word, I talk with God. And then I exercise my body. After this, I am ready to face my day, not somehow, but triumphantly.
It seems to me that our society is on a jet-speed treadmill, and trying to keep up with the fast pace is stressful, so why not learn to relax by focusing some time in your day on the words of eternal life, the Bible. God can be your emotional strength, and when you know that, He will give you the ability to rest in Him.
"Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass (Psalms 37:5)."
When we trust Him to handle every situation, then we will be able to unburden and truly relax!