If I am going to play beautiful music I need to practice. If I am going to play beautiful music in harmony with you, I have to practice my keys and then I need to practice harmonizing my keys with yours. However, when I am anxious and overwhelmed I begin to shut down and I am not able to practice my keys and there definitely isn’t any harmony with you. So what do I need to do in order to start harmonizing with you once again?
I need to practice the Key of building strong new joy pathways: Joy pathways in my brain are able to let me return from the despair of overwhelm (and any other big emotion that shuts me down) to a place of joy once again. These pathways in my brain help the joy center of my brain to grown and have more capacity. The more used and stronger these pathways are, the sooner and easier it is for me to return to joy. Since joy is built around relations and staying in relational mode, my practice centers around being thankful in general and then being thankful in and for relationships. A relational “infant” is not able to do this on their own.
So, in brief my practice goes like this…. 1. I Calm myself down…. take some deep breaths ….. quit talking ….. realize that anxious thoughts are based on imagination ….. stop my busy body activity ….. 2. I Practice appreciating …… starting with something very simple like the fresh air …… thanking Jesus that He loves me …… a kind expression that someone gave me recently ……
I then repeat my tried and true verse; “IN everything give thanks, for it is God’s desire that I am able to give thanks IN everything; because Jesus is always with me IN everything. This builds a strong joy pathway in my brain that is easy to access when needed.