Fostering courage and resilience during the pandemic.
We recognize that fear is everywhere. The invisible corona virus heightens fears of disease, infection, dying, losing touch of financial losses or ruin. Scriptures back up this reality check that to be afraid is not a matter of if, but of when: more than three hundred versions of “do not be afraid” appear in Scriptures. These aim to replace fear with focus on the fact that God is with us, right in the middle of this scary pandemic. Grace based Counselling helps push through this reality check and offers strategies to ‘not be afraid’ to the point that it paralyzes or overcomes us.
Talk to God! When we draw near to God, He will draw near to us, forever. Jesus directed us to share all our anxieties with him and offered His peace of mind in exchange. The apostle Paul, a seasoned expert in trauma survival and recovery, encouraged us to pray 24/7.[James 4:8, 2 Cor. 11: 23-27, 1 Thess. 5:17.]
Increase Other-Talk. When anxious, sleep deprived and not functioning well, consider the option of counselling services via digital means. Thankfully there are many safe, confidential platforms available that offer quality counselling opportunities, and countless people benefit from the gift of technology. Be encouraged to connect with us at Cascade Christian Counselling with any questions or concerns regarding this.
Talk Back to your tears. Grieving well includes allowing and creating plenty of space for tears. Grieving well is the hard work of refusing to be overcome by self-pity. Talking back to your tears is fuelled by courage and commitment to overcome difficult situations. It is realizing that, in the word of Bruce Cockburn, …. nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight/got to kick at the darkness ’til it bleeds daylight.[Bruce Cockburn – Lovers in a dangerous Time.–Stealing Fire, 1984.]
Reduce self-talk when anxious, depressed or isolated. Self-talk may lead to automatic thought patterns that, unawares, may lead us to view reality in an unbalanced way. When we ruminate, we tend to filter out the positives and dwell on the negatives of any given situation. Self-talk may also cause us to catastrophize by anticipating that the very worst possible scenario will likely come about. Fortunately, even bad situations do not rob us of our capacity to choose. It is up to us whether we allow our anxiety to control us or us take control of our anxiety. We can press the ‘pause button’ of our thoughts and realize that we do not need to believe every anxious thought we think, and fear driven emotion we feel at ‘face’ value.
Talk to your soul. Soul-talk is modelled in Scripture, (Ps. 42/3, 103, 146). It is quite like instructing your soul to sit up and listen. It is preaching the Gospel to your own soul: “The same sovereignty that could stop the coronavirus, yet doesn’t, is the very sovereignty that sustains the soul in it.”[John Piper, Coronavirus and Christ. Copyright© 2020, Desiring God Foundation, Crossway 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton,llinois 60187 p.24]
Heres Snjider, B. Ed., MA, RCC
Contract Counsellor, CCCA