Holy in the Daily

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How To Keep Stress From Killing Your Spiritual Life

Is stress killing your spiritual life and damaging your relationships? Do you have moments when your stress level triggers frustration and bleeds over onto the people around you? Welcome to the human race!

Most people aren’t aware of how much uncontrolled stress damages their interactions. I find that when stress bleed-out happens, the Holy seems far away and my spiritual life feels flat.

In addition, stress causes problems physically, emotionally, and mentally. According to the Mayo Clinic, stress can produce high blood pressure, stomach problems, headaches and a poor immune system. The feelings of irritability, anger, depression and sadness can be symptoms of untreated stress—all of which can lead to conflicts with others.

Here are 5 tips to help you deal with the stress in your life:

1. Recognize that stress is a signal that you need more time with the Spirit Holy. Why do you think you can handle stress when just the experience of it screams otherwise? You can’t live this life in your own power, so you had better seek the One who has come to live inside you (see John 16:33 and Romans 8:11). Ouch!

2. Find friends to pray with you and help you process your stress. You were not designed to carry the cares of your life alone (see Galatians 6:2).

3. Set clear boundaries in your life. All of us feel overwhelmed when we fail to place limits in our areas of responsibility. It isn’t long before our negative emotions leak out on others causing damage we later regret.

4. Eat a balanced diet heavy in vegetables and fruits. Poor eating habits contribute to imbalances in hormones and brain chemistry. Skipping meals throws off your blood sugar levels and elevates your stress levels!

5. Take a half hour walk or participate in another form of exercise once a day. Exercise gives your stress a healthy release and causes you to relax.

Stress results from living in a fallen world with imperfect human beings—of which I am one. How have you found the stress in your life damaging to your spiritual life? How has it injured your relationships? What helps you cope with your stress? I’d love to hear your comments.

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

For other stress related posts on this blog, see How To Keep People From Draining the Peace Out of Your Day, Part 1 and How To Keep People From Draining the Peace Out of Your Day, Part 2. For more health information on stress see the Bupa Health Stress Fact Sheet and the Stress Management page of the Mayo Clinic.

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This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Mc Chavez

    Keeping relationships with family and friends (extended family) can be an ongoing challenge, especially when the cares of life come in the form of work, which is transacted to pay the bills. It’s a sacrifice of effort and the increasingly valuable commodity of time, which can require a lot of self-talk to get it done with a positive ‘tude. So it’s during these challenges that I try to discipline myself to find some way in which to preserve these relationships – with Christ and with others.

    One way is to just stop in the middle of it – sometimes especially in the middle of it when it’s absolutely the least convenient – and talk to the Lord and acknowledge His care and presence. It’s a sacrifice of praise. But it’s warfare, too, which reminds both self and any “critters” who might also be interested, that Christ owns me…not the cares or the work or the stress.

    Another way is delaying completion of my work and seeking more time to finish it. This is involves tangible risk, as my employment requires deadlines and is often of the feast-or-famine variety. Writing for a living can offer flexibility, but requires flexibility of myself, as well. But still, of what use am I to my children, for example, if I spend no time with them or am not making opportunities to truly be “present” with them for any length of time? It’s times like these that I can’t allow stress to rule me and undermine what matters most, but it’s a challenge.

    And if I’m losing my mind, trying to finish my work, of what use am I to my employer if my work is sub-par? At this moment, I’m on borrowed time to finish a major project. The minutes I’m taking out of my work time includes typing this and an occasional “heya” to friends on Facebook, an e-mail, or a telephone call in lieu of more concentrated time I can spend with others when I’m finished. This requires less of a fear of man, reminding me all over again that I’m His first, and on loan to others, second. But just maybe someone will benefit from what I’m sharing. If anything, they can be reminded that I’m a fellow sister right there with them in spirit, encouraging to take time out, too, even a little bit!

    Thanks for today’s message, Susan. It’s a good reminder to not sweat the small stuff in the day-to-day, which mostly is small stuff when considering the cost it can require in the Eternal.

    love,
    ~ m

  2. Mc Chavez

    PS: These comments are also in response to your previous post about work killing relationships. It’s been going ’round and ’round on my mental hard drive since reading it! Thanks again. <3

  3. mary

    I love how practical this post is. Who among us does NOT struggle with stress and the toll it takes upon us and those around us. My main issue with stress is that it affects the way I think and how I perceive others–usually playing out in becoming more sensitive or easily offended. Good thoughts on how to live through stress, mom!

  4. Susan Gaddis

    Thanks for your comments, girls. Heavy thoughts, Melissa, but important. Glad you shared them. And Mary, I know the stress you cary sometimes and I am right there with you. How stress affects our perceptions is huge and we usually don’t even notice it until it is too late.

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