Michigan Conference Campmeeting 2021: How Much More?

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Mastering Your Anxiety

Laurie Snyman

01 Mastering Your Anxiety

You are about to enjoy a presentation recorded at the 2021 Michigan Conference Camp Meeting held at Cedar Lake, Michigan.

We pray that the Lord will bless you as you listen.

Father, thank You for gifting us with another day of life, and we ask for Your Holy Spirit to be here in a very special way.

Open our hearts to receive the message and to be able to apply it to our lives in just the way that you would have us do.

Well, 1 of the things I want to make sure is that you recognize that we are going to be working hard in this seminar because you're going to be doing some of the skills that we're going to be practicing.

Now, you might all go, well, I'm only here because my dog has anxiety when I leave the house.

Or my niece has anxiety and I don't really need this seminar.

I'm sorry, you're here and I expect you to work.

But anyway, I want you to know that we are going to, 1 of these, this part of this seminar is not just information, this is about we're going to do some work in here because you see the, oh no you don't see it.

Like all of those you guys did a great job all of you we can change anxiety significantly by the way we think and we act.

And because God is here to help us, we can do a lot of things about anxiety.

A lot of people feel that they have no power and control over anxiety.

There are many people that get significantly better and sometimes have no anxiety at all if they will practice some of the things that we're going to be working on.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, right?

And we can rejoice and be glad in it, and every day is a new day to start new things.

And so I just want to encourage you that we are going to have some really good times.

So anxiety can feel a bit overwhelming, would you agree?

And it not only impacts how we feel, but it impacts the people around us, and also it can make our lives very small.

I think of somebody that I've been working with right now, I'm an online counselor, and I have somebody in the West Coast.

And I talked to her, which I love it because it's all Adventists, and so they talk my language.

They know what Ellen White means and all these slogans that we have, like P-U-C-I was a graduate of P-U-C, and I eat chocolates.

There's something about when you talk to other people, they're like, whoo.

And so this lady had a really difficult medical problem and she had some heart issues, but because of her heart issues, she decided, what happens when you have a medical problem?

People start thinking, I wonder if I'm going to die.

And so as she started to think she was going to die, she started to get more threatened and upset.

And so instead of playing with her kids and taking them to the park, she'll only work with them in the house.

And then instead of playing the piano at her church, She's so afraid that she's going to have an anxiety attack.

And so then her husband wanted to go on vacation.

And she's like, there's not enough doctors out there, and I can't get to the ER.

So what happened is her life that was full and active started to get really small.

And you will see that that's exactly what our anxiety can do.

And it's very important for us to recognize that anxiety is paralyzing if we think of it that way, but we can function when we are anxious.

Most of us, if some, well let me say that a lot of people are pretty apathetic when they have something like anxiety.

They just think, it'll just go away, or you know, if I just do this, it'll just, you know, probably I'll grow out of it.

Some of you are 80 and like you're not going to grow out of it.

Like you might die and then you won't feel it anymore, but you know, I'm just like we need to have quality of life and so it's very important to keep working on it.

And so if you had cancer, you usually don't go, well, I just wonder if I'll grow out of it.

And a lot of people are not doing what they need to do.

And so they're living with it and it impacts their family.

Can you tell me how could it impact somebody's family?

Yeah, it can make your life smaller, it can keep you from family things that you should be doing, it can...absolutely, it causes pain to people who have to watch it, right?

Have you ever seen somebody who's got sick in front of you or is in pain and struggling like you?

And parents usually go, if only I could take it over for my kids.

I forgot that I'm supposed to have to re-mention it.

So yes, if you are having a problem, your kids can start to mimic the same problem.

So how many people out of 10 do you think will complain about anxiety in the United States today?

Well, now 9 is really good, but that's too good.

So like 60% of our population is having anxiety.

This is like the disease that's taking over the world.

This is not like people usually go to the doctors because of headaches or because they have stomach aches or whatever.

And I notice that when I get referrals from my online counseling thing, almost every 1 of them is about anxiety.

Depression is still an issue, but anxiety is way over the top.

It is the most common mental health disorder, and it can cause mental health problems.

Actually, they said that more than, way more than 18% of our population had it in the 70s and 80s, and now it's just going way up.

Do you think there's anything that's making it go up?

What's it been like in the last 20 months?

So if you actually had no anxiety, you might have started to make anxiety.

And if you had some anxiety, it's getting greater now.

He's actually married to a Loma Linda graduate.

He's a Christian neuropsychiatrist and child psychiatrist and he actually looks at the brain and there are many videos and you'll be spellbound.

I've been in classes with him and so I really enjoy him and I also think that what he says is very significant.

02 Mastering Your Anxiety

Father, we just thank You for each person here.

And whether they are experiencing anxiety a lot of the time, or just a little time, or they're just here for someone else, I just pray, Lord, that You will help them today to let go of some of the things that they have in their heart that they have been upset over, angry over, hurt by, people that have disappointed them, frustrated them.

I pray for people who are self-loathing and have some hatred.

And I pray, Lord, that You will put in a new disc in their brain and help them to see You as the person who loves us unconditionally and who sees us in such a worthy way that we are actually gonna go to heaven with you 1 day.

I thank you, Lord, that each day when we ask for forgiveness of our sins, that You separate them from us.

Help us not to keep digging them up and dragging them with us, but I pray, Lord, that You will be with us, each 1 of us, and You will forgive us for all the things that we have done.

And thank You, Lord, for making us a new creature in You, in Your holy name.

I think that that is something that we need to be doing every day.

We're really good about praying for other people, but we need to be praying about ourselves.

So, we also need to refute the things that the devil says to us.

If the devil says, you're such a dirty sinner, there's no hope for you, what would you like to say back?

Or was that a, If you want to, get behind me.

Do we have the right to command the devil to get rid of it?

So don't be, by default, just hoping that the devil will quit, right?

What about when the devil says, your family is falling apart?

How about when the devil says, your life is a real mess up.

Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and He saved me and I'm His.

If you stick to the other way of thinking, how do you feel?

But when you think about Jesus is my healer, He loves me and I'm His child, How do you feel?

Do you notice how when you change the way you think, you change the way you feel?

We're going to keep on saying some of those things.

If someone can trigger you into a bad mood by walking into the room, who's got the power?

Do you know that the Lord doesn't want you to be enslaved?

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

And too many times when we have anxiety, we are a slave to our anxiety.

I hope it doesn't happen in the classroom.

I hope it doesn't happen when I walk into the church.

We are very fearful about what's going to happen.

We need to recognize that the Lord wants to set us free, so we need to do that little self-talk, which is, God, thank You for being with me.

By the way, how many of you admit I don't want you to put your hands up, admit that you think often throughout the day, I wonder what people think about me." I told you I like Daniel Amen.

I just hear walkie-talkies and things like that, and I get, yeah.

So Daniel amen, I told you that I really enjoy him and I've been in his classes.

And he is a Christian psychiatrist, but he is not an Adventist psychiatrist.

And he said we worry too much about what others think about us and that often will take us into a lot of anxiety." And he said, because we want to protect ourselves, or we want to defend ourselves, or we think we have an ego that we have to protect.

And he said something about we need to recognize that that's not going to get us anywhere.

I think, taking that farther, that when we focus on ourselves all the time, we become self-focused, right?

So he said in 1 of his lectures that I attended, there's that 1840-60 rule.

When you're 18, you worry about what everyone thinks of you.

And when you're 60, you realize no one's even been thinking about you at all, you know?

And here's another 1, and that is that when we're thinking in those negative ways, It weighs us down, doesn't it?

How many of you have just felt that pressure on your chest when you've been worried about something?

Some people tell me, it just hurts right here in my stomach.

Some people say the world just looks black to me.

An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.

How many of you have heard we need to do positive thinking?

I don't believe in, oh, everything is so wonderful.

I don't believe in, you're just the best looking little boy.

You're going to be just a hook, line, and sinker for some little girl someday.

03 Mastering Your Anxiety

Dear Father, again, we just thank you that on this third day of mastering anxiety that the people here who are having issues, who also have friends or family that have issues, that can be a help to each other, can learn some techniques, especially from the Bible, that will help them to manage that anxiety.

We have great confidence in your ability to help us.

We thank You, Lord, that You have provided so much care and information in the Bible that we can enjoy.

And dear Father, I pray that You will just use me to help disseminate some of that information so that it will be helpful to others.

You will help us to do it correctly and with right information.

And I thank You again, Lord, that You are here in our midst in Your holy name, Amen.

You know, it's like you need to watch out what you complain about, because last year, no, 2 years ago, they were saying It was way too hot and nobody could listen.

So here we arranged for it to be cold and now what are you doing?

Now by the way, I've been a therapist for a long time.

You know, I've had people who've come back 20 years later.

So I've had somebody who tells me 20 years ago, like, I just need a husband.

Or I live in an apartment and I just wish I had a house.

I don't have any kids and I wish I had a better job.

So what do you think happens when they come back 20 years later?

You know, I got this husband and he doesn't help me with anything.

And you know, I have this house and I am the only 1 who cleans it and it's so big.

I'm just so worn out and trying to get the mortgage paid is so much, and these kids are driving me crazy!

And I got this job, and it's so stressful, and I'm like, watch out what you ask for, because we're never happy, right?

Oh, so I just need to stay with what we're doing.

Okay so let's just review some of the things we already know what anxiety is we know what panic attacks are we have talked about some solutions what are the solutions Can you tell me a few of them just so that I know that you got it?

Deep breathing was 1 of our best ones to do.

We're actually going to talk a lot more about that today.

1 of the things that she said is that she was having, do you mind if I say that, having a problem and she didn't know whether she wanted to go to church or whatever and when somebody touched her it was so comforting to her and it helped her anxiety go down.

And you think about the people who need touch, especially the singles, divorced, widowed people who really desire touch, elderly people especially, touching their arm or whatever means so much to them.

And there are people who calm down when that happens.

We said setting boundaries, people with anxiety don't always deal with things.

We don't need any losses in our supplements, in our nutrition so that it causes more problems, especially our B vitamins.

Cognitive behavioral therapy, what was that?

Changing the way we see things or the sentences that we believe so that we can calm ourselves down.

Do you think that socialization is important?

So when people are not socializing, that's an issue.

Some of us, it can irritate us too, right?

However, too little of it can be a problem.

From the book Geography of Bliss where they studied the happiest countries.

Oh, by the way, the happiest country was not the United States.

And they found that people from the happiest countries have certain things in common.

Family life, people are like, but I don't have a family.

And there are many people who would say, I didn't get to choose my family, but I can choose my church members, right?

And good friends and a sense of gratitude, and we are going to work on that a lot today.

We cannot control our genes, and we cannot control all of our circumstances, but we can also rid ourselves of habits that cause us more anxiety.

And that would be, what would be some habits that cause us anxiety?

We've been learning, We're kind of doing a little review.

If only is actually looking backwards, and I love the illustration that how can you drive forward in your car if you're always looking in the rear view mirror?

Recounting our problems over and over, that means that we need forgiveness.

Don't Christians know a lot about forgiveness?

I have to tell you I have a little bit of caleric in my personality, I have a lot of caleric in my personality.

Series

Mastering Your Anxiety

02 Mastering Your Anxiety

Transcript

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