Read time: 3 minutes
In his wonderful book titled Finding Serenity in the Age of Anxiety, Robert Gerzon suggests that there are three kinds of anxiety: normal, toxic, and sacred. Normal anxiety is the everyday anxiety we experience in our day-to-day lives. It’s the kind of anxiety that evolution has built into our brain to keep us safe and alive. When we do not deal with that anxiety effectively, it can become toxic anxiety.
Sacred anxiety occurs when normal anxiety is used to move us further into personal and spiritual growth. When we face the anxiety of our own transitions in life, do we find a way to embrace that anxiety, learn from it, and move forward into claiming our gifts and strengths for ministry? In a leadership transition do we fight, flight, freeze or flock, or do we face the uncertainty and use it as a time to learn new things, develop new gifts, discover our own strengths, and move into another creative phase of our ministry?
He says that anxiety is focused on awareness of our mortality and/or awareness of our individuality and therefore of being separate, small beings in a vast universe cut off from the source of creation (whatever that might be) and from each other. This is what he called “sacred anxiety.”
Sometimes, we need a little push that can help us move towards our goals & accomplish them. If we really do embrace our anxieties about the world or our life., will they help us move forward for the nth greater good, that’s the question.
Here are a few journal prompts for you:
1. What are some self-care ideas for when I’m feeling overwhelmed?
2. Keep a list of anxiety triggers.
3. List three things that scare you and why.
4. What signs do I notice before an anxiety attack?
5. Do I notice signs of anxiety, stress, or worries in others? How?