118 - Faith Over Fear: Strategies for Overcoming Anxiety

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Don't know if you guys have seen that the dog meme where the dog is in the burning building and he says, this is fine. It's that kind of feeling. Everything around you is burning, but yet you can still sit there and say, it's fine. It's going to work itself out. It's cool.        

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I'm not concerned. I'm chill, I'm mellow, I'm relaxed. It's going to work itself out. In the end, I will only perform acts that I can do that are within my control. If it's something that I cannot control, why am I concerned about it?        

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Welcome, guys. Welcome back to Motivate Grind Succeed, the podcast where we empower you to level up your life in faith, fellowship, fitness, and finance. Each episode is packed with practical tips and takeaways to help you thrive. If you guys enjoy the show, leave us a rating and review. It really, really does help to go a long way and helps the algorithm to know, hey, people, enjoy this content.        

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Guys, all the links to that are going to be down in this episode's description, so check all that out if you need some more information. Now onto this week's episode. What are we talking about today? Fear and anxiety. I know, big topic.        

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I know, big topic. Let's start at the top, though. We're going to start at the top. We're going to break it down as we do with all the episodes. So at the top, let's address some of the causes and effects of fear and anxiety.        

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So fear and anxiety usually is triggered by various factors, right? Traumatic experiences, uncertainty about the future, excess worry, and sometimes even some biological predispositions like you may be more prone to become fear, fearful, and or anxious. These emotions usually manifest themselves in some sort of physical symptom, some sort of sleep disturbance, or maybe some kind of impaired daily function of some sort. However, it's important to realize that fear and anxiety are normal human experiences and normal human emotions. We were given these emotions of fear and anxiety to protect us from danger.        

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Think way, way back, maybe not that far back. Think about last time you went to the zoo, right? And you saw that lion behind the cage, you felt safe. You didn't really feel that fearful because you understand the lion's not going to come out the cage now let the lion come out of its enclosure. You might be a little bit more dispositioned to be a little bit more fearful because, you know, you can't take a line by yourself.        

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That's why we're given fear because it allows us to foresee perceived danger to us and to our well being. That's why we have it, okay? And the anxiety comes in, especially with those excessive thoughts. A lot of times when we have those, that's the brain trying to let us know, hey, there's a possibility of this happening. This is probably going to cause an uncomfortable situation that we don't want to be in.        

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Because remember, the brain, its goal is to keep you safe, to keep you alive. It's not there for your benefit. It's there to keep you alive. So your brain perceives whatever the situation is as something that can be potentially deadly and or harmful air quotes to you. So that's why you get that fear.        

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That's why you get the anxiety. That's why you don't want to then go ahead and proceed. However, it's important to know that in these moments we can find some solace, we can find some guidance in drumroll, please. The Bible. Okay, let's be honest.        

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We're still in the Faith series. Come on, guys, we're in the Faith series. We have one more episode after this one in the Face series and then we'll move on to the next series, okay? So bear with me. If you don't like this Faith series, we almost done.        

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But if you did like the Facers, we got plenty of episodes in the Episodes archive. Go on back, listen to some more. Anyway, anyway, I digress. So we can find solace and guidance in the Bible. One well known verse is actually found in Two Timothy one seven.        

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And it states, for God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self control. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be fearful. That doesn't mean we can't be fearful. That's not what it means. This verse reminds us that God has given us the ability to overcome the fear and the anxiety through his power and through his love.        

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That does again, this verse, Two Timothy one and seven does not mean don't be fearful. Because even in the Bible, when an angel came down from heaven, what's one of the first things that an angel said to any person? Usually when the angel came down from heaven, first thing they said, fear not. Which means we have fear in us. However, we should not let it guide us.        

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See the difference? So how can we overcome this fear and this anxiety on a practical level? Right? First and foremost, let's be honest. If you cultivate a deep and personal relationship with God, that's already the first step that's going to help you out a whole lot, because then you'll have a lot more of an understanding and a lot more of a faith in verses like two, Timothy, one and seven, right?        

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Prayer and reading the Bible, that's also very important if you don't know how important that is. Guy, we just filmed an episode with Blake Barbera. That's episode 117, guys. Fantastic episode. You guys should definitely go give that one a listen.        

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We talked about a whole bunch of great information there, but check that out after this episode, please. That'll be greatly appreciated. But prayer and reading the Bible super crucial as it provides comfort and guidance during our challenging times. Specifically, another verse for you guys. Psalms 34 and four.        

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It assures us that when we seek the Lord, he delivers us from all of our fears. So what does it say? I wrote it down here so we can read it verbatim. I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears.        

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Okay, going to let that one sit and marinate. There's another good one here in Philippians four, verses six and seven. Again, wrote it down. Do not worry about anything. We could just stop it right there, guys.        

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We don't need to worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. See? Okay, I'm going to stop right there for a split second. So people who know me in real life, right, people who know me, or if you ever met me, I'm a pretty chill, pretty mellow, essentially a pretty stoic individual, right?        

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And people, whenever people around me say, oh, I'm just worried. I'm just concerned. I'm not. I'm genuinely not. I'm genuinely not worried or concerned because deep down, I understand everything's going to work itself out.        

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Why? Because of this verse right here. These verses right here. Psalms 34 and four, I pray to the Lord. He answered me.        

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He free me from all my fears. Philippians four, six, and seven, do not worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Let's finish the verses. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all he has done.        

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Verse seven, then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. So what does that mean? It means if you've just put your faith and trust in God, you will experience his peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. Which is why you will see a lot of times if you have that peace, you'll notice everything could I don't know if you guys have seen that the dog meme where the dog is in the burning building, and he says, this is fine.        

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It's that kind of feeling. Everything around you is burning, but yet you can still sit there and say, it's fine. It's going to work itself out. It's cool. I'm not concerned.        

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I'm chill, I'm mellow, I'm relaxed. It's going to work itself out in the end. I'm not going to die from this. That's how you can get that piece. Just put your faith and trust in him.        

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That, hey, it's going to work itself out. Does that mean I am not concerned about the outcome? No. Does that mean that I'm just going to just laissez faire, man, hands off. Just like, eh, let you take the wheel, I'm just going to sit here and do nothing?        

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No, that's not what that means either. But that means I will assess the situation. I will take the best course of action I believe that it is to take in that time and let everything else work itself out. Essentially, I will control or I will do what I can control. Let me say that again.        

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I will only perform acts that I can do that are within my control. If it's something that I cannot control, why am I concerned about it? I just need to be like a pirate on a pirate ship going into a storm. Hold on to that wheel and just keep steering where I know we got to go. I can't control the waves, but I can control how I react to them.        

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I can control how I respond to the waves. I can foresee a wave coming. I know I can't dodge it. I see it coming. But what I can do is brace for impact.        

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See how this works. So in addition to our spiritual practices, right, because I don't want to leave you guys with just some spiritual, spiritual stuff like that, I also want to bring it to a practical level as well. So let me give you all some practical advice. Instead of just leaving at the scriptures, even though we have these wonderful references, let me give you some things that you can walk away with and start doing today. Tonight, whenever you listen to this episode, step number one, practice some self care.        

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This includes taking care of your physical, your emotional, and your spiritual well being. It is crucial to make sure that those are in some form, some way, shape, or form of maintained. It doesn't have to be perfect, but you need to make sure those are at least decently in check to the point where you're not going like psycho insane. Okay? This includes doing things as simple as exercising, eating nutritious food, getting enough sleep.        

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We've talked about sleep a lot on this show in the past. So getting enough sleep and additionally, accountability. Yes, you knew it was coming. We talked about in this episode. We talked about it in the last episode.        

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We've talked about it in the single digits of episodes. Go back to almost any episode. I guarantee we're going to probably be talking about something that can relate to accountability. Because it's just that crucial, guys. Accountability, support from friends, families, counselors, coaches, mentors, whatever.        

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I don't care. Get an accountability partner. I don't care if you got to get something on your phone. Get an app that can be an accountability partner for you. Find someone online.        

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Find an online group of accountability partners based on a common connection of maybe an influencer that you follow or something like that. I really don't care how you do it, but you got to do it guys. I'm telling you, you got to do it. If you get an accountability partner of some way, shape or form, I guarantee you that is like one of the fastest ways to be able to help you reach your goals. If you have somebody keeping tabs on you, you going to do it.        

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It is what it is. Second thing is to challenge negative thought patterns and replace them with positive affirmations, okay? So we can renew our minds with scriptures such as Romans twelve and Two, right? I'd throw one more scripture at y'all before we end this episode off, okay? Romans Twelve and Two, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.        

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So how in the world does that lead to positive affirmations? The renewal of your mind.        

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Renewal of your mind, right there. It says right there, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Renew your mind. You need to have better thoughts, preferably spiritual thoughts, but at least to start, start with some positive thoughts, positive affirmations. Tell yourself you love yourself in the mirror.        

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Do something to get yourself in that transformed, renewed state of mind that also plays back into the number one of practicing some kind of self care. You do that. Guys, let me tell you something. Going on this personal development journey, it's been both mental and physical and spiritual and emotional and every other kind of old you can think of, right? But I could tell you as one of the most tactile things that I can think of right now is one way I practice self care is by going to the gym, getting stronger, lifting more weights, and then also revamping my entire closet from that of a whole bunch of graphic tees and things of that nature to minimal graphic tees, but a lot more distinguished kind of clothing.        

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And let me tell you one thing, when you start wearing those nice clothes that fit you really nice, that's a way of doing self care. And you feel so good about yourself. You walk out the house feeling confident, like a million bajillion bucks. You walk out the house feeling like especially if you got the nice fit, you got the nice jewelry to match and then you got cologne on to man, come on man, let me tell you, you don't feel good, okay? You going to feel good as part of the self care.        

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So again, take care of yourself. Work out, release those endorphins, make yourself feel good. Replace your negative thoughts with positive thoughts. Those are the two practical steps I'm going to give you because I need you all to just pick one and work on it for this week. Until next week's episode, I want you to pick one, work on it.        

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That's your homework. Pick one. Either replace, practice some self care, doing stuff like going to the gym, maybe some meditation, maybe some journaling, whatever you want to do, or start giving yourself some positive affirmations and really mean it. That's the important thing. You got to really mean it.        

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You can't just I guess I think I'm a good no, ain't no thinking round here, you know. You absolutely know. So as we conclude the episode, guys, I want to remind you of a couple of things here. Fear and anxiety, they're common struggles. Everybody goes through it.        

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Yes, even me. Okay, so I'm not high and mighty, acting like I don't go through it, okay? They are very common struggles. Everybody goes through them, however comma. They do not have to define us.        

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Everybody has it, but it does not have to define everybody. But I turn to God. Practicing self care, implementing practical steps. The two that we said at the end again, self care, positive affirmations. Okay, pick one.        

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I'm so serious, guys. Pick one. That's your homework. That's your fluff free guarantee. Pick one of those, work on it for a week, okay?        

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Seriously, if you do that, I'm telling you, you're going to start yourself off on a great trajectory towards a great positive change. So if you implement those practical steps, you start practicing that self care, you start working on those positive affirmations, you can find peace in the midst of all life's stress and all of life's uncertainty. And that's we're going to leave this week's episode. Guys, thank you so much for tuning into another episode of Motivate Grind Succeed, the podcast, and I hope you got something valuable out of this episode. Again, for the last time in this episode, pick one of those two actionable items.        

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Take some action on it. Get back to me next week. We'll see how your life is. If you enjoyed the show, leave us a rating and review as it really does help a lot and it really does mean the world to us. Join our email list for exclusive access to new episodes, merch drops, upcoming events, and so, so much more.        

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