Reset Your Stress Response With Scriptureনমুনা

set from Feeling like You’re Not Enough

“No matter what I do, I never feel like I can catch up. There’s always more I should be doing, and I never meet my own expectations on how to get things done.”

My client Sarah battled negative self-talk her whole life. As a stay-at-home mom of two kids, she struggled to keep up with everyday tasks and got mad at herself if she didn’t do enough. Her stress levels were impacting her sleep, her energy, and even her digestion. And I know she isn’t alone. So many of us war with an inner dialogue of negative self-talk that keeps our bodies in a state of stress.

Unfortunately, your thoughts don’t just stay in your brain. Your nervous system—which controls your body’s automatic response to stress—is constantly eavesdropping on your thoughts. When you experience a stressful thought or you’re hard on yourself, it sends an alarm to your body through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The HPA axis is a protective design from our Creator that shifts our physiological state when there’s a suspected threat. But your HPA axis doesn’t know the difference between a real threat and a perceived threat. It doesn’t know the difference between your persistent negative self-talk (your inner bully) and running from a T. rex. Its job is to protect you by altering important processes in the body: heart rate, digestion, blood pressure, blood sugar, metabolism, and even reproductive hormone function.

However, just as negative self-talk and stressful thoughts create corresponding stress in the body, the opposite is true. Focusing on positive, uplifting thoughts can shift the body’s state of stress to one of rest. In fact, studies show that the emotion of awe decreases inflammation in the body and lowers cortisol (our main stress hormone).

The Bible is filled with reminders to practice awe and gratitude. What an incredible Creator we have, who designed our bodies to shift into a restful, relaxed state when we are reminded of who he is and what he’s done for us. He’s filled our bodies with protective alerts that turn our attention to him so that we can rest in the knowledge that he has things under control. When we turn our attention to him, our bodies shift from a state of stress to one of rest.

Take time to let God’s Word fill your whole body with awe and gratitude. As you read through the following passages, let your body activate a sense of wonder over what God has done and will continue to do for his children. Take time after reading each passage to reflect on this question: What part of this passage fills me with awe and gratitude? Then, spend some time in silence, meditating on that portion of the passage.