We’ve been listening to a lot of St. Olaf Choir lately at our house, as mentioned in a previous post. Lyd calls it “church music,” as in, “Momma, can we listen to church music?” It’s her new favorite CD, and with the way I’ve been feeling these past days, mine too. There’s some solid Christian hymns on that CD, and the choir sings all the verses in fantastic arrangements. One of the hymns that has strongly affected me these past anxious days has been “The Church’s One Foundation.” The themes of schisms not being able to tear the church apart, the saints in heaven crying, “How long?”, and the picture painted of heaven and “the church at rest,” are all hitting closer to home for me than ever before. “My Faith Looks Up to Thee” is another hymn that is sung more simply, but the message is so strongly driven home. Finally, a slow-swing Gospel-style version of “Amazing Grace” gets me every time, too. There’s the verse that goes: When we’ve been there ten thousand years Bright shining as the sun, We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise Than when we’d first begun. What an utterly wonderful place heaven will be!
I meant to write a lot more on all this tonight, but it’s 10:30, and I’m wiped out. I will say one more thing, though. It is wonderfully helpful when you are having anxiety issues, to have such solidly Christian hymns running through your head. It really, really helps keep you grounded while your body is going haywire.
(Speaking of anxiety, today’s theory is that I’m wondering if I’m substantially hypoglycemic, and that’s what’s causing my anxiety. Do any of you have any experience with that? If so, please leave a comment and let me know about it.)
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July 5, 2008 at 8:24 pm
KT
Hello there! I have been contemplating your anxiety issues lately as well. It seems to me that you and I are on opposite ends of the physiological/chemical spectrum, and so I will try to think of all the things I Absolutely Cannot Do, and maybe they will help you!
1. Coffee or tea – IDK why, but either of these two in the morning will send me into a near-anxiety attack even with no worries on the horizon, and even if they are the de-caf version.
2. Starches and carbs – If I LOOK at a potato I will gain five pounds!
3. Exercise past 4 p.m. – this absolutely makes me too wired to sleep, but it may help with your BS levels at the Witching Hour.
So, looking at this on paper makes me think that if you had a little coffee or tea in the morning, had pasta for lunch, and took a walk at 5 p.m., this might help your glucose levels and therefore anxiety issues (yes, I truly believe they are related). Not that this is the silver bullet, mind you, but just to ease the onset and duration.
The next big thing I would recommend is to shake up your routine a little. Sometimes the anticipation of the thing that causes an attack will also cause the attack, like thinking about a cigarette will cause excitement in an addict’s brain. So, for instance, if supper seems to cause you anxiety, do it differently. Eat in the living room. Make pancakes (or something else breakfast-y). Eat from brighly colored plates. Etc, Whatever you do, NO ALCOHOL. This wreaks (sp?) havoc with BS levels. Hope some of this helps!
July 5, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Emily
Methinks you speak some truth, KT. I do love me some carbs.
I’ve thought for the last two nights that a walk after supper would do me mightily good. I don’t know how I’d manage it logistically, but ‘twould be nice.
Yes, shaking up the routine is also good. And, yeah, no alcohol. Gee, I’ve been doing no alcohol for so long now, that on the extremely rare occasion when I DO have a glass of wine (this is northern CA, after all), one glass is all I can handle.
The last two mornings I started nibbling on raw almonds as soon as I got up. It seemed to help.
July 7, 2008 at 2:46 pm
pastorstrey
Methinks that you are stealing your husband’s favorite blog word, namely, “methinks.”