Tag / anxiety

a glimmer of light represents glimmers
by Karen Twinem

How to Feel Calm? Look for Glimmers

Any one dealing with anxiety these days? Scientific research continues to validate Christian and other forms of mindfulness as a sure way to feel calm. It says we literally can feel better when we look intentionally for “glimmers” in the present moment.

What are glimmers? The term comes from the Polyvagal Theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges in 1994. The theory emphasizes the role that the autonomic nervous system, especially the vagus nerve, plays in our health and behavior. Glimmers and triggers are cues on opposite sides of the spectrum that impact the nervous system.

You’ve probably experienced triggers: cues that activate our fight-or-fight response or flee response. Triggers can be very subtle, even unconscious. One example would be the impact of the smoke from a barbecue on a person who survived a burning house. Our triggers automatically make us anxious, fearful or even angry.

Glimmers are the opposite: positive cues that tell us we are safe and connected. They bring us back to calm and happy. Glimmers include petting a dog or cat, laughing with a friend or sniffing your late mother’s favorite perfume. Do you have a happy place? It’s surely filled with glimmers.

Christian mindfulness brings the joy of the Lord into the picture. Enjoying God’s presence helps us slow down and find glimmers all around us. And the glimmers spark gratitude, which makes moods even brighter.

Glimmers Defeat Anxiety

Elle Studio + Wellness reports that, for every trigger, we need three glimmers. In today’s world, I think we need all the glimmers we can get.

The Simple Things, a British magazine I love, had a story on glimmers in its February 2025 issue. The article’s author, Lottie Storey, talked about the importance of “glimmer hunting.” We all have different glimmers. We can look for them in nature, music, friendships and scents. Giving up some time scrolling on the phone will allow us the quiet we need to find more of them.

Some suggest keeping a list you can use to counter triggers. Here’s a few of my glimmers:

  • Petting and snuggling Bert and Ernie, our cats
  • Decorating my Grandma Corbett’s bookshelf for the current season
  • Stickers of affirmative sayings on my to-do list
  • A beautiful blue sky with white clouds
  • Pictures of my kids and granddaughter
  • Trees changing color in autumn
  • The scent of a rose
  • A funny book
  • Sarah Young’s series on “Jesus Calling”

Each person’s search for glimmers requires mindfulness. As always, I recommend Christian mindfulness, the practice of the presence of God in the present moment. Stay in the present moment with God, paying attention to your senses. What do you see, hear, touch or taste that brings you a glimmer of joy? Can you talk about that with God? Can you bring it into your life more intentionally?

Once you know what makes you feel peaceful and joyful, you can bring more of it to your day. Sharing these feelings of joy with God in gratitude brings you closer to the source of peace.

It’s an ugly world out there. We need glimmers in our lives every day.

A Bonus Glimmer: Trini-T Ministries

Stickers and T-shirts with inspirational, message-based designs are important glimmers for me. I recently found Trini-T Ministries, which creates gifts, apparel and devotionals to encourage believers and spark conversations of faith. Each product reflects the presence of Jesus in our everyday lives. Check out trini-t.com and use our one-time discount code PRESENTINCHRIST to get 15% off through October 31, 2025.

For more thoughts, check out this post How to Find Lasting Joy

Jesus can help this worried woman
by Karen Twinem

Living in the Present: Jesus’ Teachings on Worry

In Matthew 6:34, Jesus of Nazareth gives some strong commands about worrying. This verse impacts me in multiple versions of Scripture.

Revised Standard: “Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.”

NIV: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

The Message: “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”

WORRY IS NOT FROM GOD

What situations cause you to obsess about the past or worry about the future? For me, seeing someone I love suffer from mental illness is extremely painful. The nature of the illness is that symptoms come and go unpredictably. I never know what today brings. I tend to obsess over the past with “what ifs” or “if onlys” as well as to dread the future.

No matter the cause of our worry, it is never from God.

Jesus commands us not to worry. To help that happen, he says we only need to think about one day: today. In reality, none of us knows what today will bring. But we know, from Jesus, that we can expect trouble in this life.

The Rev. Dr. Robert Allen Hill, in a 2009 commencement address to the seminary, said we actually can expect trouble every day. His rule: “Expect it. Accept it. Address it. Forget it.” Refusing to worry gives us additional strength to do this.

Give Your Entire Attention to what God is doing now

Therese of Lisieux said her sole concern was to carry out the will of God as it was revealed to her second to second. “I just keep concentrating on the present moment. I forget the past and preserve myself from worries about the future,” she wrote.

Two related spiritual disciplines cultivate this ability: recollection (meeting God within yourself) and the practice of the presence of God. These practices are what I mean by the term Christian mindfulness.

Recollection is also called centering down. Below is one simple method:

  • Sit still in a quiet place.
  • Hold your palms down on your lap.
  • Offer up all your thoughts and anxieties.
  • Turn your palms up once your mind is calmer.
  • Receive peace from God.

The practice of the presence of God cultivates alertness to God at all times. You relate to His constant presence through brief acts of recognition and prayer. This allows each activity in your life to be an opportunity to meet God. How?

  • Focus on one activity at a time.
  • Invite God into this activity.
  • Love the person in front of you.
  • Express gratitude to God when the activity is done.

Isn’t Mindfulness Buddhist?

Much talk about mindfulness comes from a Buddhist slant. It has a different philosophical foundation and a different goal from the Christian form. Some Buddhist techniques can be transferable to a Christian with the extremely important addition of focus on God.

Buddhists look at the moment. Christians look at God in the moment.

The present moment is the only place where you can meet God. So we must give up fantasies, impossible dreams, “what ifs” and “if onlys” in favor of living in the present.

Christian mindfulness sees every moment, every person and every activity as an opportunity to meet God. To do this, we must be “all there” in the moment, giving love to God and people.

My guardrails in this practice are a vibrant spiritual life and a commitment to God’s will. I am a structured person. So I keep lists of things I feel God wants me to do in my station in life. (Retired writer, wife, mother of an adult child with schizophrenia, mother and mother-in-law to my other kids, small group leader, and, best of all, Grandma!) Then I do the next right thing, as my husband says.

Christian Mindfulness Can Eliminate worry

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind,” 2 Timothy 1:7 says.

Worry comes from a spirit of fear. It is often is a response to stress. Biomedical literature suggests that individuals are more likely to have a stress response if they:

  • Feel they have little control over stressors or are chronically disempowered.
  • Feels they do not have predictive information about how long or how intense the stressful situation will be.
  • Do not have many outlets to vent frustration.
  • Do not have adequate social support for any confinement caused by stressors.

Christian mindfulness reduces the stress response. Being fully present empowers people to take small steps and create real changes to their external environment. So the brain has less opportunity to build scenarios and forecast troubled times ahead.

Inviting God into every situation from brushing your teeth to having that tough conversation with your teenager changes everything. God helps you deal with whatever happens when the time comes.

PRaying the Scripture eases chronic worry

Praying the Scriptures is another spiritual discipline that eases worry. I often pray in the first person, reading the Scripture and saying “I” for “you” or “we.” Here are prayers from three Scriptures, for example.

  • Based on Philippians 4: 6-7: God, whatever today brings, help me not to worry about anything, but in all my prayers to ask You for what I need. Help me to always ask with a thankful heart. And please send your peace, which is far beyond my understanding, to keep my heart and mind safe in union with Jesus.
  • Based on Ephesians 3: 19-21: Help me to come to know your love, even though it can never be fully known. Help me to be completely filled with the Holy Spirit, your very nature. To You, who by means of Your power working in me, are able to do much more than I can ever ask for, or even think of. To You be the glory.
  • Based on Matthew 6:34: “Therefore I will not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

This keeps the mind busy translating the Scripture into prayer. And it brings peace. God will help you with whatever bad thing is stuck in your worried mind. Just concentrate on his presence.

woman deep breathing
by Karen Twinem

Breathe in Serenity

Christian mindfulness is a certain path toward serenity, and yet anxiety can still suddenly overwhelm us. Often it’s an understandable response to a bad situation. Before you can think to say “I trust you, God,” you drop head-first into an ocean of dread.

Breathing with intention is the best response. After all, you have to breathe it anyway. So using Christian mindfulness as you breathe calms you down while quickly reconnecting you to God’s presence. The technique is simple.

  • Stop and sit down. (If you are feeling dizzy, lie down and close your eyes.)
  • Set an alarm for at least five minutes.
  • Invite God to sit with you.
  • Breathe slowly and deeply, in and out. Pay full attention to your breathing. As thoughts arise, offer them up to God as prayers and return to concentrating on your breath.
  • When the alarm rings, offer a prayer of thanksgiving for your ability to breathe.
  • And return to practicing the presence of God.

This practice does wonders. It underpins many Christian mindfulness exercises in this blog.

One point of caution: If you have a daily challenge with severe anxiety, it’s important to your soul, as well as the rest of you, to seek medical help. Generalized anxiety disorder is a diagnosable condition. You can get help with medicine and therapy to stop the storms swirling in your brain.

Jesus has given us the gift of His peace, unlike any other kind in the world. Intentional breathing exercises help us calm down and welcome back His presence after a big upset.

by Karen Twinem

How to Put Aside Anxiety

"Do not look forward to the changes and chances of this life in fear; rather look at them with hope that, as they arise, God, whose you are, will deliver you out of them ... the same everlasting God who cares for you today, will take care of you tomorrow, and every day, either by shielding you from suffering, or by giving you strength to bear it. Be at peace, then, and put aside all anxious thoughts."

Francis de Sales