3 Reasons Why I Can Have Faith and Anxiety

So I am an active member in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I was sitting in Sunday school a we were talking about faith. I have heard for most of my life that fear is the opposite of faith.  Most people say anxiety is an extreme worry or fear. My thoughts quickly began questioning my own faith because I have been struggling a lot with my anxiety. So today I want to give a couple reasons you can have anxiety and faith at the same time.

1. I am a Child of God

One doctrine I believe is that I am a daughter of God. I lived with my Heavenly Father before I came to this Earth. He knows me better than I know myself. The reason why I can have both faith and anxiety is because Heavenly Father has given me both the gift of faith and the trial of anxiety. I am not sure whether I struggled in the pre-mortal life with anxiety, however I am sure my Heavenly Father knew I would have here on Earth. Therefore, Heavenly Father knew He would need to give me power to overcome my anxiety. This power is faith.

2. Faith gives me Power.

Anxiety may take away the feeling of faith, but not the power of faith.
In Hebrews 11:1 it says
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.
Having faith doesn't mean that I don't have questions. Having faith means that I have hope in my Savior Jesus Christ. It means that I trust in my Heavenly Father, and sometimes I need to act in faith and follow what the scriptures say when sometimes I don't feel like I have any faith.
In the Book of Mormon there is a scripture which talks about power.
In Moroni 7:33 it says
And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.
Faith give me power to live my day. Anxiety may never leave me but because of the power of faith I can do anything God needs me to do. Through prayer I have learned that God wants me to go college, get married, one day be a mom, share my love of Him, and much more. He wants me to enjoy life. He will give me the power live my life with my anxiety.

3. Prayer

Psychologist may say that reflecting in your mind or verbally is a great technique to work through anxiety or any emotion for that matter, and I totally agree. However, something that helps be develop more faith and feel the power of God is when I actually pray to Him. Some may wonder what the difference is. For me when I pray I specifically address Heavenly Father by name. I can then pour my heart out to my Heavenly Father. I will then end my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ. I usually say "In the name of Jesus Christ Amen." The best part about praying is I know I will get answers to my prayer. I rarely hear in my mind phrases or words. For the most part I will get good feelings or bad feelings. Some might call this your conscience, however I believe it is the Holy Ghost or the Spirit confirming my thoughts as good or bad. When I pray I can be feeling anxious and yet exercising my faith to develop a relationship with my Heavenly Father.

I hope my 3 reasons to why you can have Faith and Anxiety at the same time may help. If you have other suggestions please feel free to leave suggestions.

My Start

If you are reading this then you have found my personal journey with anxiety. I am not the best writer but I am determined to keep my posts completely honest. I don't want to exaggerate my life and I don't want to pretend my life is perfect. It's just me.

I am a newly married wife to the love of my life. I don't know what I would do without my husband because he knows me. He really tries to understand how my anxiety has impacted my life. The best part is he still chose to marry me.

I am going to start, it may not be from the beginning because I don't know where the beggining starts.   Well it's starts with a tightness in my chest, thoughts beginning to come up with all the possible outcomes to a situation, and they aren't always positive. Slowly my brain begins to go on overdrive and starts to shut down. Nothing makes sense. Nothing seems right. Nothing will help me move forward.
These feelings have been with me ever since I can remember. However, it wasn't until I was 20 that I had friend who taught me about myself. She began asking me how I was feeling and wouldn't let me say " I'm good." If I did tell her that, she would proceed to tell me "Good is not a feeling." I then needed to put names to my feelings. I learned what it felt for me to be happy, sad,frustrated,and finally ANXIOUS.
I could finally put a name to the feeling I was feeling. And it changed my world. I was no longer pretending life was roses and butterflies. Well this skill helped me realize that I had anxiety.
At the time I had no idea how much anxiety would impact my life. I never considered myself someone who would need counseling, or someone whom anxiety would paralyze them of doing everyday things. Or someone who would feel the need to write a blog about her relationship with anxiety.
The other day it took all the energy I had to go to a classroom and tutor a kindergartener. The rest of the day I was on the verge of tears and couldn't get out of bed. My thoughts are really good at making me feel like a failure. They tell me, "You are nothing!" "Everyone is faking being your friend, they all think your weird." "Your husband is second guessing his decision." "You are just a burden to everyone around you." "You can't help anyone."
On this day after my husband came home from work and helped me calm down and try to get to the root of my anxiety, the thought came to me,"give your anxiety a good purpose, write a blog." I am going into this thinking no one will read it, but I know there is a chance that someone might relate. My goal is to update and write at least twice a month. If you are reading thank you! Don't forget this is your life. You have divine potential. And you are never alone.

"Don't assume you can fix everything, but fix what you can." -Jeffrey R. Holland