How do you connect with God in spite of anxiety?

[Jess Watkins]

Gotta admit, I struggle with staying connected to God due to anxiety. During prayer I get restless and have to move due to my anxious thoughts, so that makes it near impossible to even focus on what I am saying. Then when I try to read the Bible my thoughts go haywire and shift to totally unrelated topics when I start feeling anxiety. Ugh!!!

Is it possible to maintain a THRIVING (note, thriving) relationship with God even though you're plagued by anxiety?

[Joe.]

First of all, I have no idea what kind of God you believe in, what the God 'wants' of you, and what you want of God.
You say you want a "Thriving" relationship, nothing else. What'd I'd ask you, is how flexible can you be in your faith? Is it strict and practice bound? Is that a certainty?
If you can accept to be more flexible, drifting away from the 'rules' of your faith, then maintaining a thriving relationship should be easy. Do it by being, ethically virtuous, contempt, and faithful, right?
If you accept nothing more than a strict, rigid, bible reading relationship, then you, in my view, need to see your faith as a form of meditation. Sit down to read the bible, as though you are about to meditate, I don't mean actually mediate, but have that mindset in place, and will, like a placebo, feel reading, praying, and everything else become more true to what you see as a relationship with God.

:)

[Ryker]

Personally, I prefer a thriving relationship with reality.

Maybe you could try Buddhism. Mindfulness, meditation and chanting may possibly help.

[raggamuffin]

Indeed - meditation is proven to reduce anxiety, depression and pains too. Whilst it might go against your religious ideas you can't disprove scientific research. Give it a go. Also, remember this takes practice and perseverance and benefits won't occur over night.

Ed

[drac16]

Let me start out by saying that I'm a muslim, so I believe in a different God than you do. I don't see anxiety as a barrier between Allah and myself. The suffering draws me towards him-- not away. I like to do dhikr when I'm having an episode of anxiety or a panic attack, though. Dhikr is sort of like how catholics do the rosary or how buddhists chant mantras whilst counting with prayer beads.

[Dahila]

drac that interesting. Do you use that small beads for it? Prayers, mantras, meditation they all have a lot in common. when you pray you pray to some kind of illusion, or entity. I think as long as it gives you some kind of relieve is good. I do meditate for almost two decades and it is what gives me relieve, without believing in any god.
whatever tool works for you , use it:))
drac welcome to the forum. how do you pronounce "dhikr"?

[drac16]

drac that interesting. Do you use that small beads for it? Prayers, mantras, meditation they all have a lot in common. when you pray you pray to some kind of illusion, or entity. I think as long as it gives you some kind of relieve is good. I do meditate for almost two decades and it is what gives me relieve, without believing in any god.
whatever tool works for you , use it:))
drac welcome to the forum. how do you pronounce "dhikr"?

Yeah, I use beads to count. They're called 'dhikr beads', predictably enough. Dhikr is a devotional practice in which one chants prayers or praises to Allah [the God of Islam] in repitition. Dhikr is an arabic word that means 'rememberance'. The word consists of two syllables. The first sounds like it starts with a T and H. It's not unlike the first syllable of the word "this" The second syllable of the word dhkir can be transliterated as 'ker'. The first syllable is a soft "th" sound, like the word "this", whereas the second syllable is a "ker" sound, like the word "curb"

Thih-ker would be a full transliteration, although some people prefer to pronounce it with a z sound (zikr).

It's good to be here. Thank you.

[Dahila]

That's very interesting. thank you. I know about Jesus, Allah and Buddha, I know Tibetan dead book by heart. When I was back in my country I wanted to study religions but my parents changed my mind, . I know also a lot of vikings gods, Germanic gods, and a quiet few Greeks :)) Thank you I can say it. No problem at all. You probably do not have problem to pronounce my language either:)

[nf1234]

Remember that your praying to your father. It's just a simple conversation just like one your having with a friend. Keep it real. Try not to make it too systematic. This should make prayer easier when your just speaking to God like you speak to anyone else. Tell him whats on your mind, let him know your struggles, thank him for the good things in your life, and ask him for whatever you need. I know what you mean it can be hard to sit down and take that time to talk to God. Especially with an anxious mind. Sometimes I just pray while I'm on the go or doing something relaxing. My mind is always going when I'm doing things so I figure why not direct those thoughts to God.

As far as reading your bible. Is it the bible that is causing you anxiety? Or you are just getting anxiety in general, which makes in difficult to concentrate on reading?

Your relationship with God should be a relieving one. You can lay your burdens on him and let go.

[always_with_me]

I also struggle with this, but maybe for different reasons. I'm not certain of my religious affiliations. I came to spirituality, as I call it, kind of late. I've had a lot of making up to do! Ha. I read the Bible, mostly because I didn't know where else to start, and I've started reading in the Buddhist tradition lately. I don't see these two spiritual trajectories or loci as incompatible, but that may be owing to the way I read; I try to be generative in my approach (i.e. find areas that help me make sense of things).

Anyways, the difficulty I have probably relates for to the depression side of my issues. I often have a hard time understanding how I can reconcile all the issues I carry around with me and, similar to you, this in many ways seems a logistical issue. I'm prone to be thinking about everything, and maybe not focusing the best as a result. Sometimes I wonder if I can "enter the stream," borrowing from the Buddhist tradition, if I am always nervous about what the stream will do to me. Ha. That is, if life is to be lived, as it seems both traditions that I read in advise, I find it difficult to see how I am participating...my anxiety always gets in the way.

Interesting thread. I'm curious to hear more, and I appreciate that folks aren't just piling on. We know how these religious/spiritual convos tend to go. Ha.

[Dahila]

Meditation and Buddhist tradition will not hurt you, it will help you. It does not matter what you do as long as you spend time with yourself, in meditation it is easy to do, you do not have to remember anything just ie follow your breath, the simple thing and so difficult to do. Give yourself a break and do it. There is not goal in meditation, yes, there is no goal. Side effects of meditation is calmness, rest, and cool head to start to work with your anxiety to overcome it:)