Have you ever experienced general anxiety where your muscles feel tight, you’re on the verge of a headache if you don’t have one already, and you feel kind of riled up, irritated, annoyed but you may not even be able to say why. You don't feel happy and you find yourself getting angry over the small stuff. You are fuming and fretting. Fussing and feeling distressed. But everything is going okay in life or at least nothing new has happened.

So, why the nervous tension and how can you exchange it for calmness and peace?

Four common causes of nervous tension that you can address are...

Over-stimulation.  We are exposed to so much. So much noise.  So much visual stimulation. So much marketing.  So much information. So much clutter. The body’s response to the stress of the over-stimulation is a whole host of chemicals being released that are slowly eating you alive as well as making you feel tired and frustrated.

To combat this we must build periods of quietness into our lives.  Being ou...

A recent Gallup survey shows the unhappy state of America.  It reported increased depression, increased daily physical pain, increased day-to-day worry, declines in “positive energy” from family and friends, and declining satisfaction with their standard of living, among other things. Surveying over 2.5 million people it showed that happiness is in a sharp decline.  But anyone who desires happiness can achieve it by learning these principles I’m sharing on how to create your own happiness.  

So, how do you create your own happiness? To get my first point, click here to see part 1.  Today we are starting on point #2.

To Create Your Own Happiness:

#2 Don’t manufacture unhappiness.  Seems obvious.  Yet so many of us do it!  Of course, not all unhappiness is self-created but there are enough problems created by life that we certainly don’t want to add to it by anything that we do.  To a large extent, by our thoughts and attitudes, we determine whether we are going to have happiness or...

Who decides if you are going to be happy or unhappy in life?  You do. Abraham Lincoln said that people were just about as happy as they made up their minds to be.  We want to pass the responsibility off on others, but the good news is if it is up to us, then we aren’t waiting on anyone else and we don’t need to try to control them to get our happiness.  

I have 4 ways to create your own happiness. We’ll cover the first one today and then in the next blog, we’ll cover the other 3. 

So, how do you create your own happiness?

1. When you get up in the morning choose to be happy.  Say out loud, “I choose happiness today.” Don’t say to me, “But Donna, that is too easy.”  Don’t get super-sophisticated in your methods or be in total disbelief and miss out. Take this with child-like faith, not jaded by your life experiences.  
   
   Luke 18:16 & 17 says, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not...

Do you feel like your prayers aren’t doing you any good when it comes to your stress, worry, and fear? Or do you find yourself throwing up emergency prayers when you have run out of all other options? Today I’m sharing 4 kingdom principles to get powerful results when you pray.

As a Christian, prayer is a powerful tool we have for busting through stress. But I think way too many of us have either taken it for granted or don’t really understand the power we have available through prayer.

1. Think of who you are talking to.  When you pray you are getting the very God of this universe involved in your situation.  Be impressed with the power and authority of your Father. Read the 38th chapter of Job and you’ll be reminded of God’s power to carve the canyons of this earth, how he tells the ocean how far it can go, and how the lightning bolts report to God saying, “Here we are.” If God can create this amazing world and continue to sustain it, He is also well able to take care of any concern...

If you are feeling drained and stress has left you exhausted, you very likely have leaks in your life that are allowing your energy to slip through. Let's identify and fix your energy leaks so you are ready to jump full force into God’s plan for your life, which I’m pretty sure does not include being too tired to make a difference in this world.

If we’ll look for the energy leaks in our life and fix them we can handle things with easy power and carry our responsibilities without a strain. We can learn to live life without wasting an ounce of energy and all our efforts can have maximum results or in the words of the Bible, "everything we put our hands to will prosper".  Sound good?

Let’s discover 7 leaks that drain our power or energy...

1) How you think you feel has a definite effect on how you actually feel physically.  If your mind tells you that you are tired, your body accepts the fact.  A big example of that for me is when the number of daylight hours changes each fall.  As it...

Are you tired and worn out?  Do you wake up in the morning and already start your day feeling tired?  Do you feel like your energy has been destroyed from all your stress, worry or fear?  

Stress can make you exhausted and most of us aren’t talking about it! So, today I’m exposing stress exhaustion and sharing with you how to beat it and get your energy back.

Energy is a real problem for most of us.  There is always more we want to do and we run out of time and energy to get it all done.  We live busy lives. Add in stress and we can be totally wiped out. Being tired is a major sign of anxiety and depression.   

If I get really stressed, I’m too tired to think or make decisions as simple as where I want to go to eat. I don’t want to leave the house, I just want to be a couch potato and binge watch my favorite show on Netflix. Stress is draining!  

So what’s the answer?  We need a power source to plug into when we are exhausted and even better yet, to stay plugged into so we don’t ge...

A man told his doctor, “I would give anything if I could get my mind to be peaceful and quiet.  It’s what I want more than anything in this world.” Is that you today? Is your mind constantly going and you can’t seem to relax or unwind? Today I’m sharing 8 proven keys to a peaceful mind.

We live in a busy world.  There is always more that needs to be done.  We’re under terrible pressure. Things can really get you down.  It can make you nervous and give you trouble sleeping. If you want to go back to a mind that is at peace where things are new and fresh, hopeful and untroubled, listen to these 8 proven keys to a peaceful mind.

1. Every night before bed (at a minimum and perhaps a couple of other times of the day), visualize you taking your worries out of your mind and dropping them in the water as you are on a speed boat headed in the opposite direction.  Watch them get smaller as you get further away. They disappear into the water and sink to the bottom. Visualize you letting the anxi...

The blows of life, the accumulation of troubles, the multiplications of problems over time tend to sap your energy leaving you feeling hopeless, tired, discouraged, doubting yourself and defeated. So, today I’m sharing with you ten ways to raise your self-confidence to reduce your stress, believe more in yourself and see success.

Way too many people are defeated by the everyday problems of life.  Their minds are obsessed with thoughts of insecurity and inadequacy.  This is due to the fact that such ideas have dominated their minds for years.  When hopelessness enters your mind it discolors your outlook and distorts it. You start to doubt that you have the ability to meet any responsibility or to succeed at any opportunity.  You shrink from life. But God doesn't want us to feel that way.

Are you ready for those 10 steps to regain your confidence?  Here we go:

1. Form and meditate on a mental picture of you succeeding.  Hold onto that picture. Never let it fade and your mind will seek ...

Remember the song from Sunday School: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.  Little ones to Him belong. They are weak but He is strong, Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus loves me.  Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.

I can almost hear you singing it along with me as you read the words.  Why is this such a classic song? Because of its profound message in simple language that even a child can understand it.

So, when did you stop believing the message?

• When you asked for something in prayer and didn’t get it?
• When someone was abusive to you and you wondered why God allowed it?
• When your spouse said they no longer loved you?

Or maybe you would say, I still believe it, I know Jesus loves me.  If that is the case, may I ask you why you have stress, worry and fear?  Do you really believe He loves you or is that just some kind of automatic, you know it’s the right answer, kind of answer?

For I would like to propose to you that if you really knew God loved you...

Meditating is something I can almost guarantee that you are already doing and probably don’t even know it!  Do you worry? Well, then you are meditating. You talk about your problem.  You rehearse it over and over in your mind.  You imagine the worst case scenario. Worry is just meditation on the wrong things.  If you get your mind filled with the word of God and the love and power of your God, there won’t be any room or time for worry to stay a part of your life.  

Let’s start by clarifying that there are two different types of meditation. One type is about stillness, quietness and relaxation and I talked about this type in my article, Should Christians Meditate to Reduce Stress?  The second type is what we are talking about today and this type of meditation is about you being guided by the Holy Spirit into an encounter with God.

God told Joshua to meditate on the Scriptures day and night, not letting them depart out of his mouth (Joshua 1:8).  God wanted the Scriptures to be in Jos...