A recent book, Anxiety: A Catholic Guide to Freedom from Worry and Fear, promises to help anxious Catholics find peace in an often frightening world.
“Anxiety. Even the saints struggled with its effects,” the book’s description on the publisher’s website says. “From excessive worry about the future to ruminating about the past, anxiety can steal your joy, impact your health, and negatively affect your spiritual life.”
The book, which was released this year by Sophia Institute Press, is written by Lianna Bennett Haidar, a Catholic psychologist, and her parents Art and Laraine Bennett, a couple best known for their book The Temperament God Gave You.
The authors say that anxiety has been on the rise in recent years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.
Despite how unpleasant and painful experiences of anxiety can be, the authors of the book say that it has a God-given purpose.Lianna explained in a panel at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C., that anxiety “is a lifesaving tool” that can help people flee from dangerous situations but it can be overactive, and it can be a little out of control.” The authors say people experiencing intense anxiety are faced with three options, and the first two are bad ones. First, a person can do nothing and continue to be crippled by anxieties, or, second, a person can try to avoid anything that could possibly cause anxiety, therefore retreating from life. Finally, a person can “face your anxiety head on while assessing your triggers with the rational part of your brain,” as a review in Angelus News puts it.
The book provides help for those who want to choose the third option.
Dealing with anxiety is not just about fighting against our crosses: it is about growing in virtue, the authors say. To that end, the book provides concrete advice on how to do everything from reframing challenging situations to understanding and evaluating coping mechanisms. Ultimately, in learning how to deal with anxiety well, people retrain their brains and change their habits.
The authors say that one of the keys in dealing with anxiety is learning how to pause in frightening and overwhelming moments. This, along with slow breathing and rational thoughts, can help to calm both the body and the mind.
Bennett Haidar said it is not good to be “ruled by fear.”
“The more we listen to it, the smaller it makes our world because it tells us, ‘No, don’t do that thing. That thing’s too dangerous,’” she said. “And the next thing we know, we are stuck.”
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Author: Felix Miller
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