Do you ever struggle to calm your body so that you can focus on your Bible reading and prayer?
Is transitioning from what you are doing now (sleeping, working, playing, surfing) into your devotional time with Jesus difficult sometimes?
Is your mind and body on high alert to the point where you can’t think and focus?
Me too! I identify as a highly-sensitive person. (Take this quiz to see if you are, too.) This means chaos and loud noises overload my nervous system. (Hello PRESCHOOLERS!)
I struggle because there are days where I sit to open my Bible for my personal devotions, but my brain is so fried, I literally can’t think.
My mind is going a million different directions at once. My nervous system is still reeling from the adrenaline surge of my toddler’s latest tantrum. My hands aren’t shaking, but they feel like they should be. I just feel rattled.
Knowing I only have limited time for prayer and Bible study, my mind kicks into overdrive trying to calm itself down. “COME ON, FOCUS! The clock is ticking down! Start reading already!” The internal panic only compounds my stress and makes prayer and focusing even harder.
On other days, I may not feel overwhelmed by my nervous system, but I still have trouble waking up, dropping my mental to-do list, or shifting gears from the activity of my day into Bible study and prayer.
Do you relate to any of these?
If so, I have compiled a few tips that help me when I need to calm down or shift gears. These suggestions are especially helpful for your devotional time, but can be used anytime you need a quick nervous system refresh.
If you’ll allow me to get all scientific for a moment, neurobiology shows us that the left brain controls our critical thinking, analytical, and verbal centers {1}. The right brain “enables us to feel connected” holistically {2}. When we come to study the Bible and pray, we find it helpful to have both sides of our brain functioning clearly. (Helpful, though not necessary – God still hears our emotional right brain prayers and works to connect with us when we’ve shut down emotions and focus only on the logic of our Bible study.)
When our nervous system gets overloaded, our right brain (the creative emotional center) hijacks a lot of our left brain’s (logical) functionality and leaves our bodies in an alert state (the sympathetic system activates the fight, flight, or freeze response) {3}. We need to calm the body and the mind (activating the parasympathetic system) {4}.
Acknowledge what you are feeling.
As you probably picked up, my own emotional frustration at myself for not being ready to dive into Bible study didn’t help calm my mind or body. Instead of trying to rush past emotions, the way I often do, let’s slow down and acknowledge them {5}.
- Bring your physical and emotional state to Jesus. He knows your body and your heart. Tell him what is going on, and how you’re feeling about what’s going on. Begin calming yourself through descriptive communication with Him. “Lord, I’m so frustrated right now. I’m here, I have 20 minutes to read my Bible, but my body is buzzing so badly that I can’t think to process. The more I try, the more frustrated I get. Give me Your grace for today and this moment.”
- Ground yourself through the use of your senses with an attitude of thanksgiving. Those who study anxiety and panic attacks have noticed that a simple exercise can really help {6}. The goal is to tap into the 5 senses to ground the body and the mind.
- Notice 5 things you can SEE
- Notice 4 things you can TOUCH
- Notice 3 things you can HEAR
- Notice 2 things you can SMELL
- Notice 1 thing you can TASTE
Add gratitude to your practice of this exercise. Thank God for each of the items you notice. Recognize your highly sensitive nervous system as thirst indicator pointing you to you need for Jesus.
Left brain activity
Next, when I’m trying to calm myself, I find doing left-brain oriented activities really helpful {7}. Here are some examples I use.
- Planning in my bullet journal. My life and sleep trackers especially are helpful because they require me to put words to what I am feeling, and to count out the hours I’ve been sleeping. Both the “naming feelings” and counting activities are helpful in calming down.
- Anything with numbers, counting, logic-based work. I may double-check my budget or do other logic, numbers based activities to get that part of my mind working. (As long as doing so is a fairly quick venture and won’t take away from my purpose)
- Write scripture. The act of writing can help to calm the mind and nervous system. Try writing out your favorite scripture, or a verse from your Bible reading passage.
Mind dump what your brain is trying to hold onto.
Sometimes I find my nervous system is on high alert because I have too many things I’m trying to remember. Sitting down and just making a list of all the things helps me not only calm down but also shift gears from work mode to devotional mode. I know I can reference the list, and this allows my mind to let go of some things.
While I’m doing my prayer and Bible study time, I’ll often have a 3×5 card or some other non-distracting paper nearby to jot down any to-do’s or ideas. This way I can keep them from cluttering up my mind.
Physical Exercise
Sometimes you just have to move {8}. I like to incorporate prayer into physical movement and breathing exercises. If I’m feeling really wound up, a 10-20 minute session of activity helps to calm, center, and re-energize me.
For a quick boost, try a set of pushups or squats. Anything to get your body moving and burning off the stress hormones.
Calming Environment
Intentionally craft an atmosphere for your devotional time.
Is there a place in your home where you generally feel calm and comforted? Go there.
Set it up with the devotional tools you use and whatever items are soothing and comforting to you: candles, blankets, soothing music, essential oils, coffee, etc. I personally love a cup of tea and a piece of dark chocolate!
Your body will start to associate calm with that spot and those surrounding things.
Breathing Out Our Prayers
The singular 2-minute activity I find most helpful is having Breathing Psalm 23 on my phone. For this tool, I added breathing exercises to a Scripture passage which not only calms the nervous system but also focuses the mind on the Lord.
I used this scripture breathing technique when my 4-year-old was calming down from a pretty epic melt-down this morning. As he sat on my lap, I worked through one of the Psalms feeling my entire body relax. He calmed down with me. Then, asked what I was doing, creating a perfect opportunity to weave yet more scripture and Gospel into his life. (Get your PDF printable copy from our Free Gifts page!)
NOTES:
{1} Curt Thompson, Anatomy of the Soul: Surprising Connections between Neuroscience and Spiritual Practices That Can Transform Your Life and Relationships, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2010, pages 34 & 36; Daniel J Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson, The Whole-Brain Child: 12 revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind, Random House, Inc., New York, 2011, page 15.
{2} Thompson, page 36; Siegel and Bryson, pages 15-16
{3} Thompson, page 42; Siegel and Bryson, pages 22-33
{4} Thomspon, page 42
{5} Siegel and Bryson, page 24
{6} Listen to: The Crystal Paine Show #55. Breaking Free from Anxiety, Stress, & Survival Mode (with Aundi Kolber)
{7} Siegel and Bryson, page 25
{8} Thompson, page 47
AnnMarie
Oh my, this is so me! You give so many great ideas, and I love the science to back it up. We definitely have a mind-body-spirit connection, and the more we know, the better off we can be. I use your “bring it to Jesus” method when I just can’t concentrate. I love writing out thoughts, important parts of verses, and ideas that Jesus brings to mind. I resisted this for years, but it’s been so helpful. The other thing I like to do is walk while I pray. It settles my mind sometimes. Such a great post!
Jessica Jenkins
Oh! I love the walk while praying. I used to do that ALL the time!