A Christian Dreamweaving for Anxiety Without Fixing It

On Anxiety, Fear & Inner Turmoil

Sometimes the most powerful response to anxiety is not to fix it, but to be with it. This dreamweaving does not promise to make your anxiety disappear. Instead, it offers something different — the possibility of peace existing alongside the anxiety, of being held even in the discomfort, of finding God present in the very place you wish you were not.

We live in a fix-it culture. When something feels wrong, we immediately try to solve it, escape it, or make it go away. But anxiety often resists these attempts. The more we fight it, the stronger it sometimes becomes. What if, instead of fighting, we learned to sit with it?

This is not resignation. It is a different kind of courage — the courage to stay present to something uncomfortable without running away, trusting that God is present here too.

Why Not Fixing Can Help

Anxiety feeds on resistance. When we fight it, we often increase its intensity. The message of fighting is "this is dangerous, I must escape" — which confirms the anxiety's alarm. Paradoxically, accepting anxiety's presence can reduce its power.

• Fighting anxiety validates it as a threat
• Acceptance removes the secondary layer of "anxiety about anxiety"
• Being present to discomfort builds capacity to tolerate it
• Peace can exist alongside anxiety — they are not mutually exclusive
• God is present in the anxiety, not only in its absence

This does not mean you should never address anxiety's causes or seek help for chronic anxiety. It means that in this moment, right now, you can stop fighting and simply be — even with the anxiety present.

God's Presence in Anxious Places

Psalm 139 asks, "Where can I go from your Spirit?" and answers that God is present everywhere — in heaven, in the depths, in darkness, at the farthest reaches of the sea. There is nowhere you can go that God is not already present. This includes your anxiety.

The anxious place is not God-forsaken territory. It is simply difficult territory. And God is no stranger to difficult places. Jesus experienced anguish in Gethsemane — such distress that he sweated blood. God understands what it is to feel overwhelmed.

You do not need to escape your anxiety to find God. You can meet God in the anxiety itself.

A Meditation of Acceptance

This meditation does not try to remove your anxiety. It invites you to be present to it without fighting, trusting that even here, you are held.

Lord, the anxiety is here. I feel it in my body, in my thoughts, in the tightness of my chest. I stop trying to make it go away. I stop fighting what is present. Instead, I turn toward it. I acknowledge it. I let it be here, for now, without demanding it leave. And I look for You in this place — not only in the peace I wish I had, but in the anxiety I actually have. You are here too. Hold me in this uncomfortable place. Let me know Your presence even when I do not feel peaceful. Let me find that peace can exist alongside the anxiety, that I can be both anxious and held at the same time.

You do not need to be fixed to be loved. You do not need to be calm to be held. You can bring your anxious self to God, exactly as you are.

A Practice for Being With Anxiety

When anxiety arises, try this alternative to fighting it:

• Name it: "Anxiety is here" — acknowledge without dramatizing
• Locate it: Where do you feel it in your body?
• Allow it: Give it permission to be present, for now
• Breathe with it: Let your breath move around the sensation
• Invite presence: Ask God to meet you in this place

This practice does not always make anxiety disappear. But it often reduces the secondary suffering — the suffering about suffering, the anxiety about anxiety. And sometimes, in that reduction, the original anxiety loosens its grip as well.