Powerful And Personable

When My Mind Winds Up: A Pull No Punches Approach To Anxiety by Jennifer Ervig is a powerful book looking at anxiety and how we can deal with it and hope to overcome it.

Each chapter is divided into introductory thoughts, Bible references, a narrative, questions to lead us to review ourselves and a section for notes. It is well laid out and accessible for all.

Jennifer Ervig tells us that anxiety is self-focused and therefore it helps if we can take our gaze off ourselves and put it onto others. “Anxiety is not about you. It’s an attack on you.” When anxiety attacks we need to root down into God, reminding ourselves of His word and His promises. If medicine is prescribed, it’s okay to take it. After all if you had a headache, you would take paracetamol.

It is important to be aware of what we feed our minds. “Whatever we plant in our… mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become reality.” We need to guard our minds and fix our eyes on Jesus. He is our hope and our anchor.

When we are anxious, doubts may creep in. We need to feast on God’s word and remember His truths.

We may ask ourselves, ‘why me?’ when bad things happen. This is the wrong question. The right question is ‘why not me?’ This will change your whole perspective.

The whole book is fascinating. Jennifer Ervig’s style was very personable. Her words were easy to relate to. Many times I thought ‘that’s me!’ This book shows you are not alone. Even with our faith, we can become anxious and that’s okay, God understands.

When My Mind Winds Up is a perfect book for individual study or for working through in connect groups. It is a powerful read that will help you recognise your anxiety and help you cope with it as you draw closer to God.

I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

JULIA WILSON