Anxiety – Page 2 – Melissa Schlies

Five More Ways to Stay Sane During Election Season

Have I ever told you, fall is my favorite season? The beautiful colors the leaves on the trees turn mesmerizes me. The weather is finally cool enough to bake, which is convenient because I love almost anything baked with locally grown apples or pumpkin. And there is just something in the air that makes me want to walk downtown to the farmers market, or find a hiking trail nearby. Fall is fantastic. Only fall is also when, every four years, our country faces its most crucial election season. Yards are marked with candidate signs. Social Media is more politically charged [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-10-14T23:42:06+00:00October 15th, 2020|Categories: Anxiety, Balance, Conflict, Fear, Habit Making, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Making Decisions, Relationships, Self Care|Comments Off

How to Create Time When There Seems Like There is None

When I left my full-time job in youth ministry, suddenly, I didn’t have to be anywhere. I had so much free time. No one was expecting me to be showered, dressed, and ready to go by nine in the morning. Or by eleven in the morning for that matter. Needless to say, I discovered quite quickly, I needed a routine. Until I found my next career, I needed a place to be. Or at least, I needed a purpose to fulfill each day, beyond doing laundry or grocery shopping. For some part of each week, I wanted to do something [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-08-23T21:29:38+00:00August 24th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Anxiety, Balance, Habit Making, Health, Routines|Comments Off

Nine Signs Your Routine Is Off

Before I experience it anywhere else, I feel it in my chest. I wake up in the morning to an anxious tightening in my lungs that makes it hard to breathe. And it’s as if my body knows before my brain does that I am overwhelmed. I can’t see the forest for the trees. I know I have a lot to do. Only, I can’t figure out what to focus on or accomplish first. I may not even know what day it is. For me, these experiences and feelings are my first clues that my routine is off. That my [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-08-12T20:49:26+00:00August 13th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Anxiety, Balance, Change, Habit Making, Health, Hope, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Making Decisions, Practice, Routines|Comments Off

Sometimes, Change Isn’t the Problem

Sometimes, change isn’t our problem. I know it feels like a weird time to say this, as change is all many of us have experienced this year. Not only that, but many of the changes that have come our way, haven’t been good. The difficult part of change, isn’t always the change itself. Only the difficult part of change, isn’t always the change itself. Rather, it’s the many minuscule reactionary changes that it sets off in its wake. I’ve been feeling this especially since our move last month. As I shared two weeks ago, after eight years of trying to [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-08-08T23:28:06+00:00August 10th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Anxiety, Change, Habit Making, Health, Practice, Routines|Comments Off

When You Feel Stuck & Change Feels Impossible

As we've all been in a time of great change this season, this month all the posts here will be about change in some form. Today, I am re-sharing a post from a few years ago about when there was a change I needed to make that felt impossible. I hope it gives you hope for any changes you are longing to make. Six years ago, on a hot, sunny Saturday over Labor Day weekend, I stood at the top of a waterfall. I stared at the cool pool of water collecting just before spilling over the edge, and debated [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-06-29T15:40:02+00:00July 6th, 2020|Categories: Anxiety, Change, Courage, Fear, Freedom, Hope|Comments Off

Three Screen-less Self Care Practices for the Pandemic Weary

Last week, for the first time in months, I went to see three people I love. There were birthdays and graduations to celebrate, so I dropped off gifts at each of their door steps. We kept our distance. Masks were worn. And—it was harder than I thought it would be. Where I expected my visits to be like little reunions, a sadness hung in the air. We couldn’t hug like we normally do. Almost everything we talked about related to how the virus has changed our lives. And being together—at a distance—was good, but strange. We kept our distance. Masks [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-05-27T12:57:24+00:00May 21st, 2020|Categories: Anxiety, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Practice, Routines, Self Care, Social Distancing|Comments Off

Two Questions to Ask as We Wait For The Return of “Normal”

I know you’ve said these six little words. I just wonder if when you say them, you get the same feeling I do each time they pass my lips. Because every time I say, “When things get back to normal…” There’s a heaviness in my chest. A question on whether I should replace the “when” with an “if.” A sense that we’ve passed the point of no return. That just as September 11th shifted so much about how we live our lives, COVID-19 has done the same. Only we don’t fully know what it looks like yet. Often, after this [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-04-26T13:07:37+00:00April 27th, 2020|Categories: Adulting, Anxiety, Balance, Calling, Courage, Habit Making, Making Decisions, Social Distancing|Comments Off

In Case No One Told You, The Rules Have Changed

I don’t need to tell you how much our lives have changed in the last month. How strange social distancing is or that now, going to the grocery store is like being in a sci-fi movie. All of us wearing our masks, and trying so hard to say six feet a part. But in all of this, I do feel like there is one thing I need to say. Friend, the rules have changed. Many of the ones we’ve followed daily for as long as we can remember, no longer apply. The expectations of others or ourselves that say we [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-04-13T12:16:58+00:00April 13th, 2020|Categories: Anxiety, Change, Fear, FOMO, Habit Making, Hope, Social Distancing|Comments Off

Reader Question #1: Can Someone Have Faith and Still Be Scared?*

Recently, a good friend and email subscriber reached out to me with this question: It is possible to have complete faith in God, and still feel fear? Or perhaps more specific to our current circumstances, can we simultaneously have faith that God is going to watch over us, while still being afraid of Covid-19? When it comes to life, faith, science—basically everything—we as humans want absolutes. And, we want ourselves to be resolute. Once we find what seems to be the right position on everything from the type of milk we drink, to politics, to our beliefs—we want to be [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-04-08T20:45:09+00:00April 9th, 2020|Categories: Anxiety, Courage, Faith, Fear, Hope, Lead, Learn, Love, Love Learn Lead, Reader Question|1 Comment

What To Do When Being At Home Is Hard

A friend of mine once told me that she hates spending too much time at home. When she was growing up, things were bad living with her parents. Home was not a good place to be. So now, as an adult, she’d rather spend her downtime outside of her own home—doing errands or being involved in activities. For her, being home means being still enough for all the hard things of her past to surface. Home is not always our place of comfort. Only now, that is where many of us are. We’re working from home or our jobs have [...]

By Melissa Schlies|2020-04-06T12:33:07+00:00April 6th, 2020|Categories: Anxiety, Conflict, Depression, Health, Hope, Mental Health, Self Care, Social Distancing|2 Comments

Five More Ways to Stay Sane During Election Season

How to Create Time When There Seems Like There is None

Nine Signs Your Routine Is Off

Sometimes, Change Isn’t the Problem

When You Feel Stuck & Change Feels Impossible

Reader Question #1: Can Someone Have Faith and Still Be Scared?*

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