 Man, I've been planning this video for a long time, and it did not turn out the way that I thought it was going to turn out. What is up, everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about mental health, and what I like to do is pull different topics from the YouTube community to try to teach you how to improve your mental and emotional well-being. So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. By the way, we are getting so, so close to the 10,000 follower goal over on Instagram, so I can get the little swipe up feature. You're all amazing. But if you haven't followed me on Instagram yet, go follow me. And once I hit 10,000 followers, I'm going to be doing some more giveaways, giving away different books as well as some merch and all sorts of cool stuff. So go follow me over there. All right, so yeah, real quick story time. So I am personally a teeter between atheist and agnostic, and I've seen a bunch of people make videos about girl to find. And I'm like, these girls be crazy, right? And I knew they made a video about God, like fixing your anxiety a while back. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, that can't be right. That can't be right. So I'm like, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to watch their video and I'm going to take science and explain why they're so wrong about this. Then I watched it. I'm like, huh, they're wrong about some things, but it makes a pretty good point. So I'm like, oh, no, Chris, you're going to piss off all your other viewers who are atheists and agnostics. But it actually brought to mind the school of life. So here's my thing. Like I've mentioned this in previous videos, like I really don't care what you believe in as long as you're not hurting anybody. And one of the things that I think that many atheists don't realize is that they can be just as bad as like really intense religious people. And what I mean by that is what many people don't like about organized religion is when they try to cram it down your throat. Right. But there are a lot of atheists who do the exact same thing. And I'm like, this is both like both of you are kind of irritating. But Alan de Baton, he is an author. He is a speaker. He is also the founder of the YouTube channel, the school of life. It blends like philosophy. They do a lot of mental health stuff, even though they don't really brand themselves that way. I really think you should check it out. But when making this video and I was trying to think how I'm going to do it, it brought to mind one of the best books I ever read, which is this one. It's called Religion for Atheists and it's by Alan de Baton. And I absolutely loved this book so, so, so much. And I highly suggest all of you check it out because I knew I liked Alan de Baton. I've seen some of his talks and things like that. And when I started reading it, I was like, oh, OK, you're the kind of atheist that I like, right? Where you just don't believe in God, but you could still pull good things from religion. So in this book, basically what he does is he takes the good parts of religion and pulls it from religion. See, in many cases, what I believe, in my opinion, is religion is fine. It's people who screw it up, right? So like what Alan de Baton does, he goes through a bunch of different religions, pulls the good things from it. And basically he says, you don't need to believe in God to be a good person, right? Like, you don't have to believe in God to think it's wrong to murder somebody, you know what I mean? So my goal with this video is to break down girl defines video on anxiety and kind of pull an Alan de Baton and translate it because they actually give some good advice. They give some bad advice, which I'll touch on as well. But even if you're an atheist or agnostic, there are things that you can pull from this, which can actually help you with your anxiety. So yeah, what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you different clips. They went through six different ways that God helps your anxiety. And I'm going to show you the clip and then I'm going to break it down. Biblical truth number one, the same God who created you can be trusted with the details of your life. This is one that's really, really hard to grasp with, right? Trust in God's plan, trust in God's plan. And, you know, from an atheist or agnostic's point of view, it's like, OK, was it God's plan to send a tsunami and kill like, you know, thousands of people or to do these awful things? And basically like what I'm going to talk about a lot of this video is acceptance, all right, accepting things the way that they're going to turn out, which is very difficult for anybody who has anxiety. So for me, a lot of my anxiety comes from me being a control freak, right? Things need to work out exactly the way I want them to work out, right? And this can be troublesome, right? So sometimes I just have to, you know, even though I don't believe, you know, in an all powerful being most of the time, like I have to believe that things are going to work out, right? And even if it's not that, it's having faith in myself. And that's what I want to encourage you all to do. Having faith in yourself, right? Basically, trusting in the fact that no matter what comes your way, you're going to be able to deal with it, right? We put so little faith in ourselves. But you guys, if you're watching this, like, chances are, like, you are a badass and you don't realize it. Like, how many of you watching this have had a traumatic childhood, you know, abusive relationships, you know, terrible jobs, terrible friends, been backstabbed, lied to all sorts of stuff, been financially just destroyed, didn't know where your next meal was coming from. But here you are today, still surviving. So what I would say is trust in yourself. Like, that's what that's what I have to do on a regular basis. Like, you guys, 2018 was the best year of my life and I lost my job, OK? But losing that job made me able to put more effort into the YouTube channel. And now I get to do this full time and write books and do other projects and travel and all sorts of stuff, right? Because I have faith in myself that no matter what challenge comes my way, I will work my butt off and make things happen. And number two, worrying about the future hinders your efforts for today. So often, and I know I've done this, we're so worried about tomorrow and the next day and the next week and the next month and the next year that we're not even living to date. We're not even fruitful for God today because we're so anxious thinking about tomorrow. Like, who can argue with that? Who can argue with that? You guys, future tripping is a huge, huge problem with anxiety, right? We're so worried about what might happen, what could happen? What did that, that, that, that, that, right? This is why I keep trying to teach you all mindfulness, OK? Like, a lot of people think that mindfulness means meditation and sitting there going home. No, mindfulness is simply paying attention on purpose in the present moment, OK? That's all it is. So every time you start catching yourself worrying about the future, you bring it back to the present. You're worrying about tomorrow, bring it back to the present. Like, what good is it to me to worry about tomorrow? A great example is something I learned in my early addiction recovery. Like, I didn't know how I was going to stay sober forever. You want me to stay sober forever? I can barely stay sober for five minutes. You know what I mean? But then I started to realize I don't have to stay sober forever. I just got to stay sober today. I just got to stay sober right now. I just got to stay sober for the next hour, the next minute. You know what I mean? So what we all need to do is quit worrying so much about the future and the things that we can't control because I'm telling you this right now. This is something that's helped me so much is working to be the best person I can. Today typically makes tomorrow pretty decent. Number three, worrying is more harmful than helpful. I can attest to that. You know, just thinking about really Christine Christine go through her wedding worries and woes. And honestly, learning for that and her being like, don't let it ruin you. Like, and so many people advising me saying worrying isn't helpful. It's not going to do anything. Be proactive, be productive. But at the end of the day, you just have to trust God. This is this is some pretty good advice, too. Something I often try to teach you all is this, like when when you are like in rumination, right, you have the same thoughts going over and over and over and over and over again, like, ask yourself a simple question. Is this useful or is this not useful? Right? Like this is something that we just need to pause and ask ourselves for one second. OK, like worrying can be good. It helps us plan. It helps us be prepared for the worst. You guys, I try to teach this to people all the time. Anxiety is part of our evolution. Anxiety is what kept our ancestors alive. People who have anxiety typically live a longer life because they're worried about certain things. They're not going to climb to the top of a building like freehand. You know, just to take an Instagram picture. You know what I'm saying? Like anxiety can be a good thing. But when you're worrying about what everybody thinks about you and what this and this and this and this is this, what is that useful to you? And number four, regardless of your circumstances, God promises to help those who trust him. So our circumstances may not change. You may be in something that is extremely hard, extremely challenging and trusting God doesn't mean that you're like, whatever, I don't care anymore. It's going to be easy. It means that in the midst of the storm, in the midst of the hard times, in the midst of the uncertainty about the future, you're saying, yes, I don't know, but I'm trusting you, God, in the midst of this. I'm putting my hope in you. Right there. That's why I'm like, all right, let's calm down for a second. So they're saying that God helps anybody who trusts in him. All right. So here's here's my thing. And here's here's how I work with that with anxiety. Again, it goes back to acceptance, right? Just accepting and trying not to worry about the things that, you know, aren't bringing value to me. But again, like trusting, trusting in myself. One of the things that I love about meditation. So like so often with like religion or, you know, whatever it is, some forms of spirituality, you're trusting in something else outside of you. Right. Meditation teaches you to have faith in a higher version of yourself. So what I mean by that is imagine, imagine the best version of you. Right. This thing that we're working towards, if you're watching this video, there's a chance that you would like to be a better version of yourself. You know what I mean? And this doesn't mean get down on yourself and negative talk yourself or whatever that is, but have faith in that person, trust in that person. What would that person do in this situation? Would this person do the right thing or the wrong thing? Would this person rely on toxic behaviors or healthy behaviors? You know what I mean? Trust in that. Number five, God sees you and he knows exactly what you need. Now, this isn't what you think you need, because we are like this, we're like, God, I need this. You know, for 30 years, I was like, God, I need a husband and you don't know. You know, he's like, no, Bethany, you actually don't. I have a different plan for you. You don't need that right now. You want that, but I have a better plan. This is actually some pretty good advice. So basically what they're saying is you don't know what you need. And I absolutely agree. Now, what they're saying is God knows what you need and you don't. You can figure out what you need. But I often tell people when I'm working with them about anxiety and, you know, because we have all these delusions about what we need. Right. This is especially true with depression. For example, I thought I needed a lot of money to be happy. I thought I needed a big house to be happy. I thought I needed cars to be happy. I thought I needed this girl to be happy. I thought I needed that job in order to be happy. Those were wants. Our brain has a difficult time separating wants and needs. So the practice I suggest all of you do is take a piece of paper, draw a line right down the middle and write down wants and needs. Right. So fill that thing out and then look at that list again. See how many things from the needs you can move over to the wants. After you do that, look at it again. See how many more needs you can move over to wants. Do that again. See how many more needs you can move over to wants. Keep doing that over and over and over again. One of the reasons that my life is better today, because I realize I don't need that much. Right. So another YouTuber out there was talking about me sitting in my apartment and all these other things is because I realized that I don't need a gigantic house to be happy. You know what I mean? Up until Tristan and I moved in November of 2018, I was living in the ghetto, like the hood, right? Like it was a terrible neighborhood. Any of you on Patreon, I did a video of it. It was an awful neighborhood. I lived there for five years and I was the happiest I've ever been because I realized that I didn't need a gigantic house. I didn't need a nice car. I didn't need these things. Right. And when you do that, you start to eliminate some of the BS from your life. You know what I mean? So start working on that on a regular basis. Start understanding what you need and what you want. Today, today, there's very few things that I need. Right. I need my sobriety. I need my health. I need my son's health. You know what I mean? And like a few of those things, those are even considered wants. You know what I mean? But those are the things that are the priority for me today. If those things are all right, I know everything else is going to be a cakewalk. And the last and final truth is this, seeking God above all else is the antidote to worry and anxiety. That last one right there is where I don't agree. All right. So again, I come from a 12 step program and I've made videos about how you can be an atheist in 12 step programs. OK, go check them out. I'm not going to go over all that again, but I'll never forget. Like, see, when I got clean and started working on my mental health, I didn't work with a therapist. I work with a sponsor and I was taking Lexa Pro for my anxiety, my depression and everything. And, you know, they, you know, they promote, you know, you know, trusting the higher power and all these other things. And my higher power was the process. My higher power was my friends, my support group, my sponsor. Right. And I remember my sponsor telling me, like, once I, you know, work through these steps, you know, I shouldn't need my medication anymore. I'm like, all right, pump the brakes, buddy. That's why I'm not going to agree with you. OK. So although, like I have faith in the processes of like cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy and, you know, all these other things, right, like I also trust in science and science has proven to us that some of us have brains that do not function in the way that they should when it comes to our anxiety. That's why medications are there. You know what I mean? Some of us have an overactive amygdala. And if you remember the hand model, the amygdala right there, that is part of our limbic system. That is our fight, fight or freeze mechanism. Anybody who's been through a trauma has a very active amygdala. It goes off and releases stress hormones and things like that. When we are triggered, you know what I mean? So there are medications that can help with that. No amount of believing in God is going to solve that. All right. And that is where, like, remember what I said, like, I don't mind people who are religious as long as you're not hurting anybody. So, like, when I look at people like my friend, Rachel Oates, like, I look at that as dangerous information. I look at that as dangerous information saying, like, OK, you shouldn't see a doctor, you shouldn't see a therapist, just believe in God. And this is going to help because that's not true. I'm going to do a video in the future about how trauma can be passed down through genetics, for example, grandchildren of Holocaust survivors have are more likely to have anxiety than other people, right? Because trauma can be passed down through genetics. You know what I mean? So while, you know, if people, you know, want to believe in God and all that and that helps them with their life, beautiful, like, girl to find, they seem happy, you go girls, right? But we also have to have faith in science and doctors and medication. You know what I mean? So again, again, like, I try to play, you know, right down the middle. I don't mind people who are religious. You know, I don't mind people who don't believe or whatever it is. But I think it's important in the context of mental health to talk about these things. So again, I would love if you guys, if you're an atheist or an agnostic like myself, go check out the book, Religion for Atheists by Alan Day Baton, all right? A lot of this is just deciphering and pulling the good things that religious people offer, right? Because I remember a long time ago, it was said to me, like, even though I don't believe in what they believe in, there's no denying there was no denying that a lot of religious people were way happier than I was. So what I tried to do was take the things that were useful to me and get rid of the rest, all right? But anyways, that's all I got for you with this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a ton of videos and a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You are all amazing and we are starting our monthly group calls. So go check out the new posts I just put up on Patreon, all right? So thanks again so, so much for watching. I'll see you next time.