If you have been feeling overwhelmed lately, I hope you speak to yourself gently. Your nervous system is not trying to ruin your life. It is trying to protect a version of you that once had to survive very difficult things.

Healing often begins by reminding yourself that you are safe now.

You: I don’t know why I feel so overwhelmed lately.

God: I do.

Part of your anxiety is coming from carrying too many things your spirit was never meant to hold alone. Part of it is grief that never had enough room to fully leave your body. Part of it is exhaustion from constantly trying to predict what could go wrong so you can avoid getting hurt again.

Fear that expressing your needs will make you difficult.

– Jacqueline Whitney

You call it overthinking, but underneath it is fear.

Fear that things will disappear once you finally trust them.

Fear that rest will make you lazy.

Fear that expressing your needs will make you difficult.

Fear that if you stop preparing for disappointment, disappointment will arrive unannounced.

Your nervous system has spent so long surviving that peace feels almost suspicious now.

But anxiety is not always intuition. Sometimes it is simply a body that has not yet learned that the danger has passed.

And slowly, gently, we are teaching your heart the difference.

Jacqueline Whitney is the author Held: A 50 Day Devotional For Parents and All That You Deserve.