How To Boil 1,000 Signs of Worry Down To Just 6

Today, I want you to join me in the toy room. I want you to imagine with me we are going to spend some time together cleaning and my kids absolutely blew up the toy room and there are toys everywhere. I mean like you can’t walk into the room. It’s just a disaster. For those of you guys who have little kids, you know exactly what I’m talking about. And you’re probably thinking to yourself, oh my word, like why do I even bother because I’m overwhelmed with feelings of stress or it’s going to take such a long time? I come from a long line of chronic worriers, so believe me when I tell you I completely relate.

6 different bins

Let’s go ahead and do it anyway. And here’s the thing. My toy room is really easy to clean up because I only have six different colored bins and each toy is one of those six colors. So every single thing that we pick up and we put in the bin is color coded. So the red toys go in the red bin, the blue toys go in the blue bin, the purple toys go in the purple bin.

I only have six colors of toys in my toy room and every single color of toy has its own color coordinated bin. So this makes clean up a breeze and we put those bins back onto the shelf and they’re beautiful when they’re done.  It’s really simple to clean up, okay?

This is how I want you to consider what it’s like to renew your mind in your daily life and overcome symptoms of anxiety and excessive worry. 

family, faith, finance, friendship, field and fitness

I know this is a different approach, but Instead of thinking of a toy room, I want you to think of your mind and all the things that you’re worried about and your anxious thoughts. Let’s say your mind is the toy room and you have toys which are thoughts. Thoughts that bring you worry or concern. And I want you to understand that really you only have six bins or six areas of your life that you’re really worried about. Every single thought that you have could go into one of those bins, even it feels like you have thousands of thoughts and thousands of bins. I call those bins the six F’s. The six F’s are family, faith, finance, friendship, field, and fitness. So if I took everything that I’m worried about and I wrote it down in my journal, I could label each of those worries with one of the six categories: family, faith, finance, friendship, field, and fitness. Stick with me, this gets good!

Family is one of the F’s and under family I would consider my marriage, my kids, my house, my home life, just anything that has to do with everybody who lives in my current home. Family would also include my extended family, my parents, my husband’s parents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparent and any family member. So if I am worried about anything when it comes to that particular bin, all those thoughts go in the family bin, got it? The family problems bin can be one that gets full for a lot of people. 

Faith is the next F. If I am afraid that God is not going to come through for me or if I’m having thoughts about not reading my Bible in a week or I haven’t gone to church in awhile or we’re finding a new church or we’re having conflict in small group or there’s really any potential threat–these are things you’re worried about when it comes to your faith and all those thoughts could be put in that bin of faith. 

Finance, the next F, could be when you’re thinking about how much money needs to come in or how much money needs to go out. This could be inheritance, it could be increase, it could be decrease, it could be about your future. Maybe you’re having another baby or you’re wanting to add to your family and you know how much it costs. Maybe there are some things about your finances that you’re worried about and it’s all consuming–this area can contain many different things. Maybe you’re going to the worst-case scenarios in your mind. Any thoughts that come up in your mind about finance could be filed in the finance bin.

Friendship is next. This could be boundaries in friendship. Maybe it’s the people that you follow on social media or a trusted friend. Maybe it’s the people that you hang out with. Maybe it’s high school friends that you no longer hang out with or maybe there’s some conflict resolution or significant distress coming up for you. Or maybe it’s not a specific event, but you’re changing culture or tribe, but all the things that you’re worried about when it comes to that would go in the friendship bin. 

Field is the next F. Field is your career. It is your business, it’s your ministry, it’s your current assignment, it’s the way that you earn money for your family. It is your career. Maybe you’re in a transition in your career or maybe you’re thinking about trying something new and you’re worried about it. You’re concerned about how to make steps going forward. Well, all those thoughts that you have would go into that bin labeled ‘field’.  

The last F that is the bin I call Fitness. This is your personal, physical health. Maybe your cycles have been wonky, maybe your skin is being weird and you know you need to make lifestyle changes, or maybe maybe you haven’t gotten the physical activity that you said you were going to do or maybe your mental health isn’t as great as want it to be. You’re not sleeping as good as you should. Maybe your hair is falling out. Maybe there’s some areas of concern and you clearly have a health problem. All the negative thoughts and feelings of anxiety that you have about your health would go in that bin. 

why bother?

So what’s the purpose of even organizing your worries? Like, why even bother? You may have resigned yourself to chronic worrying. Well, one of the ways that you cultivate peace on purpose going forward is understanding that you’re not worried about a thousand things, you’re really worried about six. And what’s great about this is you can figure out where the enemy is having a heyday in your life. Most of us just think of our mind as like a really torn apart toy room and we think to ourselves I don’t even know how to clean this place up and what’s the point? Like, it just gets trashed every single day.

I mean, let’s think about it. The clinical research says you’re going to have a thousand, actually 60,000, thoughts today. 80% of them are going to be negative. This is a normal part of life that many people don’t really understand. If you don’t have a bin for that negative thought to go in, then you’re going to have a mind that is just like a toy room that has been blown apart by toddlers. It’s going to be really hard to sift through anything with anxiety symptoms coming up. And you’re going to think to yourself, like, what is the point? I can’t even manage this. And if you can’t manage your mind  then you’re not going to have victory over your mind. This has been so helpful for me because when I think about how God invited me to be anxious for nothing, that usually means that I am anxious about lots of things, and he’s inviting me to a different way. He’s inviting me to a more elevated way in my faith. I’m telling you every single thought that you have is a clue to one of the six areas in which God is tapping on your heart to work on with you. 

when you get to the root, the fruit is no problem

But the biggest trap–or specific threat– that we can fall into when it comes to learning how to manage our mind and ongoing anxiety is thinking that worry will just magically go away. It doesn’t magically go away. The crazy part is that we think that because it doesn’t magically go away that it can never go away. That’s just not true. I have found this so helpful in my daily activities because when I have a negative thought, I have choices about how to handle it. I can think it, I can write it down and  I can pay attention to it. I’m going to really encourage you to grab your journal today and just brain dump all the things that you’re worried about and put them into one of these six categories. You’re going to find out which one of these categories you’re having the least victory in. You’re going to find out the stronghold even if right now there is no apparent reason for it. God is going to illuminate to you where the enemy is having a heyday. And you’re going to find out what the root of that fear is. When you get to the root, then the fruit is no problem. It’s kind of going back to the toy room analogy. If you pick up all the toys and every toy has its own bin, then you can see which bin has the most toys in it. Which one is overflowing here? 

You had a mountain of worries that we just turned into a mole hill. Really, one of the six areas of your life is what you’re really worried about. You’re either worried about your family, your faith, your finances, your friendships, your field, or your fitness. That’s it. But the enemy loves you to believe that you have a mountain of things that you’re worried about during times of stress. Nope. You actually have a mole hill. And what’s great about that is that when you understand that you have a mole hill of problems, what can you do to a mole hill?  You can walk up to it and stomp on it.  It is something you can literally crush.  But if you think you have a mountain of worries triggered by stressful events, well that can feel overwhelming and it can feel like you’re never going to climb the hill. This has helped me so much. And I want to invite you to take some time and, again, grab that journal and just write out everything you’re worried about. What is the common theme? What is the one F that is really demanding your attention because this is where God wants to grow you this season. This is the area where he’s saying, come with me. I have a journey for you. I know your burden is heavy and I’m going to make it light. See the enemy doesn’t want you to know what area of your life you’re struggling in the most because the more that you can stay in the dark, the better. 

God will help you

Once you identify the area where you have the most worries (your overflowing bin), God can bring people into your life with wise counsel, he can remind you of scripture, he can bring clarity. I’m talking fruit of the Holy Spirit–love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control, all the things that you are begging God to do in the thousand things that you’re worried about. Really, you just need it focused on one of the six areas. 

Worry doesn’t magically go away, but worry is like cleaning up the toy room. Figure out which bin has the most toys and then spend time learning that area. Get around other people who are helpful in that area. There is so much victory for you. And the thing is, when it comes to cultivating peace on purpose, I want to remind you that when God says to be anxious for nothing, what he’s really saying is bring your bins to me. You bring me your faith. You bring me your family. You bring me your finance. You bring me your friendships. You bring me your field and your career. You bring me your personal health or your fitness. You bring me those bins. I will rule and reign over those bins and you will experience the peace that passes all understanding because that’s what God promised.  He said, do not be anxious about anything, but in everything through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, make your requests be made known to God. The great thing about organizing your worries into six different categories is that when you know which one you need to bring to him, you can confidently say, “I choose in advance not to be anxious.”

And when we know that we’re in a situation where your fitness is being tested, for example, you can take on a whole new sense of focus over this area and God will go with you as you pray about and figure out how to improve in this area. How do you feel when your closet is organized, friend?  Isn’t it so much easier and delightful to walk in there knowing exactly where your favorite clothes are and everything’s tidy? That is what God is inviting you to when it comes to renewing your mind and taking your thoughts captive. 

there is hope

This is how we start. We understand that we are going to have 60,000 thoughts today. 80% of them are going to be negative and the cleanup that we have to do is minimal because all those worries can be organized and be put in bins. You’ll know exactly which area of life God is working with you on this season. That in and of itself is a cause for peace, is it not?  Because there’s hope when you can organize and keep things tidy. 

Thank you for reading the blog today. If this blog blessed you, would you do me a favor and share it with a friend? More people need to know that they never, ever have to lay down their peace. And that’s good news!

If you liked what you read here and you’re interested in related topics, I have more content in other places. You can find me over on Instagram and Facebook. You can also find out ways that you can partner with me or work with me for a season. You can get more information at leslieburris. com.