Add it In – The Law Of Addition in Lowering Your Anxiety (90 Second Read)
Daniel Crosby • December 5, 2023

The LAW OF ADDITION is strategically adding something into our lives because the addition is going to make us more Resilient, Clear, Accountable, and Healthy.


RESILIENT

Adding like-minded information to your life can help you bounce back from a bad anxiety day. If you’re a mom in the toddler phase, add a podcast where other moms who have been there can validate you and remind you that you aren’t alone. Maybe adding a daily spiritual routine to your spiritual life like scripture reading or prayer can help you rebound from the world when it beats you up and stresses you out.

 

CLEAR

Adding more time outdoors in the woods helped me clear my mind these last few months. Adding a shared calendar on our phones helped my wife and I communicate better. While these are different forms of clarity, they’ve lowered my anxiety because I added these things to help make my life simpler.

 

ACCOUNTABLE

I say it all the time: The thing that is worse than hurting is hurting alone. If we add safe connections and friends to bounce our worries and fears off, oftentimes they begin to decrease. It’s also good to let that friend challenge us with our fears when they're unreasonable and bring us back to reality.

 

HEALTHY

What about your physical health? Adding exercise to your daily routine is going to take valuable time but the benefits far outweigh the costs. By adding exercise, your anxiety will go down. Adding weekly meal prepping will lower anxiety when trying to decide what to have for lunch each day during the week.


HOMEWORK:

Where are the deficits in your life where adding something might help you keep the anxiety at a distance? Try adding one of those things for the next 7 days and see if your anxiety decreases.


Every day I help hurting frazzled people by walking with them as they get back on the path toward becoming who God created them to be. Shoot me an email if there’s anything I can do to help you or someone you know.

"Uncomfortable" Book Review

By Daniel Crosby • May 7, 2025
“Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community” by Brett McCracken is a great book to read if you’re a church person or if you’ve become somewhat detached and frustrated with the church. McCracken challenges all of us, conservatives and progressives, to think about the WHY behind Christian community and one of the fundamentals of finding the WHY is approaching it with humility. Maybe you having it your way and telling everyone else they’re wrong wasn’t exactly what Christ had in mind when He instituted the church. iPhones and iPads seem to have morphed into iChurch in a sense. American culture has turned Christ’s church into a business that caters to our comforts aesthetically, relationally, and politically. It’s made us consumers, critics, and reviewers of the Church rather than servants of THE Kingdom. It’s not wrong to have preferences and to like some things better than others. Music, décor, and speaking style are all over the spectrum at different churches, but he argues that the point of picking a church and serving in it should be less about does it meet my needs and more about whether I’m showing up and using this place along with this group to glorify God. He annoyed me in parts because he steps on my toes but maybe we need that a little more often. If you’re disenfranchised with the status quo and you feel like it’d be good to be challenged about church then go grab “Uncomfortable” by Brett McCrackin.

Look for Beautiful Things

By Daniel Crosby • April 28, 2025
Look for beautiful things when you're restless, uncomfortable, or on edge. There's something about acknowledging the good around us that helps us reset and realize that it's not all bad. If you're struggling to see beautiful things in the world, come see me and we can talk more about it. www.danielcrosbycounseling.com

"The Needs of the Heart" Book Review

By Daniel Crosby • April 24, 2025
“The Needs of the Heart” by Chip Dodd is a book that will blow your mind. When I picked it up, it’s a very small thin book. Less than 100 pages. I assumed I’d breeze through it in a couple of hours. About a month later I finished digesting it. The truth is we cannot fully live the life God has called us to unless we acknowledge that we do have needs, that these needs are good, and discover the healthy ways of meeting these needs. Chip takes common human needs like Security and Accomplishment and he unpacks what they really are pointing us to in his typical concise but brilliant depth. There’s no fluff here. With chapters just 3-4 pages each, you’re going to want to have a highlighter ready to underline, to ponder these topics, and maybe then to discuss them with someone you know and trust. You’ll come away from this book with a deeper sense what is already fulfilled within you and ones that might be lacking where you need to go do a deep dive with a lot of prayer and introspection. If you liked Chip’s book “The Voice of the Heart,” this is one is your next read. Go grab “The Needs of the Heart” by Chip Dodd.