Mountains are great anxiety therapy!

Some of you are here for the anxiety tips, some are here for the Smoky Mountains family vacation tips, and maybe some are here for both. And if you found this blog on accident, welcome. I believe there is a divine reason for it.

Allow me to do a quick introduction. My name is Christy Boulware, and I am the founder of a nonprofit organization called Fearless. After being diagnosed with severe panic and anxiety disorder in 2011, I decided to turn that pain into purpose and help people overcome fear and anxiety. The vision of this blog provides weekly tips to help you do just that! So let's get started.

The mountains provided great anxiety relief for me.

A screenprint with a verse I wasn't familiar with greeted me when I entered our VRBO rental in the Smoky Mountains. "The earth trembles at his glance; the mountains smoke at his touch (Psalm 104:32; NLT). WOW! God called them the Smoky Mountains before we did. The rest of Psalm 104 captivated me, and I studied it during our vacation in my quiet time.

Are you ever curious about the origins of the mountains? Hang with me; I'm going somewhere with this.

You placed the world on its foundation

so it would never be moved.

You clothed the earth with floods of water,

water that covered even the mountains.

At your command, the water fled;

at the sound of your thunder, it hurried away.

Mountains rose and valleys sank

to the levels you decreed.

Then you set a firm boundary for the seas,

so they would never again cover the earth.

Psalm 104: 5-9

I need to remember that God placed the world on its foundation when I'm anxious, and Psalm 104 (in its entirety) helps me with that. He set the world in motion, and the world is in His gracious and loving hands. He is in control, and I am not.

Staring at the mountains puts that all into perspective for me. When I gaze into the miles of magnificent mounds, I think about how only God could be in charge of something so beautiful. His control helps melt my worries, anxieties, and fears away.

Today's tip: fears become small in the hands of a mighty big God!

With that in mind, I enjoyed our family vacation!

To break up the drive we stayed in Clarksville, TN on day one. We wanted to stay outside of Nashville to save a little money on hotel costs so we stayed at the brand new Clarksville-Holliday Inn. The bathroom had great lighting so we snapped a quick pic there.

We headed out early to make our 11 AM Bike rental appointment for Nashville's Bike The Greenway. Steve, the owner, was great and very knowledgeable about the Greenway. The bikes were all in great shape!

We were bound and determined to make it to the city of Nashville via bike, and we did it! We were most impressed with Miss Lila, our almost nine-year-old, because she didn't have gears on her bike and had to work a lot harder! She is the real MVP for this trip. The total distance from start to finish was about 12.5 miles!