When Anxiety Shows Up as Hypervigilance in Cross-Racial Ministry
Anxiety is a psychological and physical reaction to one's environment. While anxiety often gets a bad rap, it is an important internal signal that lets human beings know something in their environment needs to be attended to. In helping people respond to threats in the environment, anxiety alerts a person to secure their sense of safety. When anxiety becomes excessive, it can inhibit someone from making decisions and even paralyze opportunities that could be fortuitous. Everyone's level of anxiety is different; it can be rooted in one's family history and temperament, and it is often connected to lived experiences that a person has gone through and needed to be on high alert for.
When it comes to cross-racial/cross-cultural ministry, anxiety can show up as a normal reaction to a situation that may be new. It is normal to feel a combination of uncertainty and excitement when entering a new environment. Anxiety can be a way our holistic selves want us to be aware of and responsive to unfamiliar places. Anxiety that becomes persistent and overwhelming is sometimes diagnosed as General Anxiety Disorder per the DSM, psychiatry's textbook for classifying psychological distress. Apart from CRCC being unfamiliar, depending on the history between an individual and a community, there may be unpleasant or even threatening experiences that resurface in the memory of the individual experiencing anxiety. It is important to validate your experience and not dismiss it as if it were nothing. You get to feel what you feel! When there is a sense of having to be extremely aware, traumatologists call this hypervigilance. Hypervigilance is a way our nervous system may respond to a threat in the environment. If a person's history with a community they are serving is rooted in experiences of threat, their hypervigilance may go into full alert, and multiple feelings of agitation may surface, prompting them to consider what might keep them safe.
A few ways to deal with anxiety that shows up as hypervigilance:
Validate that your nervous system is reacting to something showing up in the environment. Small mental mantras can help with self-validation, such as "Something doesn't feel right in this space," "I'm grateful for what I'm feeling because it's a reminder that I need to feel safe," and "What I'm feeling is okay."
Connect with a trustworthy person in your life with whom you can talk about your experience, especially someone who may know you both inside and outside of ministry. This could be a friend, a partner or family member, or a colleague separate from the ministry setting you are serving.
Resource yourself with grounding exercises that help give you a sense of being rooted in the love and grace of God, such as scripture reading, prayer, and meditation. Memorizing scripture can be a good practice, so that when an overwhelming moment surfaces, you can reconnect to a text that helps calm your spirit. Individual and collective prayer can help facilitate self-talk that trusts the work of the Holy Spirit in moments of crisis. Discovering prayers that other saints of the past used to navigate tough moments can also be helpful. A great podcast for guided meditations is called Mindful in Minutes.
If you find yourself in constant worry and excessive fear, and are not entirely sure what is going on, it is okay to consult a professional such as a counselor/therapist or psychiatrist. Talk therapy can help strengthen one's ability to regulate emotionally, and if the anxiety is chronic, a psychiatrist (a trained physician who can prescribe medication) can prescribe short-term medication to help you relax.
Additional Resources:
Secular:
Beck, A. T., Emery, G., & Greenberg, R. L. (1985). Anxiety disorders and phobias: A cognitive perspective. Basic Books.
Ellis, A. (2000). How to control your anxiety before it controls you. Citadel Press.
Magee, R. V. (2019). The inner work of racial justice: Healing ourselves and transforming our communities through mindfulness. TarcherPerigee.
Winters, M.-F. (2020). Black fatigue: How racism erodes the mind, body, and spirit. Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Spiritually Focused:
Hamilton, A. (2018). Unafraid: Living with courage and hope in uncertain times. Convergent Books.
Smith, R. (2019). The anxious Christian: Can God use your anxiety for good? Moody Publishers.
Stewart, D. (2021). Shoutin’ in the fire: An American epistle. Convergent Books.
Navigating Racial Fatigue in a Cross-racial/Cross-cultural Ministry Setting