Dark Hours, Anxiety, and Faith

I wake early, always before sunrise -- winter or summer -- and generally feel energized and ready for the day. This morning I woke full of anxiety. There is no real reason for this anxiety, but it is in me and trying to ruin the day that's only just begun. Luckily, the lesson that "you are not how you feel" has helped me out this morning. How I feel is pursued by furies! While saying the Office of Readings it felt like my skin was going to run away without the rest of my body.

I hate that.

There are no supernatural sensations, or intimations of immortality (with nods to Wordsworth), all I have is the knowledge that I am not defined by how I feel. And what a good thing that is, because I feel like pure hell. Yet, there is comfort in knowing that the feelings are not a sign of anything other than some chemicals in my body following their 'vocation,' which is making me feel horrid.

No matter how my feelings change, they do not touch the reality of my life with God. That remains unchanged. "What can separate us from the love of Christ?" Certainly anxiety and it's paltry attacks.