I MUST calm down!

I must calm down and turn to God; only he can rescue me. (Psalm 62:1 ERV)
You "calm down" in direct proportion to your willingness to turn to God instead of the problem which is making you anxious or up tight right now. Turning to suggests that we must turn away from. There is a physical "relocation" of our attention - away from the problem at hand and toward the solution that is nearer than we might imagine. Calming down suggests there is a certain sense of escalation that comes in the midst of facing that problem or unpleasant circumstance in your path. Once again, our emotions get the best of us...and where our eyes are directed our heart will follow.
As our psalmist implies, there comes a point when we recognize all our efforts and angst over the situation will only increase until we actually realize we must have "calm" restored in order to see things as clearly as they are meant to be seen. Anxiety and stress over the problem are not going to be managed well when all we see is the problem. We have to have a moment or two to actually get a new perspective in order to see the solution. 
Much of the emotional stress we deal with in life is not really anyone else's fault. Sure, they may be involved in the problem, but they aren't the ones responsible for how we are emotionally connected to the problem - we are. It is our emotions that get all tangled up in the heart of the problem - the other individual can only attempt to goad us into more frenzy or panic, but they don't control the "panic level" in our lives.
Most of the time we need an "emotional rescue" in order to see the problem differently. Our emotions are spinning out of control, but until we squarely take our focus off the problem and turn to God, we only feed those out of control emotions. Give more fuel to a car speeding ahead out of control and you only create a more dangerous situation! 
When we turn to God, refocusing our attention on him, it is like me putting on my glasses in the morning and beginning to see things much differently in the room than before they were on. We get a clarity that was missing because our "vision" was so clouded or blurred by all the emotional upheaval in our lives. Unreasonable emotions begin to be exposed for the untruth they have encouraged us to believe - perceptions begin to get clarity.
The problem doesn't usually go away, but we can begin to work on it little by little just by getting those emotions under control. Control is only possible by changing our focus. Changing our focus actually changes how the problem will affect us and in turn, it brings the control of the problem squarely out of our court and places it in HIS. Just sayin!

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