Caris Snider (2019) - Anxiety Elephants

I cannot imagine many worse ways to die than being trampled to death by an elephant. Here in South Africa where there is a safari destination around every corner, we are very aware of the size of these majestic mammals. And they are even more intimidating the closer you are to them…

Caris Snider’s description of impending death by anxiety elephants hits the nail on the head. Anxiety can trample towards us in very intimidating ways, leading to a very painful spiritual death if we do not face our individual anxiety elephants.

The author generously shares her own anxiety triggers and daunting moments in an extremely vulnerable way, urging the reader to do the same. One trigger that is certainly at the root of many battles with the anxiety giants, is our own bullying behaviour towards ourselves. “Throughout my life, I became my own bully when I saw a weakness arise” (Snider 2019, 26-27). Our struggle for perfection is often an inviting call to the nearest herd of anxiety elephants in search of a trample party.

Anxiety Elephants is a great retreat from our rush to perfection, and a warm hiding place from our failure to obtain it. There is power in numbers as our safari friends know all too well... Read this book and join the winning side of the stomping!

Let us know if you enjoyed this book!

Send your thoughts to bookclub@churchinteacup.com