Shifting Culture Ep. 359 Sara Billups Returns - Spiritual Practices to Calm Anxiety in Your Body, the Church, and Politics
Oct 31, 2025
Sara Billups, a Seattle-based writer and cultural commentator, discusses her book, Nervous Systems, exploring the pervasive anxiety in our lives, churches, and society. She delves into Ignatian spirituality and 'holy indifference' as tools to find peace and presence. Sara highlights the difference between fear and anxiety, how to support mental health in families, and the importance of community care. She encourages a non-anxious posture in society, blending joy with suffering, and offers practical tools for managing worry.
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Personal Anxiety Mirrors Collective Nervous Systems
- Sara traced personal anxiety to caregiving and midlife changes, then connected it to church and political anxieties.
- She maps anxiety as both individual and systemic, calling the combined pattern a 'nervous system.'
Ignatian Retreat Changed Her Relationship With Anxiety
- Sara describes lifelong anxiety inherited from family and shaped by epigenetics and upbringing.
- A nine-month Ignatian retreat shifted how she experiences and holds that anxiety in daily life.
Use Practical Embodiment To Calm The Body
- Move your body and adopt simple embodied practices like stretching, walking, and listening to music to reduce anxious rumination.
- Replace pressured 'quiet time' checklists with open, sensory practices that remove fear of achievement in prayer.
