I love big cities but I don’t like crowds. Few things stress me out more than to be stuck traffic or in long lines. With more than 80% of the people in the US living in cities the crowds are getting larger and larger but so is the traffic and the time you have to spend in lines to do simple things like buying groceries or making a deposit in the bank. In crowded cities a simple trip to your doctor’s office a few miles away can become a whole day event because of the amount of time you have to spend in traffic to get there. And once you’ve battled the traffic now you’re on a mission to find a parking space followed by time spent in the waiting room. Then once the doctor sees you, if you’re lucky, you’ll remember where you parked your car and hopefully there’s not a long wait to pay your parking fee. Now you’re on your way home and right back into the traffic.

Long lines and traffic are not the only downsides to living in crowded cities. When you live in a crowded city there is also a lot of ugliness that you have to deal with like trash, pollution, obscenities and lots of rude people. In bigger cities it’s easy to lose sight of the really beautiful things in life like nature itself. With more and more land being paved, and more and more buildings going up there is less and less of nature’s beauty around us, the environment in which we were created by God. Again, I love big cities, but the crowding and the ugliness that appears in big cities can be stressful to say the least.

Psalms 23:1-3 NIV

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3he refreshes my soul.

The antidote for a crowded world is to be refreshed with beauty. Before God placed Adam and Eve on the earth he beautified it with all kinds of visible, audible and fragrant wonders. Beauty is God’s antidote for our stressful lives. So, I will give you some spiritual and practical steps that you can take to de-stress yourself from a crowded world.

1. Surround yourself with beauty.

Practice taking walks and contemplating the beauty of God’s creation. Listen to the sounds of nature around you, slow down and smell the roses, watch the sunrise, watch the sunset, the moon, the stars and all of God’s creation around you.

2. Don’t leave your house without makeup.

In big cities some people are so stressed out that they don’t really pay much attention to the way they look or the way they act. Make yourself up but not only on the outside, in the inside too. Make yourself up with humility, kindness, patience and love.

3. Start your day with God.

Before rushing out into the stressful crowds and the ugliness that is part of the big cities, start your day with God. It is said that the first seven minutes of the day will set the tone for how the rest of the day will be. Spend at least seven minutes in the morning in the presence of God. Let Him refresh your soul.

It’s simple, in a crowded world refresh yourself with God’s beauty externally and internally.

Heavenly Father, I know that your will is that I delight in everything created by you, do not let the stress of the big city where I live to rob me of your gifts … enjoy the inner beauty and that which I can see in your magnificent creation.