“When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused.” Rainer Maria Rilke
Today is Mothers' Day. Although Mothers' day began as a way to honor and spend time with our own personal mother, when we fully expand the idea of Mothering, we find it embraces a quality of caring for and nurturing others, protecting, teaching, tending to the growth of another. Most people, in one way or another, have mothered someone or something. This implies an innate quality within the human being that is essential to our collective well-being. This care and concern carries with it a vulnerability to anxiety, over not just our own self-interests, but times of worry and fear for others.
As I wrote last week, May is also mental health month, which gives me the chance to highlight anxiety in the context of relationship and a sense of responsibility as well as love. Anxiety is the most common mental disorder in the U.S. and affect nearly 30% of adults (women more than men) at some point in their lives with a variety of triggers, symptoms and intensity. We all have times of fear and worry; these emotions are normal reaction to stress and important cues for us in managing our lives. Anxiety disorders though, involve excessive fear and worry out of proportion to the actual situation and hinder our ability to function. Anxiety is often made worse by avoidance of people, places, and activity and that avoidance adds further fuel to life's problems. The forms of anxiety include: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, specific phobias, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder and separation anxiety disorder. Just reading this list gives a clear sense of the avoidance that arises as a response. Avoidance further complicates life, feeding more anxiety. The solution lies in learning ways to calm the fear, change our thought processes, and often rearrange our relationships and lifestyle. Progressive desensitization through mental imagery and relaxation is also effective in overcoming phobias and other avoidance issues. In the role of 'mothering', we have the opportunity to support others in managing their anxiety, simply by talking about it.
There are so many tools available to conquer anxiety. Beyond the use of medication (which can be very effective when managed well), there is the gentle practice of meditation to calm both the mind and body, opening to a larger life. When anxious, we can learn to mother ourselves a bit more, as well as turning to a renewed vision of Mother Earth, Mother Nature, and the Divine Mother--all aspects of the transcendent we name God. Susan Nettleton
Follow the link for a poem of a maternal God: https://eewc.com/god-the-mother/