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Ed Said - Don't worry about tomorrow

 

September 21-27 is Mental Health Awareness Week, and somehow it seems even more important, more relevant, than ever. The events of the last six months have brought mental health directly into the spotlight. The cosmic shift in how society functions at the moment has upset the equilibrium of almost everyone, everywhere, and it’s doing our heads in.

While we deal with the pressures and anxieties of our daily lives, we are also bombarded by a constant digital stream of frightening current events from around the globe – Covid deaths, natural disasters, global warming, civil unrest.

Conventional study about stress and anxiety reveals that many of our greatest worries are over what has already happened (yesterday), or what hasn’t even happened yet (tomorrow). We are so conditioned to analysing the mistakes, losses and regrets of the ‘past’ that we get mired there. We also lose most of the ‘present’ working toward what is an increasingly unstable and uncertain ‘future’.

Today I see a kingfisher sitting at attention on the front fence. Looking up, a deep blue sky is the perfect canvas for a kowhai tree, a palette of bright yellow flowers in stark contrast. A tui sits almost hidden, warbling its complicated mix of tuneful notes. Down on the ground, sparrows fossick in the wet grass. They don’t worry about tomorrow, or their next mortgage payment, as they eat what is provided for them.

This is a reminder to me how nature, creation, shows us where our place is in the grand scheme of things, how important we are to our creator. Matthew 6 says in part: Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? So do not worry, saying ‘What shall we eat, drink or wear?’ Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Individually, from the time we enter this world, our mind, body and spirit are under attack, but don’t forget that it’s just a part of life that we suffer stress and strain. Anxiety, nervousness and fear are all natural responses to those stresses and strains, but we need to understand if we are suffering beyond our normal capacity and do something about it. Our mental health can suffer quickly, or in a gradual decline, but either way there is just despair when your coping mechanism is gone. Strain on mental health happens to everyone at some point in their life.

A few years ago I was rummaging through boxes of books at a primary school gala day, and something found me: Prescription for Anxiety by Leslie D Weatherhead – a doctor, minister, chaplain and author. Printed in 1956, every word in its musty yellowed pages spoke to me in my situation. Sometimes the answer comes in a quietly divine way, just when you need it.

I know of many who are struggling in the home, with work and business, at school, as a community, and you will too. Mental Health Awareness Week is the perfect time to either think about how you can help yourself, or how you can help others. Give your time, money, counsel, love and understanding to whoever needs it, for as long as it takes.

Rich Pooley
Editor
info@mangawhaifocus.co.nz

 
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