Quelling Everyday Anxiety

Photo by Eutah Mizushima on Unsplash

By far the commonest anxiety is suffered by those who would not be diagnosed with a disorder.

The commonest anxiety is caused by stress of task-and-time pressure. The more the tasks build up, the less time we feel we have, and the less peace we experience. And it’s the average mother and father who are afflicted.

Ask any parent with ailing parents, caught in the middle of that stress sandwich — an unabating burden. Something has to give. Little wonder we find some form/s of coping, healthy or else. Yet, we do find ways of coping.

Stress does the strangest things to us. It messes with our minds and that sentiment plummets into our soul. It causes us to dream terrifying fantasies. And it can force us into corners we’d never choose to be backed into.

Probably the most alarming issue with stress-induced anxiety, however, is its impact on our relationships. Seriously, just how much conflict is caused by stress? And how many conflicts emerge through an inability to be honestly sad or courageous; that one or both are not upset so much over the issues, but they’re too emotionally compromised to respond well?

Our inner conflict spills out into conflict with others, and the issues are often secondary at best. We disagree because stress causes us to polarise into a place of inflexibility, because control is the comfort we crave when we feel out of control.

But insisting for control, which is what we do when we’re stressed, is the quickest way of losing control.

We lack peace with others because we lack peace with ourselves. We lack peace with ourselves because we lack peace with God. Peace with God facilitates empathy, wisdom, compassion, patience and gentleness, often even amid stress. But peace with God is something we so often lack. Our anxiety is normal, and yet it implores us to draw near to God.

Of course, I have focused here on everyday anxiety here. The above is not a comment on the disorders.