Singing Our Anxiety Away

Continuing the thoughts of a recent post:

When I was in the NY on my last trip I picked up a book from a street vendor on anxiety. Anxiety is a topic that interests me because everyone suffers from it, so it is quite a common issue that requires renewed insight:-). I was pleased with the book.

The author breaks down anxiety into three categories. I will use the jargon of the Beis Medrash to explain [sort of converting the book to Judaism:-)]. The 3 dinim of anxiety, are anxiety of isser, anxiety of reshus and anxiety of mitzva.

The first category is איסור. The author calls this "toxic anxiety". This is the type of anxiety that paralyses a person, makes him tense and on edge and leads to unhealthy, destructive behaviors. This must be avoided and requires therapy if he can't overcome it himself.

The second category is רשות. This is normal anxiety that causes us to act and to be productive. We get an education and a job because we are anxious about being poor, we date because we are anxious about remaining single, we look both ways before crossing the street because we are anxious about being run over by a car. These are all very beneficial anxieties because they produce results. Of course, even this natural anxiety must not get out of hand.

The third category is מצוה. The author calls this "sacred anxiety". In our souces a classic example of someone who experienced this type of anxiety is Dovid Hamelech. Ladies! I'll bet if you read this blog, you also say tehillim quite often? I guessed right? I am not a prophet - I just observe the wonderful phenomenon that so many women say tehillim. My portion should be with you. I love tehillim and wish I said more [the internal chatterbox we recently discussed says to me "So why don't you???"]. Dovid Hamelch had a rough life which clearly caused him no small amount of anxiety. He translated this anxiety into a sacred union with Hashem. Example: His son Avshalom made his life m-i-s-e-r-a-b-l-e and he even lead a revolt against his own father. Dovid's reaction? "Mizmor Li-Dovid bivorcho mipnei Avshalom bino" - A song of Dovid when he fled from his son Avshalom! A song for when his son is trying to kill him. He sings Hashem's praises and assures himself and the generations to come that Hashem's salvation is close by [See perek gimmel]. Sacred anxiety. Shaul also goes after Dovid. Dovid sings to Hashem about that too. His baby son dies? His praise of Hashem after that event also made it into tehillim.

Sweetest friends! We, too can experience sacred anxiety. I can tell you what is makes me anxious but that would necessitate an especially long post, so I will spare you. I yearn to transform all of this anxiety into something both productive and ultimately - holy.  

And of course, I want to be a Yid who practices what I preach, so everything will be ....

TOMID BI-SIMCHA:-).

I hope you will join me on this journey.