Mental Wellness is a Communal Affair
Photo: Vonecia Carswell
Intuition comes from the collective consciousness, and staying in tune can save a life, literally. We should not ignore the whispers that our bodies pick up on because everything is a build-up to the over-arching message in our world.
One morning I received a call from my mother's health aide. She was stuck outside of my mom's first-floor apartment; waiting to get in and start her shift for the day. When I picked up the phone, I heard an annoyance and worry in her voice. At the time of the call, I was sitting at my work desk, states away, drinking a cup of tea and preparing my mind to start the workday. "Hello,” I answered, surprisingly with a pep in my voice.
"I don't know where your mother is, and I think she must have gone out again. Is your brother upstairs with the key?" I could hear the impatience in her voice. My mother, who is known for her delusions of grandeur, is prone to leave the house unannounced. Her diagnosis of schizophrenia has a way of clouding her mind into believing she is a doctor with patients to treat. It was only a week prior that my mother was found across town tending to some patients of hers. As a result, my teenage brother decided to make a copy of the door key to ensure that we will always have access to her residence. It was a frightening time for my family, so Immediately I understood the shortness in the aide's voice.
"Let me see if my uncle is upstairs," I said to her as I proceeded to place the call on hold. I dialed my uncle's cell phone and made him aware of the situation at hand. He sprung into action trying to find the copied key, but with no luck, we were back at square one. Fed up with my mother's hallucinations, I told the aide that there was nothing we can do about the circumstances right now. I was trying on this new mindset of, "let go and let flow" to ease my need to control every situation. It was a way to counteract my anxious nerves. "Honestly, it may be best for you to go home and come back tomorrow," I told the aide. She told me that she was going to wait around for a bit until my mother came back home. I agreed with her decision and explained that she should call me when she was able to get inside.
What happened next shook me to my core. After I hung up the phone, I got back into the groove at work. I was currently in charge of a weekly cookout for the staff on the job and a co-worker, Brenda, and I set out to buy supplies for the office. During our car ride, I began to explain my worry and concern for my mother. I was afraid that being out in the world when she is experiencing psychosis is a recipe for disaster. Thoughts of strangers taking advantage of her began to creep into my mind. The fear triggered my sensitive nervous system, and my anxiety started to flair. Usually, in situations like this, my body goes into flight or fight mode. I tense and brace myself for the worst possible news; But over the past few weeks, I was working with a new therapist who gave me the tools to calm my mind. The situation at hand was putting my lessons to the test. I slowed my breathing down and focused on one thing in the present moment, which was the sound of my co-worker's voice. Brenda had no clue what I was doing, but her trying to smooth me over with conversation was saving me from a panic attack. Before I knew it, my anxiety level started to decrease.
Once inside the shop, I received a phone call from my uncle. He informed me that he and the aide found my mother in her bathroom, unresponsive and cold. They called the emergency immediately, and when the paramedics arrived at the house, they discovered that my mother had a sugar level of 37. Anything below a concentration of 50 is a medical concern. It can lead to coma, seizure, and possible death. The medics pumped glucose directly into her veins to revive her. Fortunately, the family discovered my mother in time, and by the time she arrived at the hospital, her sugar was up to 120. As I listened to my uncle relay the message, tears began to involuntary flow; and my knees buckled. Luckily, Brenda was with me to catch my fall; but I was not all right. The thought of losing my mother was one of my greatest fears. That call was the closest thing to that thought becoming a reality.
I tell this story because it amazes me how quickly everything could've gone in the opposite direction. At this moment, I could be writing a story of how my mother passed on to the ancestral realm, but I'm not. With reverence, I marvel at how intuition and collective consciousness preserved my mother's life. Three days before receiving that phone, I received another one from that same aide expressing to me the concerns she had for my mom. At the time she was working afternoons for my mother, but she believed that it was best to switch her hours. She felt that it would benefit my mother for her to come in the morning instead of the afternoon. When she explained to me her reasoning, I instantly knew that this would be a good idea as well. I called her agency and requested to make the switch; It was effective immediately.
Two days after the switch, my mother requested the aide not to return to work the next day. Being that this was out of character for my mom, she decided to give me a call to discuss her work schedule for the coming day. When we were conversing on the phone, a part of me wanted to tell her not to come in the next day. I knew that there wouldn't be much for her to do with my mom and I figured she could use the time off, but I decided against that as I reflected on a conversation I had with my cousin the week before in which she declared that the aide needs to come in more regularly. I told her to go into work as planned, although there will be minimal tasks for her.
On the day of the incident, when I received the phone call, I told the aide to go home instead of waiting for my mom to arrive. Trusting her gut, she decided to linger around for a while, hoping my mother would return; This led to my uncle coming down to see why the aide could not get into the apartment, and my aunt, which is my mother's older sister was the one who insisted that the aide stay. Her spirit told her to check the apartment window outside to see if they can see into the residence. Between her and the aide, they pried the window open and climbed inside to check if everything was in order. The aide's slender body was able to fit through the crack window, discovering my mother in her condition.
I genuinely believe that if it were not for the collective conscious and intuition used by everyone involved, I'm inclined to think that my mother would not physically be here today. That experience taught me that community is a massive part of our mental health. We are not meant to do everything on our own, and because we live in an individualistic culture, we need reminders of that reality. To move the conversation of mental health further, we need to acknowledge that mental illness doesn't just affect an individual. The care and hygiene of one person are rippled out to the community as well.
We are all connected energetically; our individual experiences become shared attachments that shape the community we create; So if we all stay in the present moment and listen to our intuition, together our collective consciousness can vibrate not only to the daily people in our lives but to the larger world around us.
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