When I am suddenly, inexplicably consumed with anxiety it feels like there is no sky, there is no earth and there is no air.
When I am suddenly, inexplicably consumed with anxiety it feels like there is no sky, there is no earth and there is no air.
Interesting
Existential angst pops up often to knock me off my little pedestal.
I managed to get rid of my existential angst, but it wasn’t easy and most people wouldn’t like the path I took. It can suck.
What path did you take?
Nihilism/atheism – understanding the angst gave me relief. Sometimes that paranoid feeling really is because they are out to get you. So I find it with existential angst. Living with that took a change of perspective, but now I never really feel the angst any more. There are bad days, but I don’t get anxious about it.
Hmm. I am atheistic as you know but find it hard to be nihilistic. I guess that would quench the fire, yes. I guess I’ll have to live in flames.
I quite desiring what is not… in the end, I found that I am nihilist in regards existence.
It sounds enticing in its own way since it allows you to fully embrace what is.
I have been free of many things since then. There are bad days and days that are awesome. I don’t ride up and down depending on the day now… I am happy or content at my own pace and I can more easily assess the damage around me when days suck. It is harsh to say but we enter this world alone, leave it alone, and walk it alone. There is but ourselves and experience. When it feels like there is no sky it is because that is how we choose to experience it. If we choose another way, that is how it feels. It’s a ride and we decide how it will be. It will never meet us half way, life is not like that.
What about the mother who brings us into the world? It is impossible to enter it alone. It is impossible to survive at all without intensive nurturing for quite sone time. Maybe the only thing that is a choice is loneliness. I think life really does meet us halfway. I think we are designed to react and respond and although it is technically true we can choose our reaction it is an unreasonable and invalidating stance. I feel that life is a dance and we really are in the throes of it. I think detachment is a valid way to transcend but it doesn’t feel like really living.
Remember what I said… not many people would like it or choose it. I found that when I stopped expecting life and others to meet me half way, it all made more sense, it all became easier. I no longer had trouble understanding why things happen as they do.
Your hope and desire for good is not stuff that you have to give up to be existential nihilist. What changes is your expectation and understanding. For me, life unfolds in very stable and predictable ways now.
Stable? Predictable? That sounds simply awful to me 🙂 “People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them” –Emerson
Stable and predictable has some valuable advantages 🙂
Yes I need some firm ground beneath my feet upon which to dance.
Well, I won’t say it is easy or popular, but I’ve found a solid place…
I really like this one.