Anxiety is plaguing our society right now. We're seeing record-levels of mental health issues. We're also seeing record levels of violence, outrage and distrust.
So many of us deal with issues on a daily basis. So many of us are faced with our own challenges. We need to find ways to deal with these better.
Clearly, we are not being taught the tools to live a good life. The tools to deal with all of this input from society. All of the headaches and issues of the modern world.
Human evolution hasn't caught up to all of this technology. All of this consumption. All of this mass media.
How to Deal With Anxiety
Anxiety. It's a weird thing, right? Some people who have never felt high degrees of anxiety don't really get it. They literally think that people are out there faking anxiety and making it up. I was one of those people who didn't believe in it until it struck me one day.
Now, some people may have imbalances in their brain. I'm not sure what to believe when it comes to that part of it. Let's assume that some people do genuinely need medication. Those people aside, I would say that the vast majority of anxiety is self-inflicted.
I think we've grown up and now live in a world that is so fast-paced. There is so much consumption. So much media. So much information being thrown at us. There is so much pressure to condense this information.
It's hard to focus on your life and your problems when you're constantly hearing the touted nonsense of mass media pressuring you into thinking the world is going to end tomorrow.
But anxiety is a wasted emotion... Think about it.
No, really think about it. Anxiety is anticipation of failure.
Anxiety is anticipating that something is going to go wrong in the future. You are anxious in the moments leading up to giving that publish speech but once that speech is over, you no longer feel anxiety.
99% of the time, the speech goes better than you thought. You created an anticipation of failure, but then you succeeded and no issues were found.
That 1% of the time when something actually did go wrong, you now might have remorse. Maybe you messed up on X or Y. That's okay. You have remorse and that remorse is pointing out your mistakes so that you don't make them again.
Remorse replaces anxiety. You are no longer anxious.
Being anxious is being on the lookout for reassurance. The best way to deal with anxiety is to simply be disciplined. Do the work. Stop be anxious over the work. Look at the example I gave: you are anxious leading up to the event. Once the event is over, you are no longer anxious. Either things went better than expected or things went poorly. If the first, then you're in the clear. If the second, then you now have some pointers to do better next time.
Don't let anxiety control you. Don't let it plague your life and take the joy of creation out of it. Life is beautiful. Filled with challenges that push you to evolve and be a better version of yourself. Allow life to propel you and it will.