Anxiety, like a “check
engine” light on a car's dash, is the body and mind's way of saying
“fix me!”
But what is broken? Is it
the mind? The body? Something in the spirit?
Anxiety may not be an
illness in and of itself, but a symptom of another disease: a
steep cultural division between self and other and the related
contradiction of expectations we have for society and which society
has for us.
This is a spiritual
illness for which anxiety is not the only warning sign. Depression, anger,
addiction, and boredom may all be symptoms of the same existential
conflict.
And in the same way that one
does not fix the light on the dashboard, but the engine, one must not
focus on the anxiety, but on the underlining disunity of spirit.
Anxiety, then, is not
only a physical or a psychological phenomenon. Meaning it cannot be
treated only by a trained psychologist with drugs or
behavioral therapies. It is a symptom of a deeper problem
that must also be dealt with on a spiritual level.
In this view anxiety is a
consequence of an individual being out of sync
with his or her culture. American culture specifically (and Western
culture in general) contradicts the human experience in many
important ways. Americans have largely failed to evolve with
technology, and the struggle between human need and technological
consequences has created a chaos of the heart.
(An example of this is the
automobile, which has destroyed the small, structured community by
allowing for convenient long-distance travel. Instead of buying
groceries at the corner market, we are now able to drive into other
communities and shop with people we will never see again,
communicating with no one as we would with familiar, local faces. Or
in the way instant text messaging and emails have revolutionized
communication. A quick and potentially ill-conceived response is
always a text away, and “sleeping on it” is little more than a
quaint, out-of-date phrase. Both technologies offer incredible advantages to people, but few are able to take advantage of them.)
Anxiety, be it phobias, generalized uneasiness, or panic
attacks, may be a direct symptom of individual
attempts and failures to thrive in a culture not built for humans to thrive as individuals.
Society is set up to thrive economically and materialistically, not spiritually and individually. Society serves to protect us, and to do so society must limit us as individuals, limiting the decisions we can make by adding rules (don't walk on the grass), largely to stop us from hurting ourselves or each other, but also from affecting society with random or erratic human behavior. We hear “be yourself, be original” but in no way does society allow for originality and self. Nurturing people has never been society's role.
There is a clear split between the needs of one man or woman and the needs of the 7,000,000,000 people on planet Earth. It is difficult to live in this duality, trying to please both our individual needs and those of the society in which we were born and raised, and the sacrifices we make to do so may be too much to live with for some people, as it causes a subtle but severe malfunction in the human brain.
It is like riding the break
and accelerator of an automobile at the same time. The car may not go
anywhere, or if it does, travels slowly, and soon breaks down
altogether. The engine wants to go forward and the tires want to
stop. The human soul wants to experience something unique, and the
collective demands everything be the same, because it's difficult for
something so large and unwieldy to handle even small changes. And so
the marching orders are “Do what others are doing at any cost.”
How does one be “human”
in such an inhuman world?
~*~
Anxiety is inevitable in
such a world.
And so now we have advanced
classifications to define fear. We can name dozens of specific
phobias and disorders. But these are not new to the human psyche. Men
and women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were swamped
with uncertainty. Even in ancient times the sages of exotic lands
dealt with the problem of human anxiety.
What worked for the
ancient Chinese and Indians still works today.
A clear
understanding of who we are as human beings makes way for the mind to
function without clinging or being trapped by the concepts of
society. To know what the self is is to know that external forces
cannot influence it.
In the words of Lao Tzu:
“The value of yourself lies within and is not affected by what
happens externally.”
It is oft-repeated advice.
In modern self-help books, in ancient spiritual texts. Ancient
Taoists said we had no need to worry over loss or gain, good luck or
bad. Jesus said that God would take care of us just as He took care
of the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. Modern
behavioral psychologists with Ph.D.'s tell us to believe in
ourselves.
In other words, to not worry
about what others think, to not focus on uncomfortable projections of
how the world ought to be, to not care about what we might do, but to
instead do what we want and to do it well. To live in the moment and
connect fully with who we are right now.
To do this it is necessary
to accept a simple fact. What society wants
is merely an illusion. It's not real and cannot address every person's individual needs. Ignore the illusion and find the real
stuff which makes life. The self operates by the heart, by instinct and intuition. Society operates on assumptions. Trust that individually we know better than
the “whole” knows. That a united One is always more powerful and
capable than a divided Two.
~*~
We must judge ourselves by a
constant, not by the concept of self given to us by the
ever-changing labels of our society, or our own self-identification.
What we are does not depend
on what happens to us or what we do in life, on our attachments or who we think we are relative to others. When we stop
identifying with outside forces, or with what we expect of ourselves,
and we come to reside in our true self—that which exists when every
label and expectation has been stripped away—there's nothing left to fear. There's nothing left to lose. Worry ceases because there's no longer anything
for it to dwell on. The mind is free by the virtue of being empty, of being nothing.
Then we begin to realize
that all along we were afraid of outside things changing parts of us
that were not really ourselves, but just more projections of outside
things. We were using the unsteady yardstick of imagination to
measure who we were, relative to yet more things that could not hold
a form and remain steady. When we focused on these things they
inevitably vanished, disintegrating like mirages.
Embracing a spiritual path
(any spiritual path) that will take us to the real, true self, is a
certain way of troubleshooting anxiety in all its forms, because once we understand what that real self is, and can reside inside of it, or allow it to manifest itself in our thoughts and actions, we can accept society for what it is and no longer fight against it.
By understanding who we are, we no longer have to treat society's power over the individual as a threat, because in no way can society ever destroy or damage our true self. We can then work with society instead of fear it. We can bridge the duality, the gap between self and other, and gain a new perspective on reality.
Until then we must live with
the dread of an infinite tomorrow.
Further Reading:
Tao of Anxiety: Series
Further Reading:
Tao of Anxiety: Series
Posts
Have you seen the Spirit Science heart video?
ReplyDeleteHave you considered fear as an indicator of distorted beliefs, and your experience of it as a reflection of internal imbalance?
I have seen that one, and I have been meaning to see more of those videos.
DeleteFear is definitely an indicator of distorted beliefs. I think Western psychology and Eastern mysticism have many common denominators, and that's a big one...
"We must judge ourselves by a constant, not by the concept of self given to us by the ever-changing labels of our society, or our own self-identification."
ReplyDeleteJ.R., I wasted many years trying to conform and be what others thought I should be. This did cause much confusion, anxiety, and unhappiness for me. I thank the Lord every day that He found me, that He is my "constant" upon whom I can depend, the One in whom I live and breathe and have my being.
Free to think. Free to choose. Free to love. Free to be the "me" He created.
My young friend, you are wise beyond your years . . . what amazing insights you have! Absolutely, you blow me away.
May the Lord grace you with His blessings!
Thank you, Martha :)
Deletej. r. Nova
DeleteWhere are you these days?
Interesting.
ReplyDeleteA question-challenge for me is how to not simply pacify myself (I can meditate myself into a trance) but to somehow transform the tangled up energies of anxiety into something more coherent and productive.
Best hope right now is practice - disciplines such as yoga, writing, art. Even walking perhaps at least as long as it remains something of a challenge in those terms.
I was watching a video of someone giving a lecture to Google employees about meditating, and it was brought up that many people trance out in meditation. It requires focus. Maybe it will help to focus on a word or concept instead of the breath or an object, something to keep the mind an active participant.
DeleteYoga, writing, and art, and even walking are great things to do :)
The blog was absolutely fantastic! Lot of great information which can be helpful in some or the other way. Keep updating the blog, looking forward for more contents...Great job, keep it up..
ReplyDeleteanxiety supplements