Hi.
Recently I have been thinking a lot about existential anxiety and life is rather odd! Here we are on this planet, spinning in the vastness of the solar system, who knows what is beyond the furthest reaches of our telescopes. There are many theories and belief systems that tell us why we are here, but non of them is provable. If they were provable then they could provide a great deal of comfort, they could tell us more about why we are here and what is actually important to achieve in this life. For those who believe, with devotion, these belief systems there is a great deal of benefit: a feeling of worth and reason to live, something to aim for. These motivators should not be underrated as they provide a purpose to people who otherwise might think too much.
And thinking too much is arguably the biggest problem here. Many people live their lives with no focus or purpose, enjoying themselves and stocking up on consumer goods. They don’t worry about where they came from. In a way they are the happiest people, on the surface at least, yet they are blissfully ignorant and their lives are all the poorer for it.
But let’s go back to us, I mean those of us who have no faith or whose faith is not strong enough to give us meaning. For us we see the world going about it’s business, wars are fought, people cross time zones, get married and divorced and act in ways we find bizarre. We can understand none of this and often crave removing ourselves from it, by forming subcultures, retreats and the like.
We are guilty of thinking too much. But we can not make ourselves less intelligent or our brains less enquiring. So we turn instead to dealing with how we think and making it more positive, more happy for us in this bizarre world. Each individual is different and how they achieve that varies between people. That said finding purpose can be explained in several broad groups. It can be through a personal love, a cherished activity or hobby that you can, literally, give you heart and soul to. It can be humanitarian: by doing something real you help yourself become more attached to the world around you and benefit it. If that does not help you understand existence that doesn’t matter as you assimilate with the machinery of life and have a positive effect on it, whatever it is. Meditation is also helpful in calming the most anxious thoughts and feelings. Being in the moment and not lost in dark thoughts promotes clarity and positive action.
Life is strange for us, but we can enjoy it still.
hahahah….I think about this stuff all the time. I am so happy someone else thinks about it too. Keep up the great work with this blog.
Keep writing great stuffs like this. It makes people understand their experiences and opens them up to the ways of overcoming and attending to their anxiety. I find your article very helpful for me and very interesting.
there should be a mass human recognition of everything above..maby sometime soon we shall assimilate and change many perceptions..thats what would make ‘me’ happy
I have felt the same way and still do i just look at everything and question like why is that building there? Why are we in a big place and don’t know anybody except our family and so called “friends”. Earth itself can be moving but stand still i feel like we are in a some distant planet and probably we are the aliens other civilizations out there talk about i feel like we do not exist really but think we do. Idk i confused myself lol
I was expecting this to be another negative rant about this type of thing, which I have dealt with since I turned 12, but the ending was positive and inspiring. I practice in meditation and I also participate in scientific things. I love studying the universe and I plan to be an astrophysicist.
Once in a while, I’ll be struck by existential thinking and it will creep me out… but I think that every single smart human being experiences this once in a while. It is part of being human.
Thanks for this.
Great article. I think about things like this daily, and worry that I am going crazy or normal people don’t think like this. So reading that other people do is kind of a sigh of relief. Thanks for this website.