“All anxiety is born from the desire to escape the present moment”
Many people who I meet who explain to me their anxiety and their anxious thoughts all follow the same pattern. They have trouble in letting go, we must understand that our perception of reality is not actual reality, therefore clinging to our belief systems is what is creating the problem.
Ideologies are not our friends, an ideology is a system of ideas. Ideologies are supposed to adapt and change, we seem to live in a time where the masses do not question our ideologies, and this is a problem.
Ideologies as we see them are set patterns of behavior that are generally accepted with most of the society, but we are humans and we are individuals, with individual needs, therefore ideologies will never serve us. Our culture is a culture of materialism, we work jobs we don’t like to make money to buy expensive things to impress people we don’t really like.
Old rich white men send young lower/middle class men to go fight these foreign wars to protect their interests, under the illusion we are there to “spread democracy” and fight for freedom. People are zombies working in offices 8 hours a day, 5 days a week in which they put on this civilised persona of who they ‘think’ they are. Wearing clothes that are uncomfortable and not daring to be themselves, worried that they will come across as unprofessional.
This is not a natural way to live, and we wonder why depression rates are so high? Even if we do go to the doctors, we are given anti-depressants which just numb all the emotion out of us so we can continue being a productive worker of this machine our western culture has created. A machine that demands productivity, and does not need or want to understand you.
This is not a society that benefits the masses, it is an elitist society in which a few gain at the expensive of the many, we are prisoners of our own minds and we fight to keep in power those that enslave us, and fear those trying to liberate us calling them a “conspiracy theorist”. Educate yourself, do your own research, blind disbelief is ridiculous in an age where information flows freely through the internet.
“Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”
-James J. Lachard
People seem to have some comfort in clinging to the reality they have created in their heads, perhaps it is a way they feel as though they can maintain control over their lives. The truth is we cannot maintain control, life will happen to us and we all will have many unexpected events that will throw us off track.
These unexpected events will happen whether you like it or not, but these events aren’t the problem. The problem is not the problem, the problem is your attitude about the problem.
It doesn’t need to be a bad thing, just our perception of these events can shift to see the positivity. These events are lessons for us, the more something angers or upsets you, the more it is meant for you because there will be a lesson to learn from it.
For example, do you currently care more than you should about what others think of you? Well this is a self reflection of your own insecurities, so instead of worrying about what others think of you (which is none of your business anyway, because everyone is entitled to their opinion) focus within on how you can improve yourself.
Take responsibility for your own thoughts, this is how you can gain control. You can’t control the external factors, but you CAN control how you perceive and react to situations, this is the key to happiness.
The day you refuse to let any external influence affect your happiness, is the day you gain a wonderfully dangerous amount of freedom in your own life.
If you were truly comfortable with yourself, then you wouldn’t care what others thought. If your not comfortable with yourself, then focus on what you can improve on and don’t worry about the things you can’t change, because all worrying will do is steal joy from the present moment.
Don’t ignore your flaws, embrace and improve on them. Don’t take other peoples opinions seriously because they are not you, they are not qualified to judge you, but they’ll judge you anyway. Just know that this is a self reflection of their insecurities, because people who are truly happy and comfortable with themselves do not judge others. So instead, feel sorry for them that they are currently at a battle with themselves, even if they do not yet realise it. The same goes for people who are angry, often people get angry at things they don’t understand or things that challenge their beliefs, again this is their problem not yours.
So let go, understand your happiness depends on the quality of your thoughts. Be aware of your thoughts without judging them and becoming emotionally attached to them, instead understand you are the only one who is in control of what you think. Thoughts become things, therefore think positive thoughts and positivity will manifest, think negative thoughts and negativity will manifest.
Take a deep breathe and enjoy the moment, because the moment is all that is real, everything else is an illusion.
Have a great day :)
Hi! I am a robot. I just upvoted you! I found similar content that readers might be interested in:
https://philosophyforhappiness.wordpress.com/2016/03/19/learning-to-let-go-getting-rid-of-anxiety/
just to clarify the linked article is my article, i'm Jack Harris, I created philosophyforhappiness wordpress and facebook page :) also check out my youtube English Hippie, hopefully will get more active with it soon enough!