This title is not exactly the title in the opinion section of the New York Times I read, but it is close. I was pulled to read the entire article. Clearly there have been times when I have felt anxious. I am sure that is perfectly normal. If someone told me that he or she has never been anxious, I would not believe it. Even after years of public speaking, I still get a little anxious when I step to a microphone or to the lectern to begin a speech. Even if I am pretty confident, there is always a tinge of anxiety.
But that’s not the kind of anxiety the article is describing. The kind of anxiety the author of the article, Daniel Smith, is describing is a more chronic, more debilitating kind of anxiety. The tinge of anxiety I feel when I begin to speak wanes very quickly. Soon I am into it and all the anxiety has vanished. That kind of anxiety is not chronic and it is not debilitating.
The issue the author is engaging is whether our age---our American culture---has created a context in which a significant number of people find themselves very anxious? Certainly the numbers would argue that ours is an “age of anxiety.” I am intrigued by this phenomenon because I wonder to what extent it is also a spiritual issue?
I found it interesting that it was not till the very end of the article that the author defined anxiety and what causes it. I liked how he began to describe it. “Anxiety begins with a single worry, and the more you concentrate on that worry, the more powerful it gets, and the more you worry.” That seemed true to my experience. Let’s take my public speaking. With this definition I can understand that I was not really anxious. I was slightly worried. It was a single worry. I might fall on my face. But once I began speaking, everything worked out. The worry vanished. It did not turn into anxiety.
I did not concentrate on that worry. I did not “fuel” it, so to speak. The worry was not given any power. It seems that is the turning point between a worry and anxiety. Anxiety is a worry that has gained some power. That anxiety begins to grip me and over time that grip becomes tighter and tighter. This is the process by which the anxiety becomes debilitating.
The next point the author made was important. In effect, he says that my anxiety is just that: my anxiety. The anxiety is real, but it is personal. The author says, “from a sufferer’s perspective, anxiety is always and absolutely personal. It is an experience: a coloration in the way one thinks, feels and acts. It is a petty monster able to work such humdrum tricks as paralyzing you over your salad, convincing you that a choice between blue cheese and vinaigrette is as dire as that between life and death.” These words are both powerful and perverse! They describe a kind of bondage---a slavery to anxiety. In this sense, anxiety is a spiritual problem.
Spirituality is about many things, to be sure. But one important facet of the spiritual life is that it is a life of freedom. Spirituality liberates. Spirituality and slavery are opposites. One cannot be spiritual and also a slave to something or someone. Hence, spirituality---authentic spirituality---should liberate one from any form of slavery---anxiety included.
In the face of anxiety it certainly can sound simplistic to suggest that one become spiritual. Easier said, than done! If I am anxious, there is no easy fix. There is no magical wand to wave and, voilà, I am healed of any anxiety. Probably that is why medication is such a good alternative. The article says that, indeed, fully 18% of the American population wrestles with anxiety. Indeed medication is widely used. For example, “the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam — better known by its brand name, Xanax — was the top psychiatric drug on the list, clocking in at 46.3 million prescriptions in 2010.”
I am not against medicine; I use medicine every day. But I am also for the Spirit. I try to use the Spirit every day! I believe that life is designed to be grounded in the Spirit of God. If we can become grounded in that Spirit, we will be connected to the Source of meaning and purpose. Ultimately meaning and purpose will inoculate me from anxiety. In some sense anxiety results when there is no higher purpose.
If I can transcend my little self and my little worries, anxiety will have no soil to germinate and grow “the worry seeds.” How do I transcend my little self? I begin to do it by traditional spiritual disciplines like prayer and meditation. Instead of focusing on my little self, I begin to open myself to the larger world and the God who permeates that world.
Through things like prayer and meditation my world begins to expand. Anxiety constricts. Prayer expands. God explodes worry seeds into tidbits of nothingness! We do not live in an age of anxiety. We live in an age of possibility. Go for it. Carpe diem…seize the day!
But that’s not the kind of anxiety the article is describing. The kind of anxiety the author of the article, Daniel Smith, is describing is a more chronic, more debilitating kind of anxiety. The tinge of anxiety I feel when I begin to speak wanes very quickly. Soon I am into it and all the anxiety has vanished. That kind of anxiety is not chronic and it is not debilitating.
The issue the author is engaging is whether our age---our American culture---has created a context in which a significant number of people find themselves very anxious? Certainly the numbers would argue that ours is an “age of anxiety.” I am intrigued by this phenomenon because I wonder to what extent it is also a spiritual issue?
I found it interesting that it was not till the very end of the article that the author defined anxiety and what causes it. I liked how he began to describe it. “Anxiety begins with a single worry, and the more you concentrate on that worry, the more powerful it gets, and the more you worry.” That seemed true to my experience. Let’s take my public speaking. With this definition I can understand that I was not really anxious. I was slightly worried. It was a single worry. I might fall on my face. But once I began speaking, everything worked out. The worry vanished. It did not turn into anxiety.
I did not concentrate on that worry. I did not “fuel” it, so to speak. The worry was not given any power. It seems that is the turning point between a worry and anxiety. Anxiety is a worry that has gained some power. That anxiety begins to grip me and over time that grip becomes tighter and tighter. This is the process by which the anxiety becomes debilitating.
The next point the author made was important. In effect, he says that my anxiety is just that: my anxiety. The anxiety is real, but it is personal. The author says, “from a sufferer’s perspective, anxiety is always and absolutely personal. It is an experience: a coloration in the way one thinks, feels and acts. It is a petty monster able to work such humdrum tricks as paralyzing you over your salad, convincing you that a choice between blue cheese and vinaigrette is as dire as that between life and death.” These words are both powerful and perverse! They describe a kind of bondage---a slavery to anxiety. In this sense, anxiety is a spiritual problem.
Spirituality is about many things, to be sure. But one important facet of the spiritual life is that it is a life of freedom. Spirituality liberates. Spirituality and slavery are opposites. One cannot be spiritual and also a slave to something or someone. Hence, spirituality---authentic spirituality---should liberate one from any form of slavery---anxiety included.
In the face of anxiety it certainly can sound simplistic to suggest that one become spiritual. Easier said, than done! If I am anxious, there is no easy fix. There is no magical wand to wave and, voilà, I am healed of any anxiety. Probably that is why medication is such a good alternative. The article says that, indeed, fully 18% of the American population wrestles with anxiety. Indeed medication is widely used. For example, “the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam — better known by its brand name, Xanax — was the top psychiatric drug on the list, clocking in at 46.3 million prescriptions in 2010.”
I am not against medicine; I use medicine every day. But I am also for the Spirit. I try to use the Spirit every day! I believe that life is designed to be grounded in the Spirit of God. If we can become grounded in that Spirit, we will be connected to the Source of meaning and purpose. Ultimately meaning and purpose will inoculate me from anxiety. In some sense anxiety results when there is no higher purpose.
If I can transcend my little self and my little worries, anxiety will have no soil to germinate and grow “the worry seeds.” How do I transcend my little self? I begin to do it by traditional spiritual disciplines like prayer and meditation. Instead of focusing on my little self, I begin to open myself to the larger world and the God who permeates that world.
Through things like prayer and meditation my world begins to expand. Anxiety constricts. Prayer expands. God explodes worry seeds into tidbits of nothingness! We do not live in an age of anxiety. We live in an age of possibility. Go for it. Carpe diem…seize the day!
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