2022-02-03 Anxiety (Take #1)

How to deal with anxiety?

This is a hard question, and has plagued humankind since history can tell. Just remember that whatever you are experiencing now, a lot of people has already been through, and they might have had worst than you. History if full of events and persons as examples.

Think about Pheidippides running as fast as he can to deliver the news of victory to Athens. Or Churchill overseeing D Day operations. Or Martin Luther King during his march on Washington, DC.

There's a Stoic principle that you don't control what's not in your control. If you cannot control it, forget it! This is obvious, but we must exercise and meditate on it daily. What you control is your reaction to things that you do not control.

This is the panaceia against anxiety: you do not control external outcomes, but you control your reaction to those. You also control the effort you put into your work, but what impact it will cause is out of hands. Just focus on your effort and your reactions. Forget about externals, you cannot control it.

Anxiety is hard, dealing with it is a daily practice. With time, anxiety will subside to tranquility. Peace of mind that you control your effort, reactions, and other internal things like virtues and character. Anything else are externals, out of your reach, which you do not control and never will.

Math Guy, feeling anxious but dealing with it.

Feb, 3rd 2022.