We all feel overwhelmed nowadays. By the uncertainty of a gloomy future. We are inflamed with anxiety only by imagining our days to come. Will we survive climate change? Will another great war leave the world in ruins? Will robots take our jobs? Will we ever have trustworthy worldwide leaders? This whole set of questions about how our life will look in the future gives us the chills.
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Anxiety rules the digital age. How can we overcome it?
The famous British philosopher Alan Watts tried to explain in his book ‘The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety” why anxiety controls our existence. He believes that the root of this human daily frustration is our inclination to live for the future. In other words, if we are not certain of a happy future, we cannot enjoy the present.
How do we get over this obsession with the future?
There’s no secret to this solution. It’s about living in the now. About being fully present to the present. The future does not exist, it’s just an abstraction and we cannot secure it. Whatever we do, we must understand that we cannot control or design our future.
“The real reason why human life can be so utterly exasperating and frustrating is not because there are facts called death, pain, fear, or hunger. The madness of the thing is that when such facts are present, we circle, buzz, writhe, and whirl, trying to get the “I” out of the experience. We pretend that we are amoebas, and try to protect ourselves from life by splitting in two. Sanity, wholeness, and integration lie in the realization that we are not divided, that man and his present experience are one, and that no separate “I” or mind can be found.”
Listen to the spectacular Alan Watts speaking about being in the present moment:
Remember, you and the present moment are one. Enlighten others, please share this!
