A MODERN AND WORLDLY PERSPECTIVE
Capable Capable
Capable Capable

You've got skin in the game. Anxiety is to be expected.
Arnold Siegel —May 23, 2016

Each of us believes that our anxieties are privately and uniquely formed in the substance of our mind. However, in fact, they are caused to appear, for better or for worse, by our systemic realities.

Strong and anxious feelings accompany everyday life. When they’re driving us up the wall, they’re often described negatively. But these tense, pressured feelings can also be described positively—as biology intruding upon inertia.

Built by natural selection long before humans dwelled in a modern world, the living system that we are motivates us, like other animals, to eat, sleep, mate or socialize, compete for position, etc. Turned to good advantage, these feelings also fuel the civilizing effort to make us self-reliant and to stimulate us to be rational, to think, to make order out of chaos and to care.

Poetically and philosophically these strong and anxious feelings have been described as “existential angst.” Yes, we’re self-aware thinkers, uniquely capable of creating a mental distance between ourselves and actual life. But this imaginative ability, in and of itself, is too abstract and remote from the integrated systemic realities of existence; that is, from organic human existence.

For is it not true that in a fast-paced, enormously complex and uncertain world, we are free (expected) to choose what’s important to us? But is it not also true that with that freedom comes our undeniable responsibility for accepting the consequences of these choices—including the existential anxiety that second-guesses lived action?

In the thick of life, we are skin-in-the-game, ego-invested individuals, to use a now popular metaphor. And along with being responsible for our choices comes the demand that we manage the propelling anxiety that accompanies this challenge. After all, we pressure ourselves to be successful and we are pressured by the eyes of others, as well. 

So, how do we create a mind at peace with itself despite the relentless pressures that accompany simply being alive? Discipline is the solution.

Our discipline of Autonomy and Life brings to our attention the background of what we are doing even as we address our immediate concerns.

It recognizes that we are caught up in our immediacy and in our oversight and in embodied forms of nature, history and language. That is, we recognize ourselves as natural beings reflexively and experientially attempting to be in control of both the force of our nature and our civilized life.

Happily, as we begin to master the tools and vocabulary of this discipline and focus the energy of our anxiety on designing a life and lifestyle that is a responsible match for our unique intellectual skills and emotional stamina, much of the over-riding anxiety diminishes. Yes, life itself—the nature of our nature—will always excite our nerves. But it is more likely we’ll greet these keyed-up feelings with enthusiasm and eagerness—as opportunity instead of angst.

Are you interested in having more autonomy in your life? Here's a plan of action! Examine our website. If you find it interesting, do the Retreat Workshop. Thank you for your interest. I appreciate it. 

Arnold Siegel is the founder of Autonomy and Life and leader of its Retreat Workshops and Advanced Classes. 

Arnold Siegel is the founder of Autonomy and Life and the leader of its
Workshops and Advanced Classes.