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Today’s Agenda
Anxiety Is Part of Being Alive
Hello there. I hope you’re hungry. I know I am.
Today we’re going to piggyback off of yesterday’s talk about responsibility, by talking about Kierkegaard’s understanding of anxiety. Burning that off, we’ll do the Anxiety Check. Wrapping up, we’ll look at a quote from Kierkegaard’s The Concept of Anxiety.
Pull up your seat. Breakfast is on the table!
Today’s Breakfast
It Is Not Pure Dysfunction
Most people experience anxiety as something purely negative. With regard to anxiety, modern life often encourages us to suppress or escape or even numb it entirely. Anxiety becomes treated like evidence that something is fundamentally wrong with us or the way we see things. That’s what happens when we assume psychological discomfort should not exist at all.
Søren Kierkegaard doesn’t see anxiety as meaningless suffering. You might remember from previous editions, we talked about his “dizziness of freedom” quote. He basically says that anxiety appears when we confront the unknown; possibility, uncertainty, responsibility, and change. In fact, people with more anxiety can be described by Kierkegaard as more conscious, because they see more possibilities in front of them to the point of overwhelm. A completely unconscious person rarely feels existential anxiety very deeply.
Kierkegaard gives us a quote that you’ll find below, ultimately telling us that the goal is not to eliminate anxiety entirely but to learn to endure it without collapsing into avoidance or escapism. Anxiety can actually teach us things like humility, self-awareness, and create opportunities for courage.
People build their lives around avoiding this type of discomfort. Especially in today’s world, where sitting alone with your thoughts has become a luxury instead of boredom. The human mind clings to predictability, control, routine, and emotional safety, but life organized entirely around these things becomes narrow and ultimately meaningless. Trying to escape anxiety completely can disconnect us from growth and possibility.
Burn Those Thought Calories
The Anxiety Check
Ask yourself:
What possibility in my life is creating anxiety right now?
What discomfort am I trying too hard to escape?
What would it look like to face that anxiety instead of avoiding it?
Book Nook
“Whoever has learned to be anxious in the right way has learned the ultimate.” — Søren Kierkegaard, The Concept of Anxiety
Kierkegaard is pointing out that anxiety is not always something meaningless or purely destructive. Anxiety appears because we are conscious of possibility, uncertainty, and the openness of our lives. Learning to be anxious “in the right way” means learning how to face uncertainty without immediately fleeing from it or collapsing under it. The person who can carry anxiety honestly begins developing courage, self-awareness, and a deeper relationship with life itself.
Munch on that for today. Have a truly splendid day and come back tomorrow for another steaming hot plate of Thought Breakfast!
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That’s it for today.
Remember to stay mindful, smell the flowers, and take it easy.
Chef Ricky - Thought Breakfast
