Kirk Schneider, PhD, Psychologist, EHI President and Instructor, has a new article on his PsychologyToday blog, Awakening to Awe. The post is entitled, “What the World Needs Now Is ‘Life-Enhancing’ Anxiety” in which he posits that “one of our great problems today is too little of a certain kind of anxiety.”
KEY POINTS
- Anxiety is a fear of the unknown. But it is also a call to the unknown.
- What I term “life-enhancing” anxiety is a signal that we are not only called to the unknown, but that it is urgent to explore it.
- Without life-enhancing anxiety, we are in danger of personal and collective collapse; life without aliveness.
Essentially, anxiety is a fear of the unknown. But it is also a call to the unknown.
While it may seem counterintuitive, one of our great problems today is too little anxiety, at least of a certain kind. As the psychologist Rollo May and before him philosophers Paul Tillich and Soren Kierkegaard contended, a modicum of anxiety is necessary—and indeed urgent—to live a vital and fulfilled life; at least for many of us.
Read the whole article, “What the World Needs Now is Life Enhancing Anxiety,” on PsychologyToday.
