I don’t know about you all, but even in my surest moments over the last two years, it has still been impossible to ignore the giant waves of anxiety and uncertainty seemingly underlying the world around me. This new rhythm has been a lot to keep up with. When I’ve felt off, the waves become so incredibly traitorous that I want nothing more than to run. But when I’ve slowed down and allowed myself to ride the ebb and flow, I have felt a level of energy and intensity I’m not sure I’ve felt before this year (if you know me, you know this is a good thing). So when looking back at the challenges of 2021, I’m reminded how grateful I am for them because within all of the anxiety and uncertainty, I’ve found an incredible amount of possibility. And though I fear the chaos that 2022 will bring, I look towards it with excitement at the opportunities it will carry.
Here is a link to one of my favorite essays - I think our relationship with anxiety is all wrong.
“Søren Kierkegaard suggested in The Concept of Anxiety (1844) that one of existentialism’s hard-fought rewards – our encounters with true freedom – comes with the terrible burden of encounters with dread and anxiety. This burden, he claimed, was one we should ‘happily’ bear. It is our own cross, and we will find ourselves by our willingness to go forth with it, along the paths of our choosing.”