Delving into the anxieties of my mind

There are 2 definitions of the word ‘anxiety’ that I come across in the Oxford Dictionary.

1) a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome

2) strong desire or concern to do something or for something to happen:

And truly, we can look at anxiety only in terms of these 2 definitions.

In the 1^st definition, there is an increased emphasis on ‘feeling of worry, nervousness and uneasiness’ and the more I read this definition I feel forced to replace this phrase with the word DOUBT( Lack of faith that it will happen).

While in the 2^nd definition, I am pushed to rephrase the entire definition as ‘A strong desire for Something that you really want, which hasn't happened yet’.

And these are the only 2 ways of looking at Anxieties that you and I face.

So there are essentially 2 ways of decoding/looking at how people interpret the anxieties that they face. .

Let me explain. When I ask my friends to put their anxieties into statements, there is a very clear, coherent response that most of them provide. Some responses are:

• ·         I don't know if I will get appraised for all the slogging I do in my job. My growth in the company is uncertain.
• ·         I don't know if I will get married. Will I end up being alone?
• ·         I don't know if I will find the right man to marry
• ·         I worry about what will happen to my parents who are getting old.
• ·         I am worried if I will make enough money in the coming year, considering I want to settle down.
• ·         I don't know if I will find another job, if I quit my present one.
• ·         I don't know if I will ever figure out where my passion truly lies.

And then when I see the above responses in the light of the 2^nd definition (A strong desire for Something that you really want, which hasn't happened yet’) I cannot help myself but rephrase all of these statements above:

• ·         I want to get appraised for all the slogging that I do in my job. I want to understand how my growth is planned in this company.
• ·         I want to get married. I don't want to be alone.
• ·         I want to find the right man to marry.
• ·         I want to emotionally deal with the fact that my parents will be getting old and someday they will die
• ·         I want to make enough money in the coming year, because I want to settle down.
• ·         I want to find another job and quit the present one.
• ·         I want to figure out where my passion truly lies.

And it only becomes clearer to me, that all the ‘I don't know’s’  are replaced with ‘I want’s when we look at the 2^nd definition.

 In other words, all the DOUBTS are replaced by ‘YOUR STRONG DESIRE’.

 Allow me to take a pause and remind you that ‘Uncertainty’ exists in Both scenarios.

 There is Great amount of Uncertainty in Both situations, but the only difference is in the approach. While the former is a weak,powerless and unaided approach to Uncertainty, the latter springs from a place of Self-awareness, Self-love and hopefulness. While the former Steers from Doubt and hence is operating from a place of lack of confidence in ourselves being able to influence our situations and lack of faith that life will give what we ask for; the latter focuses on the acknowledgement of my desires with a hopeful, faithful impatience in realizing these desires.

So the question is how does one develop this second approach to deal with anxiety. Answer is simple. For Athiests, Its Positive energy that you create, which will lead the Universe to conspire and deal out that positive energy to you. And for the Believers, like me, Its faith with Prayer. Faith that God is listening to everything that you seek, maybe the way you want it isn’t His plan. But what you want or need is exactly what you WILL have. And I don't really say it, God says it. ( Matthew 7:7-11).

Well, its difficult to live life believing what you cannot see, or cannot feel sometimes. But that is what Faith is. We cannot control every area of our lives and the sooner we accept it, the lesser anxiety we will feel. We can do our best by being powerful, hopeful in our words and in our thoughts, and acknowledging and working towards our strongest desires. But there comes a point, where after all of this, you just have to leave the edge and believe you will fly.