Member-only story
Why You Should Embrace Anxiety According to Søren Kierkegaard
In 1844, philosopher Soren Kierkegaard published one of the earliest books on anxiety. In it, he referred to anxiety as being nothing more than what he called the ‘dizziness of freedom’, or in other words, a sense of being overwhelmed by all of the infinite choices that you have in life.
He described anxiety as standing on a cliff overlooking the vast ocean, but rather than looking at the ocean you’re looking into the boundlessness of your own possibilities.
More or less, anxiety is the difference between your current reality and the realization of your potential. The fact that one has the possibility to do nearly anything, to make nearly any choice in life, can fill one with dread.
But, being an unconventional philosopher, Kierkegaard tells us to follow our anxieties.
Anxiety, while terrible to have, presents immense possibilities for transformation. How we approach anxiety defines how we progress on the path of self-development. Without anxiety, there would be no possibility and therefore no capacity…
