X is for (E)XISTENTIAL, (E)XCAVATING, and (E)XITING

Day Twenty Four: April A-Z Blogging Challenge 2015  : Mental Health Awareness — layers and nuances

  

The (E)XISTENTIAL anxiety we live with:

Why are we here on earth? Does human life have meaning beyond the seen ?  Is there a purpose to my life? What happens after death ? Why do I feel as if time is running out ? If these are some of the questions that have troubled you at different times, then you are probably facing not just anxiety, but existential anxiety. You are in the company of great thinkers and philosophers like Kierkegaard, Sartre, and others who have wrestled with these thoughts. These are thought that are not just everyday worries, but deal with the very basis of our life on earth.

Even after a person is fed, clothed and housed, educated, gets a job or a life-partner, has a happy family, possessions, friends and generally has a good life, sometimes even these may seem like ‘not enough’. It is then that they turn to excitement and often end up doing weird things. Some turn to religion or spirituality. Others discover meaning in art, music, literature et al. At such times, human beings are searching for something larger than their small personal selves. They start reflecting on the deeper meanings of life. Sometimes a crisis can set this off. Events may happen that upset the whole apple cart and confronted with pain or sudden change, these questions about life emerge from within. It is as though they were always there, waiting to be (e)xcavated from our innermost selves. Two things may happen at this point. Either we embark on a journey of self-discovery or the distractions of the world, ‘dailiness’, again overcomes us and we retreat back to the safe world we usually inhabit.

People whose brains work in a different way are usually seen to be inordinately sensitive to these fundamental questions about human existence. It is seen in the way they respond to the world around them. They are not just more sensitive, as in get more deeply affected by what is around them, they also empathise more. That is how you see them feeling, reacting and finally searching for answers and often finding them too. Do not underestimate the power of a sensitive mind, an empath, a mentally disturbed soul. They might just be wearing a disguise that hides a person of wisdom!

We all have to (e)XIT from life one day. What better way than to have contributed in some manner to deciphering the puzzle of life, for oneself and in however small a measure for others too 🙂