Anxiety and the modern world. In the age of information, we live in a realm of ever-increasing change and intelligence about the world. We know far more about each other, the history, culture and rights that intertwine and make us strive for a better world. But not all changes and information make us better. A generation now sits absorbing headlines trying to keep up with myriad demands and pressures, all without a second thought. Many studies point towards rising anxiety and depression as features of the modern world- a ‘silent epidemic’ where expectations and social pressures rapidly change over a compressed time. This blog post takes some time to reflect on today’s age of information. The struggle to find an identity appears submerged in information excess. More people feel lost, empty and lonely. There is so much to know, so many opinions and seemingly infinite doubts about where we belong. In a fast-flowing world, finding a spiritual ground and disconnection appears vital to managing today’s information storm.
Anxiety wrote this article. The culmination of stress, worry and doubt has always been difficult to encapsulate and express. The feeling is often too melancholy. I refuse to give in and remember writing remains the strongest outlet for the feelings and thoughts buried inside me. Today’s movement for mental health encourages me to share my experience. Anxiety is a normal response; humans naturally feel worried and doubt when faced with uncertainty. The modern age, however, brings new pressures, an overabundance of expectations, interactions and information that are all too difficult to restrain. I describe my experience, conversing through the first anxious responses to the deeper-seated anxiety found in social interactions. I then explore some means to managing anxiety. A paradoxical truth remains, more exposure to uncomfortable situations forms the primary means to overcoming fears and doubts. One may still desire an immediate prognosis which Action Commitment Learning offers through brief practical steps. The battle with anxiety may not be about eliminating such feelings entirely but managing how it affects us.
I am not finished with this website! I have been caught up by life again and have struggled to finalise some of the pieces I am working on. I am trodding along with some reading, writing and editing. In the coming weeks or months, you can expect some new content.
Writing has always been a struggle for me. Not the physical part of getting my hand moving across the page but the mental barrier dragging me back to my slumber. Ideas, images and tones bring torture when the struggle to package it all together seem overwhelming. Every writing journey gets caught staring into perfection. The first draft means cutting through the dense jungle, not knowing where and how worthy the mammoth prize awaits you. In the darkest times, many writers roaming the writing landscape will feel lonely and worthless. During my leap into writing, my immense mental battles showed me writing can be a love-hate relationship. However, one year ago a special book helped me to find a greater love for writing and the unpredictable journey. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg is a unique self-help book for all writers. She offers valuable spiritual and mental lessons, holistic ways to overcome tormenting mental demons and find confidence in writing. Too quickly do we forget writing is an art form that takes many different shapes and sizes. Writing demands patience, planning and practice. Whatever the writing task, we all writers would appreciate a push to believe in our writing and stop overthinking things. Here are some of my key takeaways from Writing Down the Bones to keep you believing and writing.
Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fineby Derren Brown throws the towel on today’s age of positive thinking. Like with his enigmatic charisma, he guides readers on a different path to ‘happiness’. One that halts the pelting, positive treadmill and focuses on finding acceptance in the reality of disappointment and joy. His graceful writing stretches 446 pages and makes clear readers do not need yet another ‘quick rich scheme’ or a book jammed with positive quotes. After finding myself binging on plentiful ‘inspiring’ messages, I appreciate his view that positivity guides have paradoxically caused discontent in needing continued positivity. Brown introduces Stoicism as the old age thinking to rediscover an approach to finding resilience, acceptance, and happiness in precarious human life. He carves open the stoic perspective by taking the reader through a phenomenal breadth of knowledge, history, philosophy, and psychology. The book offers lots to contemplate, from angles of life to acceptance of death. Ultimately, this book provides a framework to discover and take greater happiness from ordinary life. This article will not be a book review and instead focus on Brown’s interesting contempt of today’s ‘positive thinking’ mantra. Why has the positive thinking movement become such a toxic barrier to happiness? How can positive thinking become suddenly negative and destructive?
After leaving university, my precarious existence has made me question whether a stronger mindset could have carved a stronger path. Thoughts about job security, money, housing, relationships and more have come flooding into mind for someone who only thought about learning. Now, perhaps like others, I find myself as a lone fish wandering the seabed. Learning can no longer be the sole focus. The need for survival and building a future turns a period of curious abstraction and rationalisation futile. The market comes with a price and demands its character and practice. After years stuck in the academic hole as a naïve youngster, the leap into the competitive economy been a difficult and awkward one. Graduation soon brings with it a stretch of adulthood, entering spiralling questions about one’s role, purpose and prospects. If you are like me, still wandering this lush planet, life looks all but ominous amidst continuous job applications and anxiety over what the future holds for you. Estimates suggest more than 2.3 million graduates are searching for a job while only around 30,000 graduate job vacancies are advertised per month. University is life-changing, it can be the proudest feeling for not just students but also their family. However, despite the many successes’ university can bring, my time after graduation was a descent into the abyss. I suddenly felt lonely and worthless. The paradox being a university degree never felt so worthless. While I do not regret the enlightening experiencing of going to university, the purpose of this article is to remind students there is great value in thinking practically about their future. Gaining knowledge and intelligence is great but it is not the same thing as experience and wisdom; a degree is not everything, work is not everything.
*This was originally written on 15 May 2019, quite a throwback. Despite changing scenes, similar themes and weaknesses still stand relevant today for a Manchester United fan. I hope you enjoy the read.
Manchester United are in a deep crisis. If the past five years wasn’t revealing enough, the latter part of this season has fully exposed the gulf of class, passion and identity with their past and the present top-end of the Premier League. Solksjaer provided United with wonders after Mourinho’s departure. They had a sudden bounce in their approach as they picked up a strong winning run of games. As Linekar exclaimed, Solksjaer’s early run-in may have been one of the best job application for full-time management football has seen. Everything was going so right, an adored club legend who appeared to be bringing back the glorious past and the ‘United way’ of doing things in the return of attacking football. Chants of ‘Ole’s at the wheel’ rang around the club and rightly so, they clinched victories against Spurs, Chelsea and PSG through a phenomenal comeback which I believe exceeded expectations for most fans.
Today United have fallen back into the dismal pit they’ve fallen into under the last three managers. Paul Ince went as far as claiming ‘anyone could have done Solksjaer has done“. His comment was harsh but when distancing oneself from any allegiance there is room to accept a blissful run cannot cover over deeper changes needed at the club.
Manchester United in its latest stage of the crisis has embarrassingly lost against relegated side Cardiff and accomplished only two wins in the last twelve games. The end of Solksjaer’s ‘honeymoon’ period reawakens fans to an undeniable reality that Manchester United requires systemic rebuilding. While Solksjaer’s inexperience raises fears about the prospect of returning to glory, the continuation of crises reminds fans the issues lay deeper.
Besides many players being simply unfit for the club, the mess amongst the first-team squad stems from the club’s insidious, rotting core. The abysmal operations at the top-end are encapsulated by short-termism and neglect for the serious task at hand, the restructuring of Manchester United since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement. A mountain of a task awaits Solksjaer which he would need every backing. This summer will be crucial for his future and the recovery of Manchester United. There are three central areas needing to be addressed that will be pivotal to how United return for the new season and move towards a new future.
It was almost as if I coded the entire site myself. The years of doubts about opening a website and the stress I went through to establish a website design, my WordPress Blogsite is finally here. I wish any lone wanderers crossing this site respect as I document my starting connection with you.
My ambition to get a personal website up and running began years ago when I started a series of HTML classes, hoping to find autonomy in the creative field. The plan was always, ‘one-day’ I’ll get a site published, the drive was to continue learning which soon became a revolving cycle. As many would know, learning never stops and at some point with anything practical, you need to be cutthroat with yourself and leap in. Things will simply fail to happen if a deadline is not stamped down. My priority was to create and write and the easiest place I found was through here, WordPress. No hard coding required, no fuss tinkering with CSS sizes and positions, just straight focus on the value of content.
I would like to give special thanks to Anders Noren who designed this theme. This theme was only found after hours scouring through themes, enough time for someone to write themselves an HTML designed page. The Hoffman Theme is not only free, perfect for someone new to WordPress like me, but also stylistic using a narrow and minimalist design. It is with Ander’s creative ingenuity I finally have a comfy space to write and publish.
I would like to bring the first bit of philosophy onto this site through my recent endeavour into the teachings of Epicurus. The aim to simply get articles published online was riddled by layers of desire. I wanted to be a professional web designer first, then I told myself I need to become smart in computer programming, all before then desiring again to build an innovative site. I failed to see that starting simple and starting small was already within my capacity and something that would finally spark joy. The cycle of wants and dreams reminds of the value of simplicity to life. My experience is a limited example to such a large lesson. Nevertheless, I leave this quote as one of the inspiring perspectives of FluidFountain.
“Everything we need is easy to procure, while the things we desire but don’t need are more difficult to obtain”
Epicurus
Whoever that person may be on the other end, I wish I can spark even the smallest flicker of joy, comfort, curiosity or inspiration to your mind.
