There is a positive way to deal with anxiety

Miguel de Unamuno, in The tragic feeling of life, tells us: "Whoever has not suffered, little or much, will not have self-awareness."

Unamuno's approach connects the person with himself, and from that encounter with his own intimacy, painful intimacy -born of the anxiety-, to conquer calm, to settle down, after a desired and wanted effort. And it is in this positivity of mind that we take possession of our life and, in effect, we exist, in the midst of of the storm, at the worst moment, when the anxiety worsens, the anguish stops sprouting and the calm.

How do we manage to calm down?

The characteristic of the person is calm; but that this, in turn, is not given to him for nothing, but that he has to conquer it and win it. To achieve calm he has to calm down first.

Even in the tightest of situations, we are able to withdraw into ourselves and calm down, perhaps through a vigorous effort. It is always something that the person does, that he has to achieve, but when he gets it he hasn't reached anything else but himself

. Tranquility is authenticity achieved from alteration or alienation – Julián Marías tells us.

Each new bout of anxiety strengthens intimacy and symbolizes the feeling of taking a step forward. comes to become a dear effort that helps us find ourselves.

And now, once again, I ask myself: what resistance do we face when anxiety appears? To the division between values conscious (exterior to us) and unconscious values ​​(interior and personal).

How do we resolve the dichotomy?

With jovial calm that is not a given calmness or a play on words. The calm that oneself briskly creates -Ortega y Gasset tells us- in the midst of anguish and embarrassment when feeling lost he shouts to others or to himself, calm down! It is not anxiety, but that calm that overcomes it and puts order in it, where the person is humanized.

Calm is an active, lucid and human state of finding calm despite the internal storms that will come. It is not a matter of passively enduring or disinterestedly indifferent to anxiety, but of considering the situation in which one finds oneself. find one and the things in them with an alert look, to distinguish between what matters and what does not, to discern and find welfare.

Facing the door of anxiety, the person, to be happy, has to be his own master. Mastery over things is ephemeral, what really lasts is owning oneself. Know what to expect. And, with anxiety, at first we must take action, we must face it with a calm mind.

In front of the door of anxiety, it seems to me that I see the culmination of the active, lucid and human interpretation of calm, that one is no longer in calm, that it is not given away. And that anxiety is a state that is translated by an indefinable feeling of insecurity; pejorative amplification: imaginative movement that leads to the absurd the pessimistic perspectives of misfortune; of danger: restlessness, perplexity or fear before "what happened"; bewilderment: sensation of disorganization of the vital forces, of impotence. And even more, it is the loss of understanding.

Faced with the tragedy of anxiety -and calmly- that is, after having calmed down, one must prepare to criticize the force, energy or power that invades him -in the midst of the storm, in the midst of danger, and yet not to ignore it- undoubtedly in order to distract himself from the great threat that he saw in front of the door of anxiety.

one last recommendation

This active, positive, jovial and alert calm achieved with a dear effort it can degenerate into daily routine, mere adaptation and conformism, like anxiety, degraded into mania or fear, frenzies and debases the person, so we must continue to be masters of oneself to be happy. Only then will we achieve peace of mind.

a few last questions:

Is it possible absence of disturbance, absence of pain, neither restlessness nor pain? is it enough to live?

We think not.

Is it possible a positive, active, affirmative interpretation of anxiety, achieved through tranquility, calm?

We think so.