Is my existential dread laying dormant or am I over it?

[soos_mite_ah]

So I used to have doomer depression spirals earlier this year regarding climate change, capitalism, the pandemic, and just the over all state of the world.

I haven't been having them lately (in the last few months) but I feel that it's because I'm more focused on completing day to day activities in school and in trying to figure out my career. 

One one hand you could say that the doomer spirals  are just laying dormant because I'm being preoccupied by working on other areas of my life. On the other hand I guess you could make the case that trying to be more present in my life by focusing on the smaller things rather than working myself into a state of anxiety by worrying about big picture issues has helped me resolve this issue with my doomer spirals. 

I know like everyone I do carry a certain degree of self bias and while there is a part of me that wants to think I'm over the doomer spirals since I haven't had one in more than 3 months but then again it might be due to the fact that I'm distracted from it. I would like some input because idk what's going on lol.  

[LastThursday]

I wouldn't say that the doomer spirals are latent within you. It's just that when you give them energy and attention they are self sustaining. Some problems are just too big for any one of us to tackle, so there isn't a clear reaction to what we should be doing about climate change, capitalism or the pandemic. We can only do our small bit - within our capabilities - and that should be good enough. There's only so much bandwidth we have allotted with our attention, so if the big things concern you then increase your future leverage by focusing on other areas of your life first.

Personally living in the UK I'm terrified of the shutdown of the thermohaline circulation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutdown_of_thermohaline_circulation), but there's personally not much I can do about it, so I think about other things!

[soos_mite_ah]

@LastThursday So what I'm getting is that I'm coping effectively in the face of problems that I don't have much control over instead of fueling my neurotic thought spirals. Would that be accurate? 

[LastThursday]

Pretty much I'd say. Awareness is nine tenths of the law so to speak, that's the way you cope effectively with any problem (of any size) in the long run.

You've got your head screwed on so any neurotic impulses you may have now will just a be blip for your future self 

I've never been a fan of the container-full-of-stuff-needing-to-get-out idea. We're nothing like that. This should be dropped for a more I-am-me-expressing-myself-moment-by-moment idea. It's closer to the truth. Identifying with yourself in the moment is less prone to being neurotic. You don't get stuck on being this or being that so much.

Anyway that's my prognosis ?

 

Edited December 5, 2021 by LastThursday

[soos_mite_ah]

@LastThursday That's good to know. Very reassuring. I appreciate it 

 

[RickyFitts]

I suspect you're just distracted from your anxieties to be honest, though of course I can't know that for sure. The proof of the pudding's in the eating - when you're alone with yourself without any external distractions, what's your experience?

[RickyFitts]

10 hours ago, LastThursday said:

I've never been a fan of the container-full-of-stuff-needing-to-get-out idea. We're nothing like that.

I think we're exactly like that, to be honest, I think we're all a Pandora's box of unresolved traumas and upsets -  certainly that's been the case for me, at least, I had a terribly hard time with anxiety and depression and it was only doing the inner work that helped me to overcome that inner turmoil. You saying definitively that 'we're nothing like that' just sounds awfully narrow-minded to me, to be honest.

[Nahm]

On 12/3/2021 at 3:22 PM, soos_mite_ah said:

So I used to have doomer depression spirals earlier this year regarding climate change, capitalism, the pandemic, and just the over all state of the world.

I haven't been having them lately (in the last few months) but I feel that it's because I'm more focused on completing day to day activities in school and in trying to figure out my career. 

One one hand you could say that the doomer spirals  are just laying dormant because I'm being preoccupied by working on other areas of my life. On the other hand I guess you could make the case that trying to be more present in my life by focusing on the smaller things rather than working myself into a state of anxiety by worrying about big picture issues has helped me resolve this issue with my doomer spirals. 

I know like everyone I do carry a certain degree of self bias and while there is a part of me that wants to think I'm over the doomer spirals since I haven't had one in more than 3 months but then again it might be due to the fact that I'm distracted from it. I would like some input because idk what's going on lol.  

Nothing is laying dormant, there is no anxiety, there are no states, there is no self bias, there are no doomed spirals. These are write offs, cover ups.

Notice the shift in focus from that self referential thinking (thoughts about a separate self having all of those)… to focusing on what you want, and notice the difference in how that feels. (Better)

The suffering is / are those subtle thoughts about being a separate self. The relief in focusing on wanted feels better, because it is aligned with the fact that you are the creator of your reality. Not the one the thoughts are about, but the awareness, you. The One aware of the thoughts. 

Notice also the thoughts which are the justification of there being a separate self, and begin to recognize that is how the suffering and seeming lack of focus are created. That is what the ‘doomer spirals’ are.  (“Something is laying dormant / subconscious… anxiety… states… bias… doomed spirals… parts of me”). Notice those thoughts are devisive, separative & therein intrinsically manipulative. 

Instead, acknowledge, feel, honor, understand, and receive the guidance of the emotion experienced. 

Focus on what you want feels good and is not a distraction. It’s conscious creating. The self referential thoughts are distractive and discordant. 

Ignorance of emotions is not existential dread, it’s just innocent ignore-ance of understanding emotional guidance. That’s aversion, or, existential conceptual rumination about ‘the separate self’ / suffering as a means of not feeling and understanding emotion. 

Intuition goes through the roof in the sweetest way inevitably… with daily meditation, and respecting & understanding the guidance. It’s connective, inclusive, honest, sincere. 

[soos_mite_ah]

5 hours ago, RickyFitts said:

when you're alone with yourself without any external distractions, what's your experience?

I might have a couple thoughts here and there but I'm not spiraling. But it could be the fact that when I'm not doing school/career/social things that I'm usually lying around being exhausted. Maybe I'm too tired to go on spirals but then again people tend to spiral whether they are tired or not so maybe me not spiraling is significant lol

5 hours ago, Nahm said:

Notice the shift in focus from that self referential thinking (thoughts about a separate self having all of those)… to focusing on what you want, and notice the difference in how that feels. (Better)

The suffering is / are those subtle thoughts about being a separate self. The relief in focusing on wanted feels better, because it is aligned with the fact that you are the creator of your reality. Not the one the thoughts are about, but the awareness, you. The One aware of the thoughts. 

Notice also the thoughts which are the justification of there being a separate self, and begin to recognize that is how the suffering and seeming lack of focus are created. That is what the ‘doomer spirals’ are.  (“Something is laying dormant / subconscious… anxiety… states… bias… doomed spirals… parts of me”). Notice those thoughts are devisive, separative & therein intrinsically manipulative. 

Instead, acknowledge, feel, honor, understand, and receive the guidance of the emotion experienced. 

Focus on what you want feels good and is not a distraction. It’s conscious creating. The self referential thoughts are distractive and discordant. 

So what I'm getting is that what I'm doing is a healthy way of coping if I'm not mistaken 

[Nahm]

@soos_mite_ah

I can’t really say what is healthy and unhealthy, only that there is the sensation of discord & alignment with well being. 

Putting this as simply as possible, as always feel free to ask anything you like, if interested…

When you notice focus is on thoughts about yourself, and discord is felt… instead… look at the emotional scale and pick which emotion most seems like the emotion presently experienced. Then, lightly & simply, express each emotion up the scale. Feel the subtle feeling of relief as you move to each next emotion. 

If you try this for a week or so, I’d love to hear back on how it went! ? It might be realized there is no coper, and nothing in need of coping with, and that essentially your creating of this life so to speak, is not without, quite literally, the guidance of infinite intelligence at every, single, step. 

[LastThursday]

7 hours ago, RickyFitts said:

You saying definitively that 'we're nothing like that' just sounds awfully narrow-minded to me, to be honest.

Maybe, but @Nahm says the same:

6 hours ago, Nahm said:

Nothing is laying dormant, there is no anxiety, there are no states, there is no self bias, there are no doomed spirals. These are write offs, cover ups.

My justification for not believing the "bottled-up" theory doesn't come from nowhere. But it's too long for me go into without derailing the post. Although I'm not trying to be dismissive of people's problems:

7 hours ago, RickyFitts said:

I had a terribly hard time with anxiety and depression and it was only doing the inner work that helped me to overcome that inner turmoil.

Same.

[RickyFitts]

4 hours ago, LastThursday said:

Maybe, but @Nahm says the same:

And?

4 hours ago, LastThursday said:

My justification for not believing the "bottled-up" theory doesn't come from nowhere. But it's too long for me go into without derailing the post. Although I'm not trying to be dismissive of people's problems:

I think it's on-topic, I don't think you'd derail the thread.

[RickyFitts]

14 hours ago, soos_mite_ah said:

I might have a couple thoughts here and there but I'm not spiraling. But it could be the fact that when I'm not doing school/career/social things that I'm usually lying around being exhausted. Maybe I'm too tired to go on spirals but then again people tend to spiral whether they are tired or not so maybe me not spiraling is significant lol

I was thinking more on the level of feeling than thought - how do you feel when you're alone with yourself, be more attentive to that.