Dealing with Existential Fear

Today's post is in response to a comment I received on yesterday's post on fear. I think it would be relevant for me to explore the topic of existential fear in today's post as this is what came up in the comment. How do we stop creating existential fear to begin with so we don't get caught up in negative states like worry, stress and anxiety?

I think this is such an interesting question and particularly relevant to our current context. Why? Because there's a lot of uncertainty at this time and many of our leaders either in large corporate organisations or government continue to disregard many of the issues at hand. 

But this is where I think we need to become clear. Through awareness, education and knowledge of what's going on from a systemic point of view we can be better prepared to handle existential fear. But if we move into the future blind, with no real understanding of systems and how they affect us, then we will forever be victims of existential fear. 

So let's take a step back. What do we need to increase our knowledge and understanding of our current context to help eliminate any form of existential fear? Well we need to understand that we have entered a period of declining or even negative growth. We live on a finite planet and the resources that we've been consuming can no longer sustain the level of growth that we've experienced in the past. 

Exponential growth, that's a doubling period every 7 years, cannot be sustained. This form of growth has deeply impacted our environment as well as systems, be they financial or political. We have also hit peak oil, that means that oil is unlikely to drop below the $100 a barrel mark ever again. Oil prices will continue to rise as ways to extract oil from the earth get increasingly complex. 

There's 2 other important factors I would like to mention: being able to sustain astronomic levels of debt and climate change. Debt has crippled economies throughout the world due to the global financial crisis of 2008. And the increase in temperature, although not yet remarkable, has been set in motion. Super storm Sandy will pale in comparison to future climatic catastrophes if something's not done about climate change. 

It's not my intention to be a scaremonger. On the contrary, I think knowledge of what's going on will mean that, although the future is unknown and unpredictable and may cause discomfort, a knowledge of the facts will make existential fear a lot less gripping. 

Secondly, I would argue there's a great opportunity here to get involved in the forming of a new earth, with new systems, systems more aligned with our human nature. Nature not driven by greed or fear, but a nature grounded in community and connection and whole hearted participation. We each have unique gifts to offer, why not begin to use those gifts to create a more healthy and peaceful world? 

And finally, there has to be a strong intention in our actions and thoughts. We have to be driven by a strong sense of purpose. And this comes from understanding who we are and what we have to offer to the social or enviromental movement. How can we use our gifts and craft our skills to create something meaningful that will make a difference? 

When we're grounded in our purpose then the existential fear doesn't matter a great deal. Sure, the fear may be there and we have to be present to it and not resist it, but our sense of interest and excitement about creating the future we want to see, can carry us through the fear with relative ease. 

Perhaps much of not getting caught up in existential fear requires that we talk about it. Have conversations about our feelings and our needs in times of increasing uncertainty and change. Maybe it's time we opened up to our existential fears instead of burrying them under victim states of fear that cause so much pain and suffering...? However uncomfortable this may be.