mojatu.com
22 Health & Food
Managing Anxiety and Depression in time of Difficulties. By Anthony Oscar Darway.
No pain, no gain! In the 19 century, a German philosopher by the name of Friedrich Nietzsche created this all-time famous aphorism which has been translated into many languages and become one of the dominance maxims of selfmotivation and strength in the English-speaking world; “out of life’s school of war—what doesn’t kill me, makes me stronger.” Out of the life’s school of war which is our experience, that which doesn’t kill us, make us stronger right? th
From our relentless efforts to get the best education that money can buy for ourselves and our children, with the hope of getting the best paying job when we are done, to physical fitness that help us to burn body fat and avoid illness, as well as to the pursuit of those endeavours we put our heads and hearts into, and many, many more, you name them. It’s believed that if we take the hits, we will end up building our stamina to withstand difficulties and become prosperous. “No pain, no gain,” the statement goes. Anything which doesn’t kills you, makes you stronger. But if that was the case, why do many people fail to withstand adversity when they are faced with the reality? The answer is, maintaining your stamina to withstand difficulties it’s not that easy, if you don’t have a reason or prepare yourself to do so, it has nothing to do with your effort and desire to be recognise by other through your achievement, it’s about you and nothing more. If it was that easy, we all will be strong and unbreakable after going through a phrase of life testing situation. The Covid19 pandemic is a good example.
A philosophy professor at the University of Glasgow by the name of Michael Brady once explained that when Nietzsche said in his aphorism that which doesn’t kill us, make us all stronger, he “does not seem to think that all suffering will result in strength, but rather that he is suggesting one should take suffering as an opportunity to build personal strength, and that those who are already strong are those who can do so” easily and others have to learn to do so. Jonathan Dollimore, the author of Death Desire and Loss in Western Culture English portrays the practise of human beings embracing pains and discomfort as an opportunity to gain strength, as “magical, cannibalistic ingestion.” Most times when we are confronted with complex incidents which falls beyond our control, as in the case of the corona-virus pandemic which has disrupt the livelihood of many of us across the world, our life and feeling goes through a five-stage process which include; denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. As we are aware, even though we are concern about our future and the future of our loved ones during this difficult time, we are now coming to terms with the situation and the aftermath as the ‘new reality’. Those people who were already designed to be strong by nature and capable were easily able to embrace the difficulty and discomfort brought about by the corona-virus, the Darwinism “survival of the fittest.” On the other hand, it will take many of us time and encouragement before gaining strength and come to term with the new reality. As humans, we should be aware that it’s inevitable for us to go through these experiences
of been pull in various directions by external forces, whether it’s the result of nature's gravity or an ongoing crisis. This is what makes life a mere tries, without the assurance when our hour will be up. How Anxiety made me see the World. In 1990, when I was around 10 years old, I inevitably came to terms with my first recognised new reality, and ever since my life has been through numerous phrases of what I described as new realities. Whenever I’m confronted with any of these new realities, as we are currently undergoing a phrase of global new reality, I try as much as I can to focus on the fact that being human comes with many limitations, and accept that anything which is beyond my power is a human limitation set out by nature and trigger by a circumstance and try to find a way to adapt myself to the situation. What I’m sharing with you is a little trigger of some of those new realities which formed part of the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle found in my ‘life hack mental toolbox.’ The reservoir of experience and knowledge which has become the model upon which my life is built and usually helps me to navigate the rough current of life’s inevitable challenges which I periodically face, as we all are facing this global challenge brought about by the corona-virus. As everything in nature is made in pairs, I’m convinced that whatever situation we faced, there is something positive that we can learn, even from our bad experiences. If we decide to take our time to understand the incident without perceiving it at first glance as a mountain, we might be able to
