Anthroposophy in Everyday Life

by Rudolf Steiner

nervousness expresses itself precisely in the confusion people often feel today about how to set about doing what they really wish to do or actually should wish to do. They draw back from carrying out what they have undertaken; they don't bring it off, and so on. This can be formulated as a certain weakness of the will, and it is caused by a lack of control of the astral body by the I. There is always insufficient control of the astral body by the I when this kind of weakness of will appears; it is as if people simultaneously want something and don't want it, or at least don't manage to really carry out what they want. Many do not even manage to earnestly want what they want to want. Now, there is a simple means to strengthen the will for the outer life. The means is this: to suppress wishes that are doubtless there, not to act on them, if non-action on the wishes is not harmful and is possible. For if we examine ourselves in life, we find from morning to night countless things that we want, which it would be nice to have, but we also find many such wishes that we can forego, without harming someone else and without neglecting our own responsibilities: wishes whose satisfaction would give a certain pleasure, but which could also remain unsatisfied. If, then, one proceeds systematically, one can find among one's many wishes those of which it can be said, No,