The Art of Living a Meaningless Existence: Ideas from Philosophy That Change the Way You Think

by Robert Pantano

To try to resolve one’s excessive worrying requires one being worried about one’s worrying, at least to an extent. One can’t use worry against worry to eliminate it. And so, realistically, despite Stoic ideas being so obvious and perhaps simple, in practice, we might always remain trapped in some amount of unnecessary worry, as this is inextricably linked with the human condition. As a consequence, perhaps our goal should be reducing unnecessary worry, rather than removing it entirely. Perhaps by accepting that one will always feel unease and that this is a natural part of the tragic backstory of human life, paradoxically, one might worry a little less about worrying as a whole. If we shouldn’t stress over what we can’t change or control outside of ourselves, perhaps at a point, we shouldn’t stress about what we can’t control inside of ourselves either.