Existential Dread and The Hopes of Embracing Life
There’s a difference between simply going along with life and truly embracing it. One approach involves moving through the world without really thinking—just doing things automatically and ignoring how outrageously bonkers life can be. The other approach acknowledges life’s absurdity, chooses to be fully present, and decides to leap right in rather than tiptoe around like it’s a frozen pond. I’ll let you decide which is which.
Life really is absurd if you think about it. We’re born from a mother and father, and before that…who knows? Then we start living on this planet, which spins around a massive ball of fire, yet somehow there’s life, climates, languages, and so on. It’s almost like we’re part of an incredibly complex, orchestrated reality. How did this all come to be? And what does it mean to be alive, besides the inevitability of death and taxes?
It’s funny—my manager made a joke this week about how I was experiencing existential dread just because I had an odd stomach pain. Maybe she was onto something, but at the time, all I knew was that my tummy hurt and I wanted to lie in bed. It was probably just a bout of IBS, but I digress. Being on this earth is wild, and if you haven’t thought so, you’ve probably never faced existential dread. I’d describe that feeling as a kind of confusion, like being on autopilot because you can’t find your place in this vast universe. It sometimes brings fear, anxiety, or even reckless behavior…and occasionally a stomachache. So what does this mean for us?
That sense of ‘dread’ might be the door you need to walk through to escape whatever’s going on. But does that mean accepting death? Or does it mean something else? Maybe it’s closer to thinking, “Hey, I’m here, and it’s crazy that I’m here. Shouldn’t I do what I want? Why am I tiptoeing around life, fearing something that probably isn’t worse than death? And even if it were, who knows what happens after?”
What I’m getting at is that because life is so absurd, it’s ridiculous to let fear run your life. If you want a more traditional, secure life, that’s perfectly fine—you can still step into life and embrace it. Embracing life doesn’t mean doing something illegal or reckless. It’s bigger than that. Embracing life means confronting the fear that holds you back from doing what’s right for you, whatever the consequences. It’s about chipping away at a dream because you trust that someday it’ll turn into something real, and that the journey will be worth it.
When you embrace life, the journey becomes the destination. You aren’t just living to survive or meet basic needs (which can include extravagant vacations, love, or a big house). Instead, you step into the unknown of an experience life has brought to your crossroads. Do you pick the familiar path, or do you take a leap because your heart tells you it’s right? Are you going through the motions, or are you expanding—letting yourself feel the full spectrum of emotions, from dread to joy to disappointment?
When you decide to stop tiptoeing and truly embrace life, you allow yourself to be fully alive in all its absurdity—and that, in itself, is transformative.
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