Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose

All amygdalae, in every creature, respond to similar conditions; they sound the alarm whenever something dangerous or unfamiliar appears, and they calm down when given quiet, stillness, and space to relax. This means we can employ the same strategies with ourselves and one another that horse whisperers use to calm mustangs. The skills Voss taught B

It’s quite true that you created your calming scene by selectively focusing on certain memories, perceptions, and fantasies. But that’s exactly the same thing you’re doing when you see the world as frightening and unsafe.

Since then, Dinah has lived according to a phrase she heard in a yoga class: “I exist in continuous creative response to whatever is present.” This is the way of life that arises when we accept that we don’t really know much, and what we do think we know may be false.

The point is that when we set out to build individual lives based on creativity rather than anxiety, the problems we face help stimulate the creative process. That’s wonderful news, because though we may run out of many resources, our supply of problems never goes dry.

Art and problem-solving are linked in this way: to address the most basic practical problems, the human mind may reach for high levels of creative invention. The tougher the problem, the more ingenuity the right brain may call up to craft a solution.

I’ve met several people who I believe have “awakened.” All of them told me that the awakened state is always present in everyone, and that staying in it is simply a continuous choice to direct our attention toward whatever connects us with the perception of a benevolent universe.

Here’s what the people who developed early antianxiety practices knew: The human mind is endlessly, unstoppably generative. It’s always making something. Always. The part of our brains that we’ve been taught to use is constantly creating concepts, stories, theories, competitive strategies, a sense of lack—and, of course, anxiety. To stop doing this

Your creative self sees “problems” not as anxiety-driving terrors but as opportunities to design original responses to any situation whatsoever.

Biological ecosystems constellate wherever three things come together: energy, water, and space. You have a metaphorical set of these same components. The energy is your desire, the longing for what you truly, deeply want. The water is your creativity. It flows from the deep wells of your personal genius in forms you yourself can’t predict or compl