[One Thousand Characters a Day] Sad Feelings Are Also a Habit<5>

by Jo Inkyung

Published 20 Apr.2023 06:00(KST)

Updated 20 Apr.2023 09:38(KST)

[One Thousand Characters a Day] Sad Feelings Are Also a Habit<5>

Editor's NoteAsia Economy provides daily 1,000-character transcription content for the 'One Day Ten Thousand Characters' newsletter readers. The transcription content is carefully selected according to themes on a daily and monthly basis from Eastern and Western classics, Korean literature, notable columns, and famous speeches. This excerpt is from the book ＜Even a Depressed Mind is a Habit＞ by psychologist Professor Park Sang-mi, who talks about taking responsibility for one's emotions and living a happy life. The text contains 919 characters.

Kierkegaard said, "As long as humans live, they can never escape anxiety," and emphasized that to recover oneself as an existential being, one must properly learn about anxiety. We need to realize that anxiety is an emotion that humans inevitably experience. Anxiety is the most essential element within the human inner self and a perfectly natural phenomenon.

There is no one who does not feel anxiety. Everyone experiences anxiety, but the intensity and ways of coping with it vary from person to person. People with high anxiety levels actually have a strong desire to do well in everything. On the other hand, if I want to do well but despite efforts fail repeatedly, those experiences become strongly perceived, increasing anxiety. Anxiety is also said to come from the future. It means a vague fear of things that have not yet happened.

Think back to the things you worried about. Consider whether the things you worried about, felt anxious about, or feared actually happened and caused serious problems. Did those things happen every time? Did the things you worried about always become reality and bring you tremendous pain? Probably not. It is said that 96 percent of the things we worry about do not happen.

If you often feel anxious, you might be living as a slave to anxiety, holding your present time hostage over things that may never happen. When you have worried about something in the past, it is worth reflecting on whether that thing really happened. When you feel so anxious you feel like going crazy, when anxiety keeps you awake, or when you cannot focus on work, be sure to write down why you feel anxious on paper. Then, after some time has passed, check whether that thing really happened, showed any signs of happening, or did not happen at all. By writing down your anxiety and verifying whether the event actually occurred, you can calm your anxiety much faster.

- Park Sang-mi, 'Even a Depressed Mind is a Habit', Evening Moon, 18,800 KRW