hendrix: anxiety is like anti-currency
20 Nov 2017back in late september at a book club for my friend cyndi’s new book (the power manual (!!!)), hendrix berry said
anxiety is like anti-currency – it’s how we waste our energy.
the conversation continued to flow on, but it really stuck with me and i wrote it down to come back to it later.
the more i learn about evolutionary leadership and emergent strategy, the more i see the wisdom in those words. i don’t know if she made them up or is drawing them from somewhere else, but i’ve seen the truth in them lately a ton.
it shows up especially intensely for white women in my life (which there are many), but it shows up for almost everyone else of other identities, too. the work of anxiety seems to be to prevent us from moving. forward, backward, sideways, downwards, upwards, whatever.
and, it is this stuckness, this paralysis that i’m beginning to identify with … well, if i’m honest: death. yesterday, at the boston emergent strategy workshop adrienne cited an idea that i’ve heard elsewhere recently (i think maybe thich nhat hanh using the hand as open and closed):
the heart opens and it closes. in order to function, it must be able to do both. when it gets stuck in either position is when death comes.
and the other version is something like “the hands must be able to move between being open and then closed and then open again. if they are unable to do that, you are paralyzed.”
i’m beginning to think anxiety might be like that for our species. what is all this anxiety doing to prevent our species, our peoples from moving?
hmmmm.
ps - btw, thanks for organizing those, hendrix!
words / writing / post-processing
286w / 14min / 5min