Shawn ButtnerCertified High Performance Coach and Podcaster Clone

Pt 1 The see-saw of anxiety and pursuit

13 Aug 2023 · 1 min

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In this brief dialogue, Speaker A asks whether having a meaningful or passionate pursuit in life relates to anxiety and depression. Speaker B affirms a positive relationship, stating that having passions can help prevent depression and general negative feelings. However, B also describes a "seesaw" dynamic: lacking a pursuit leads to anxiety, regret, and unease, while even having a pursuit can generate anxiety because of pressure to act on those passions. The exchange highlights the paradox that both the absence and the presence of meaningful goals can produce anxiety, framing it as a balancing act between fulfillment and fear of missed opportunities.

Chapters

I was curious, having worked with a lot of folks and done the work yourself, do you think there's a relationship to having a meaningful pursuit in your life and anxiety and depression?
So, short answer, there is yes. You need to have things that you're passionate about in order to avoid, I would say prob. Probably depression. But even if we say it a little bit lighter, just overall negative feelings, darkness, that sort of thing. The tricky thing about having passionate pursuit is that there's, it's, I'm gonna say it's like a seesaw of anxiety. On the one hand, if you are constantly not doing what you want to be doing in your life and you don't have these passionate pursuits, you are probably uptight, uneasy, anxious because you're like, oh, my life is passing by and I'm not doing these things that I wanna do and I'm nervous and oh geez, like just some manifestation of regret, right?