How to Stop Worrying
According to a "Crazy" German Thinker
Read on Substack
Read time - Less than 5 minutes
Do you worry excessively about your future?
It’s something we (including myself) struggle with.
Today, I will share a concept from one of history’s most influential thinkers on how to stop worrying.
Before I talk about this concept, let’s go back to the late 19th century:
A woman named Meta von Salis, a Swiss feminist and historian, also the first woman ever to earn a PhD in Switzerland, would pour her heart to care for a “crazy person (at his time)” who was:
Weak
Dependent
Neurologically challenged
Incredibly sensitive to light
Nearly blind by 30
Struggling with acute digestive pain
Inflexible due to an injury
Bedridden
Now you must be thinking, why would such an accomplished woman care for a man like this?
This man was Friedrich Nietzsche, who according to our times is no crazy person, but one of history’s most intellectual philosophers, his famous book being: Beyond Good and Evil.
While the most common advice to stop worrying is to “think positive” and “hope for the best”…
Nietzsche’s advice is the opposite.
He proposed this concept called “Amor Fati (love of one’s fate)”, which he said:
“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it…but love it.”
Let’s break it down into a few points:
1) Stop labelling “good” or “bad”
As we tend to label incidents as good or bad, we reduce them to confined limits.
But life works in strange ways: Every incident is like a dot connecting, there is almost always a rationale or underlying reason behind it.
In Islamic philosophy, they call this as “Hikmah (a wisdom behind everything)”, and Nietzsche is no stranger to this philosophy.
2) Stop hoping for something different
Welcome reality as it is.
Instead of hoping for something different or trying to “fix reality (which you can't and it just makes you more unhappy)”…
Nietzsche thought we should accept all parts of life, the good and the bad, and embrace our pain and suffering.
3) Stop thinking “positively”
Scroll Instagram and influencers (sorry) would tell you: “Stay positive”.
This is only one side of the equation.
Nietzsche proposed the other side, to think of what you're afraid of (the negative) and plan how you want to live with it.
Because the whole concept of optimism only works if everything goes according to our plans (hardly) and we feel disappointed if it doesn’t.
Acceptance of your fate
It's through acceptance of your fate that you learn how to live with worry.
Put bluntly, worrying happens when what we expect and the reality we face don't match.
So love your life, and carry on.
If you want to learn how to handle worry with detailed guides, try The Modern Thinking Toolbox for only $1.
Currently, there are 30+ students in this interactive platform learning unconventional mental models (like the ones from Nietzsche).
In this course, you'll learn how both traditional and modern philosophers create a life that is authentic to them and ultimately happy.
If you're not ready for the course yet, just practice these 3 points from Nietzsche:
Stop labelling “good” or “bad”
Stop hoping for something different
Stop thinking “positively”
That's it for today. Good luck!
See you next week.
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