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Social Expectations Generate Anxiety

Stands a suffering man in a crowd of people walking by.

Expectations are the cause of our tendency to be nervous and anxious in certain situations assessed by other people. When we desire a particular positive outcome from that person, only then do we get nervous prior to confrontation. For the individual, it depends on that particular desire.

So, what happens when we remove all expectations; when we reduce desires for a particular outcome; when we let go of seeking acceptance; when we become carefree of what other minds may think of us? The worry, nervousness or anxiety is no longer needed. Why be nervous if the outcome doesn’t matter?

These desires can be experienced on a micro level such as the desire to want to be accepted by a popular individual which then equals being accepted by those who thus accept the popular individual.

Furthermore, it can also be experienced on a macro level – society, culture and the herdlike idea of human existence as a whole. Culture preludes that we must not pass gas aloud in public without remorse; that we must not be withdrawn from following mass media; that we must not live a life of which the human herd is narrow-minded.

When you let go of these expectations and turn away from the crowd and instead become a dissident of human nature, only then can you be free from the minds of others and then free from the social anxiety within.