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Haig, Matt - Reasons to stay alive - 11 Love
Identifier
023193
Type of Spiritual Experience
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A description of the experience
Matt Haig - Reasons to stay alive
Anais Nin called anxiety 'love's greatest killer'. But fortunately, the reverse is also true. Love is anxiety's greatest killer.
Love is an outward force. It is our road out of our own terrors, because anxiety is an illness that wraps us up in our own nightmares.
This is not selfishness, even though people read it as such. If your leg is on fire, it is not selfish to concentrate on the pain, or the fear of the flames. So it is with anxiety. People with mental illnesses aren't wrapped up in themselves because they are intrinsically any more selfish than other people. Of course not.
They are just feeling things that can't be ignored. Things that point the arrows inward. But having people who love you and who you love is such a help. This doesn't have to be romantic, or even familial love. Forcing yourself to see the world through love's gaze can be healthy.
Love is an attitude to life. It can save us.