Roads of Thought, Less Traveled
When faced with anxiety, most people follow their thoughts into a dark forest. Others take the road less traveled.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. -Robert Frost “The Road Less Traveled”
In reflecting on his path through life, Robert Frost used a metaphor to represent actions that most people take, and actions that few people take. At its essence, his poem celebrates human dignity, which is our fundamental right to choose a path in life.
When we begin to experience anxiety and the racing thoughts that follow, we feel like we’ve lost the opportunity to choose our own path. Options shrink. We feel small. We feel victimized and weak. As we feel anxiety and fear, we also notice the loss of control. We begin to lose our dignity and therefore our humanity. Something dark takes over.
To regain a sense of control, we try in vain to resist those pesky, anxious thoughts. Unfortunately, with resistance comes the risk of burying ourselves even deeper into anxious thinking. Anyone who has experienced anxiety knows its fundamental law: whatever we resist will persist.
Amateur psychologists call racing thoughts “overthinking.” Professional…
