Some people may be more prone to anxiety than others because they “caught” their mother’s stress in the womb, scientists claim. The team, from the Queen’s Medical Research Unit at the University of Edinburgh, has found that a component of the placenta which protects unborn babies from high levels of stress hormones in the mother’s blood is deficient in some people. Without this enzyme barrier, the foetal brain is exposed to the hormone cortisol when the mother is experiencing anxiety, potentially leading to developmental changes that affect personality.
Epicurus taught that the greatest objective in life is happiness, peace of mind, tranquility, and freedom from fear and anxiety. So now modern science is telling us that some of us inherit anxiety, regardless of whether there are solid grounds for being anxious. Many people are this way (the writer included), daily accompanied by a feeling of pervasive, generalised anxiety.
We are the born military sentries, exercising eternal vigilance.
For people like these banishing anxiety is unrealistic. But it can be mitigated by using Epicurean principles:
– don’t take on more than you can cope with
– don’t associate with disagreeable, selfish or argumentative people
– take 20 minutes twice a day for meditation on the word “peace”
– don’t undertake jobs that involve high levels of stress.
– marry someone who is forever calm and reflective
– try to live in the present and don’t get into a lather about the future.
– try to dwell on what is happy in your life, not what is lousy.
Please add to the above, you wise ones out there!
Thank you for this superbly helpful list. Two thoughts. How lucky are those who were exposed from childhood to your life-giving suggestions. To absorb those Deep Truths unconsciously through the warp and woof of home life is the best pedagogy of all. For good or ill, watching the people under our childhood roof taught the most powerful lessons learned.
Second, “meditation” used to be taught in our little all-girls high school under the name “mental prayer.” The subject to be meditated upon had to be “God” or reflection on a particular suffering Jesus had endured. (I.e. adolescent girls’ fantasies did not count.) Consequently, since those days, although I’ve learned to value almost beyond measure the times of meditation, I continue to resist thought-targets. Turning the mind to whatever floats into those quiet moments has worked more effectively.
If those scientists in Edinburgh are right, then in times of war and civil unrest more people will be born who are predisposed to anxiety and the ‘black dog’ (Churchill) of depression which is the other side of the coin. I wonder if a correlation has been done between these factors.
I realise that statistics say nothing about the individual, only groups, however, I know a man born in March 1939. During his mother’s pregnancy there was,of course tension growing in Europe – i.e.the Munich Crisis and the emerging Nazi threat. Sadly he surfers from anxiety. His sister, however, born October 1940 does not. Her mother was pregnant when Britain was at war with Germany, and during the Battle of Britain which she personally experienced, having lived in yhe south of England. Surely far more stress was suffered by her mother during this time.
I suggest that whereas, the scientists have a point, anxiety and depression is more more likely to be passed on genetically.
Whatever the truth of this, I agree entirely that meditation can reduce anxiety and bring an inner calmness.