…there is also an underlying, less specific fear - what some might call an ontological or existential anxiety - that shrouds our days and seeps into our dreams. We feel empty and seek meaning. We feel empty and seek meaning. We yearn and know not what we yearn for. There is a black hole at the center of our understanding that engulfs and crushes our every attempt to explore it. Something is missing. Jesse Browner
About This Quote

The quote above is an example of existential anxiety. The phrase, "there is something missing" is an example of the existential anxiety that prevents people from living their lives to the fullest. This phenomenon has been coined the "unhappiness gap." The unhappiness gap refers to the psychological state that people fall into when they are faced with uncertainty. People act out by seeking to increase their happiness level through material acquisitions, but this translates into a "passive" lifestyle that fails to make them feel happy.

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  1. We are all doomed to seek our own happiness; we can't help ourselves. We are all, the cruel and the gentle alike, condemned to seeking that happiness in the dark. We use our need as the blind use a walking stick, to determine the safety...
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