bearing blog: Introduction to the Devout Life 4-11: Troubleshooting anxiety.

(An index of all posts on St. Francis de Sales' work Introduction to the Devout Life is here. A post outlining part 4 of the book is here.)

Still with me, friends?

Francis begins his chapter on anxiety by writing about sadness. Sadness leads to anxiety and "anxiety in its turn increases sadness and makes it extremely dangerous."

Today I think we might call that "extremely dangerous" sadness by a different name: depression. We might translate Francis into modern terms by saying that we react to evil with sadness; that this normal sadness can develop into anxiety; and that anxiety can develop into depression, of which he says: "We become overwhelmed with anguish and distress, and feel so weak and discouraged that the evil seems incurable." The next chapter treats sadness in more detail, and we'll come to that one in another post.

Francis gives the names "trouble," "worry," and "disquiet" to both anxiety and its cousin, over-eagerness. Anxiety is disquiet about a bad thing that one fears; over-eagerness, disquiet about a good thing that one hopes for; but Francis regards either kind of disquiet as a great evil that can befall us, "the greatest... except sin." According to him, we want to nip it in the bud. And since in his view it's a cause of depression, no wonder.

Just as revolt and sedition in a country cause havoc and sap its resistance to a foreign invasion, so we, when troubled and worried, are unable to preserve the virtues we have already acquired or resist the temptations of the devil...

The comparison to "revolt and sedition" connotes that same idea of a self divided into parts. Part of me wants to fight my base tendencies, but part of me resists fighting, fears fighting, believes it does no good -- a self-fulfilling belief. That part of me wants to be right, doesn't it? Wants to be proved right by failing?

So, here is Francis's explanation and prescription.

Anxiety arises from a desire to be delivered from the evil we experience or to obtain some good for which we hope, yet nothing so aggravates the evil or impedes the good as tis overeagerness and anxiety. Birds remain ensnared because they flutter in their wild attempts to escape from the net, and in doing so get all the more entangled,

so, when you desire to be delivered from some evil or to obtain some good, first, strive, above all, for peace and tranquillity.

- First compose your judgment and your will...
- [T]hen seek to attain your end quietly and gently, taking the most suitable means one at a time.
- ...Examine several times a day, but at least morning and evening, whether your soul really is in your hands or whether some passion or anxiety has taken possession of it; whether your heart is under control or has escaped and become carried away by inordinate love, hatred, envy, avarice, fear, weariness, or joy;
- in which case you must, above all, recapture it and restore it to the presence of God, subjecting its feelings and desires to his will.
- When you experience disquiet, turn to God and resolve not to do what you desire until the disquiet has passed...
- ...[but if] it is something which cannot be deferred,.... you must restrain, control, and moderate your desire as far as possible with gentleness and tranquillity, acting according to reason, not mere inclination.
- If you can make known your disquietude to your confessor, or at least to some good and faithful friend, be assured that you will at once find relief.

This is a very important chapter for me. Anxiousness about the many things I have to do and wish to do is a major weakness. Let's look at the prescription in a bit more detail.

First, a reminder of what Francis means by "gently:"

"Gently" does not mean "negligently" but "without eagerness, anxiety and disquiet," otherwise, instead of attaining your end, you will only make everything far worse and get more and more entangled [like the snared birds mentioned before].

About your soul being "in your hands" -- that comes from Psalm 118, and the line might be a nice aspiration-type prayer or mantra:

I carry my life in my hands, yet am I ever mindful of thy law.

And how about that reminder of the things that can carry away your heart? Not just the evils of hatred, envy, and avarice or the neutral fear and weariness, but also love and joy (if inordinate) can create disquiet in us. Carried away by these we can make poor choices or be seized with disappointment and sadness when things turn out differently than we had hoped.