In order to understand what ‘staring into the abyss’ literally means, we must first break the phrase down into simpler terms.
Staring into: observing or gawking at or into something.
Abyss: an utterly deep and sort of, bottomless tunnel, which might open to a seamless void.
So, putting two and two together, the literal translation of the phrase would be:
‘Observing an utterly deep and bottomless tunnel, which might open to a seamless void’
This still might not make things very clear. Considering this, we shall discuss the phrase in more detail in this article.
Friedrich Nietzche
Have you ever heard of the man Friedrich Nietzche? To say the least, he was a German Philosopher and an excellent one at that.
‘Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.’
This is one of Nietzche’s most famous quotations penned in his entire lifetime. He was called to be a rather pessimistic philosopher, (taking into consideration all his works) and was somehow disregarded at that time. However, today when we look back at his contributions to the fields of philosophy, literature, and poetry, there seems to be nothing left of him, but sheer talent.
The phrase that we were initially talking about i.e; ‘when you stare into the abyss’, seems to have been derived from Nietzche’s quote itself, so we shall now throw some light over what he meant when he said that.
Unraveling Nietzche’s words:
It is pretty evident, (if not clearly understood) that the quotation is very intense and cavernous.
When Nietzche penned the phrase, he meant the whole thing to be understood as a metaphor, to realize our inner demons. The so-called ‘monsters’ in the phrase obviously, aren’t real. They are all our negative thoughts, words, feelings, and perspectives. It most basically meant the pessimism that exists within us, whether we like it or not.
There are times when we try to fight this negativity and pessimism, to not give in and fall into a pit, where we feel there is no coming out. But, trying to achieve this endeavor, we tend to fall into a deeper pit of self-doubt and desperation. We start to believe that if we don’t kill the negativity within us, we won’t be able to ever be happy and we become the demons we are trying to kill.
What we fail to understand is that we don’t have to kill these demons or avoid them, we need to accept them and learn to live with them because we all have a little darkness inside of us, and accepting this darkness is when we are most true and vulnerable to and with ourselves.
In the second part of the phrase, i. e. ‘And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you’, the philosopher tries to portray human tendencies.
Have you ever had sleep paralysis?
(Sleep paralysis is a feeling of being conscious but unable to advance with any movements, and whilst at it, when you’re half asleep)
When sleep paralysis occurs, you tend to imagine things that don’t exist at all. For instance, you’re laying on your couch and there’s a curtain right in front of you at a distance; You stare at it for a little bit and after a while begin to think that the curtain is not a curtain but a man standing right before you and slowly moving towards you and you just cannot do anything at that moment because you’re partially paralyzed and all this time it’s just the movement of the curtain.
This is what the latter part of the phrase meant. We tend to see things as what we think they are, not as they actually are, and proceeding with this idea, we eventually depress ourselves.
Q1. Is Lucid Dreaming related to Sleep Paralysis?
A1. Yes, Lucid Dreaming to some extent is said to be related to Sleep Paralysis. Most cases of sleep paralysis occur when an individual is Lucid Dreaming. The idea behind the latter is that an individual can control the narrative in their dream, which includes: the characters, surroundings, and concept, while they are partly aware of the fact that they are dreaming and that they can stream their dream however they wish to. Anyhow, Lucid Dreams can be dangerous for a person’s health, it tends to ruin the sleep cycle or is caused because a person’s sleep schedule is messed up.
Q2. How can I have a more positive approach to life?
A2. You cannot expect yourself to always be optimistic about everything in your life. There are times when you may not feel like the best version of yourself and that doesn’t matter, because that is what life is about at the end of the day. However, you could certainly slant towards a more positive outlook often, rather than dwelling in dooms of the past and the future.
Here are a few steps on how you can achieve that:
Read: Reading is one of the best habits you could develop, it does not just distract you from all the worldly troubles for a bit, but also relaxes your mind and educates you in the process.
Watch Motivational Films: Cliche, but somewhat necessary. Watching films that could motivate you, helps you to see the world from more perspectives than you previously thought of.
Pray or Meditate: You might not be a believer and you don’t have to be, but prayer sure does have the power to calm your mind down, and being an atheist or an agnostic or anything in between does not change the fact that prayer and mediation possess the potential to make you feel less stressed about situations that matter a lot to you.
Talk to your mirror: Stupid as it may sound, the greatest motivator in your life, is YOU. Speaking with yourself every morning before the mirror, and telling yourself that you can do it, is motivation enough to kickstart your day in a jiffy. It may not change circumstances, but it will change your perspective about life.
-Lydia Lynette Daniels
