Introduction

A Theory of Human Motivation, the American psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed

that healthy human beings have a certain number of needs, and that these needs are arranged
in a hierarchy, with some needs (such as physiological and safety needs) being more primitive or
basic than others (such as social and ego needs). Maslow’s so-called ‘hierarchy of needs’ is often
presented as a five-level pyramid, with higher needs coming into focus only once lower, more
basic needs are met.

Maslow called the bottom four levels of the pyramid ‘deficiency needs’ because a person does
not feel anything if they are met, but becomes anxious if they are not. Thus, physiological needs
such as eating, drinking, and sleeping are deficiency needs, as are safety needs, social needs
such as friendship and sexual intimacy, and ego needs such as self-esteem and recognition. In
contrast, Maslow called the fifth level of the pyramid a ‘growth need’ because it enables a
person to ‘self-actualize’ or reach his fullest potential as a human being. Once a person has met
his deficiency needs, he can turn his attention to self-actualization; however, only a small
minority of people are able to self-actualize because self-actualization requires uncommon
qualities such as honesty, independence, awareness, objectivity, creativity, and originality.

Although Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been criticized for being overly-schematic and lacking
in scientific grounding, it presents an intuitive and potentially useful theory of human
motivation. After all, there is surely some grain of truth in the popular saying that one cannot
philosophize on an empty stomach, and in Aristotle’s early observation that ‘all paid work
absorbs and degrades the mind’.

Once a person has met his deficiency needs, the focus of his anxiety shifts to self-actualization
and he begins—even if only at a subconscious or semiconscious level—to contemplate the
context and meaning of life. He may come to fear that death in inevitable and that life is
meaningless, but at the same time cling on to the cherished belief that his life is eternal or at
least important. This gives rise to an inner conflict that is sometimes referred to as ‘existential
anxiety’ or, more colorfully, as ‘the trauma of non-being.
Rollo Reese May was best known as an American existential psychologist and he was referred as
the father of existential psychotherapy. May was associated with the humanistic psychology; he
had a different way of thinking on the Human existence, then other psychologist, his human
existence was sharper on the tragic dimension.

May's personality Theories, stated that Rollo Reese May, used different terms and invented new
words from some of existentialism old ideas, for example the word destiny is the same as
thrownness and it is combined with the word fallenness, which mean that part of people's lives
that is determine for them, he also gave another example of the word courage, which was used
more often than the traditional term authenticity, which meant facing one's anxiety and then
raise above it.

.Mays work was maintained by the balance between darkness and light, between the
experiential and the intellectual. May considered the fundamental questions of human
existence as the nature of evil, love and will and the meaning of anxiety and the important of
myth. May inspired many people and it came from his ability to name the void of create in its
face, to name evil but worked toward the good, to see meaningless, but to discover meaning
and to face death, but create life. May was in the antiwar movement and many other social
causes, he taught and mentored countless students and called himself a "gentle rebel".

Dasein means a particular person in a world that is particular time and existing is under a
particular set of circumstances.

May's Three Modes of Existence:

Umwelt is the interaction with the physical world, Mitwelt, is the interaction with other humans
and the Eigenwelt is the interaction with oneself.

Alienation is when a person is estranged of aspect of the nature, which results of feeling lonely,
emptiness and despair this happens because the three modes of existence is alienated from
nature and from other people.
Mays describe freedom, which a person can be free to choose the meaning of their own
existence. Since a person is free to choose what type a person they become, they have to be
responsible for what they become, another person circumstance of their fate can be praise or
blamed for the nature of their existence, because we are responsible for ourselves. Ontology is
the study of being. Within existentialism, ontological analysis is directed at understanding the
essence of humans in general and of individual in particular. Phenomenology is the study of
conscious experience as it exists for the person without any attempts to reduce, divide or
compartmentalize it in anyway. Authenticity, if people live their lives in accordance with values
that are freely chosen, they are living authentic lives, if however, if people conform to values
established by others, they have not exercised their personal freedom and are therefore living
inauthentic lives, inauthentic is causally related to neurotic anxiety and guilt and the feeling of
loneliness, ineffectiveness, self-alienation and despair. Death because humans are mortal and
because death is the ultimate state of nonbeing, awareness of one's inevitable death can cause
anxiety. The source of anxiety is part of human existence and cannot be voided. The awareness
of death, however, can add vitality to life by motivating a person as much out of life as possible
in the limited time available. Thrownness is the circumstanced of a person's lives which it can't
be control. Other existentialist referred this as thrownness and May refers it as destiny.

May was really interested in the human anxiety and guilt; he rejected Freud's interpretation of
anxiety as the result from conflict that is between a person's biological needs and the demands
of society. May felt that Freud's analyzed was too biological and compartmentalized and Freud's
anxiety viewed his results from the conflict of the id, ego, and superego, but May approved on
Kierkegaard's existential definition instead because Kierkegaard theory of human freedom and
anxiety went hand and hand.

Existential anxiety is an all-encompassing form of anxiety and stress that is present in a nagging
way when we try to make meaning in life simply because, as humans, we exist. That’s a fun
concept, isn’t it? We experience anxiety, stress, strife, worry, and even panic simply because we
are alive. Being alive is certainly a wonderful thing, but existential anxiety can put a damper on
it (this might be an understatement). Why does mere existence cause us dissonance and
different kinds of stress, and can it go away? Can we make meaning in our lives despite this
existential anxiety and stress?

This anxiety that causes us to feel unsettled and uncomfortable, anxious about everything but
unable to articulate exactly what it is, is frustrating in its ambiguity. This anxiety and stress that
make us feel tired yet wired, make our thoughts race about what feels like nothing, make us
afraid of things we can’t pinpoint and thus can’t address or avoid actually can be a very positive
part of our existence. When we are anxious and stressed about everything and about nothing,
sometimes we question our self ---Who am I? What is my purpose? Where do I fit? Why I can’t?
and how do I get mine that way?

As we go through life, our personal worldviews are shaped from within and without. In a sort of
symbiotic relationship, the individual and the whole of society mold each other’s perceptions
and beliefs about the world at large. sometimes I think my life is meaningless and I need to
realize that the only way to tackle this problem is to approach it by raising the awareness of the
right mindset. If you think life is meaningless? Here is the bitter truth. It is there is no meaning in
it whatsoever. You are standing on the corner of a busy street imagining that you don’t exist.
Pedestrians are walking, cars are signaling, markets’ doors are opening, passengers on the bus stop
are changing. The world continues to live without you. The realization of it hurts. But it is important
---Sergey Bodrov Jr. Your life is a blink of the Universe. You are space dust on the windshield of
planet Earth. You are a grain of sand in the millstone of time. Your existence is so insignificant
and temporary that at times you can feel disarmed. Yet there is a power in feeling tiny and petty.
If you keep questioning the meaning of life you will eventually come down to understanding that
Life has no meaning unless you give it a meaning. When the time I listening to my classmate
reporting the existentialism I try to google it read some blogs about it. It hit me. The Existence.
For a moment I had a feeling of a deep fall. I suddenly questioned if my life is worth living. I lost
all of my reasons and I realized how unique and untransferable to others my experience is.

In a sense, I was an uncrackable nut, and no one could ever be able to see what is going on under
the nutshell. The movements of my soul and the true depth of me are forever hidden from
others. This feeling was overwhelming. However, soon after it started to dissipate another thing
came to displace the ultimate meaningless. If Life is essentially everything that is going on in my
head, then there is only one person who can find a sense in all of this mess. It’s me.

The meaning was found the moment it was lost. I absorbed the main ideas of existentialism and
after some time they became invaluable pieces of my core mindset. I do not find meaning. I
create it. Even if ultimately life has no meaning, on the scale of separately taken individual the
meaning is a matter of choice. we are comprised of the choices to take action, to speak up, to
show up, but most importantly by the ability to choose our own mindset about what has a
meaning for us and what doesn’t. What I experience is only mine. No one can judge me, as they
don’t know what I have been through. They have never been me hence they can’t understand
the true motivation behind my actions. Same is fair for me, I shall not judge anyone, as I never
walked the path in their shoes. I don’t know their pain and their background. I don’t know how
hard life hit them before we met and what it took for them to get up. I do what I believe is right.
And that is important to remember — we all do. Creating my own system of beliefs will condition
my actions. My experiences are defining the degrees of my freedom.
Freedom is what you do with what’s been done by you. I was born alone, I live alone, I die alone.
It doesn’t mean that I should distance myself from people, quite the opposite. Relationships this
is how we will measure our life when the sun goes down. I take 100% responsibility. I am the total
sum of my choices. What I possess, the place I am, the people around me, the thoughts in my
head, the world around me. Everything is me. Everything lives within me. I live taking 100%
responsibility for what I let inside myself and what happens to me. Just does it’d people create
things because this is our nature or just because we are bored? That’s an interesting existential
question, and I could spend days contemplating about it but at the end of the day, it is irrelevant
for the outcome. All I have to do is to do. There are so many things that existentialism taught me
but there is something that monsieur Sartre missed. My thought is me: that is why I cannot stop
thinking. I exist because I think I cannot stop thinking. Jean-Paul Sartre. I think, therefore I am. We
can stop thinking. Yet we do not stop existing in the thoughtless state. “I” exists in the duality of I-
Observer and I-thoughts. The ability to separate them from each other gifts mindfulness required
to take control of your life and create the long-wished meaning of it.

I am sure you will have your time questioning life. Existentialism in its terminal form can bring
you to isolation. Be aware of that and don’t use it as your exclusive philosophy. As all of the
philosophies out there it has its strengths that should be subjected to incorporation into your
mindset and flaws that are absolutely impractical in modern life.

I am just saying that there were many smart men who lived before you meditating quite enough
about the things that you might think of right now. Existentialism might be considered a sad way
of thinking about things, I squeezed the practical things and moved on. Study it diligently and it
will help you too. Create your meaning and enjoy the journey.

Review related literature

According to Carl F. Weems 2007 The paper conceptually explores Paul Tillich's theory of
existential anxiety and examines existing research relevant to each of Tillich's domains of
existential apprehension. This paper also reports data from two initial empirical studies of
Tillich's model of existential anxiety and its relation to symptoms of anxiety and depression. A
self-report measure of existential anxiety, the Existential Anxiety Questionnaire (EAQ) based on
Tillich's conceptualization, was developed and data were collected from two socioeconomic and
ethnically diverse samples of adults (Study 1, N=225; Study 2, N=331). Results indicated that the
EAQ has good test-retest and internal consistency reliability and a factor structure consistent
with theory. The EAQ also demonstrated good convergent and incremental validity estimates.
The data suggest that existential anxiety concerns are common and that they are associated
with symptoms of anxiety and depression as well as psychological distress related to identity
problems. Results are discussed with regard to their support for the viability of employing
Tillich's theory in empirical research on existential anxiety and the importance of further
exploring the relation between existential anxiety concerns and other facets of emotional
experience such as clinical anxiety and depression.

Conclusion: