Ontological Courage in a Fast-paced, Stress-filled, and Chaotic World 

Ontological courage is the philosophical and psychological resolve to affirm your own existence and meaning in the face of inevitable anxiety, uncertainty, and the threat of non-being (such as annihilation, fate, and meaninglessness). It is the bravery required to simply be and find purpose in an ambiguous universe.

The Core Concept

Affirming Being over Nothingness: 

Courage is usually thought of as an ethical act (like running into a burning building), but in an ontological sense, it is the fundamental drive of life to affirm and maintain itself despite the negatives that seek to destroy it.

Confronting Anxiety: 

To exist is to experience the innate anxiety of realizing one's own mortality and the potential for a meaningless life. Ontological courage is refusing to retreat into inauthentic, safe, or dogmatic belief systems to escape this anxiety.

The Three Forms of Ontological Anxiety

According to Paul Tillich, human beings constantly navigate three fundamental threats to their "being":

Fate and Annihilation: 

The anxiety of losing control over our destiny and ultimately facing biological extinction.Guilt and Condemnation: The anxiety of failing to live up to our essential selves, or the heavy weight of falling short of our moral potential.

Emptiness and Meaninglessness: 

The anxiety of losing ultimate meaning, purpose, or connection to the universe.

How It Manifests

Exercising ontological courage does not mean you eliminate these fears; rather, it means you act, love, and participate fully in the world despite them. It requires the vulnerability to accept your own individuality while simultaneously participating in shared, creative human experiences, even without knowing for certain if life has an inherent, grand purpose, and wether or not you are appreciated or seen. 

That Courage to affirm yourself and your existence in the face of all odds and also in spite of them, that affirmation of yourself without imposing yourself on others and the world — that is what is called Ontological Courage, the Courage to be!

~ Credit: Adapted from Paul Tillich's Theological Philosophy of the Ontological "Courage to Be."