Fear

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Fear is a unique and complex emotion. Most modern, intellectual interpretations of fear for humans, are physiologically attributed to Fight or Flight. Most people who don't regularly experience fear will naturally want to do either fighting or Flighting...is that even a word? Well, truth is, when a person first experiences a fear, particularly a new one, most folks, not all, but most, will just simply FREEZE. No flight, no fight, nothing, stillness, but not of the zen variety. According to some theories in Chinese medicine, the emotion of fear has the capacity to cause the qi of the body to simply drop, and in most cases scatter, first due to an initial shock to the system, then just drop. The energy of the body simply collapses like a felled tree. What does that look like for the human body? Everything just stops, momentarily, but yes, everything just stops. Sometimes a person will just buckle their own knees and hit the ground, others my soil their own undergarments or more. I suppose if you wear a kilt, you won't soil much but the ground and the side of your legs, but that's besides the point.

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt

So how does one get around the 'freeze'? Keep exposing yourself to fear. Encounter something that makes you afraid daily. Try starting with little things first though. Don't decide to start wresting alligators if gators are your worst nightmare. Maybe, start with public speaking, if that makes you afraid, or perhaps some form of group activity if you are normally introverted.  

- Now to make something clear, this is not a blog about introverts or extroverts. I'm just stating an example here. back to the blog

Whatever your fear, just try encountering it, keep exposing yourself to it, an then, when the moon and the sun align, the stars in their place, and you, being present in the experience of what was once a terrifying one, is now, not so terrifying.  This is not to say that it still won't make you feel uncomfortable or even still fearful of it, it just means that you will be able to encounter the said experience and it won't be a shock to your system; your mind, body, and soul will learn to adapt to the once fear-filled event. In some instances, your experience may merit a reward of never fearing it again, nice bonus right?!?  All in all the point that I am trying to make is that fear is not the end of the world, not trying is (proverbially speaking).

The lack of trying may actually be a greater hinderance then facing your fears. Fears will continue to stack up, one on top of another, and then the overwhelming weight of all the fears eventually becomes one's own identity. In order to start making the load easier to handle, we have to start facing some of those fears, even if it is physically debilitating in some way.  The continued exposure will eventually allow the person to be free from the fear and be able to move forward in facing other things in life.  

There is so much in this world, one can only hope to be able to experience all of it, and NO, tv and picture books will not yield the same experience (I'll get to that in another blog). Staying in a protected bubble may seem nice but is also not the way to live a life. I believe that taoists really have a good bead on this concept. In that staying in stagnancy will eventually lead to a decay of the person both yin and yang. We as creatures were not designed to stay still, in once place and not be yang and all yin.

So why am I writing about this? Well, as much as I would like this blog to be read by others and spread out, I'm more concerned about that fact that I'm finding a way of catharsis in this writing. Also, this is a part of my own personal exposure I suppose, in my own growth as well as a way for me to face my own fears. Interestingly, I was deciding if I wanted to do a daily vlog as well, and was delaying because of overthinking and fears of stuff, but as God and the universe have a way of doing things to get me going lately, some very great friends came together and got me a gopro for my birthday....I guess I don't have anymore excuses, time to face my fears head on. 

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” ― Frank Herbert, Dune