Free From Fear

By now the world is familiar with one of today’s worst horror stories that concluded with a happy ending. And we certainly need happy endings in these days and times amidst fighting fear in our own lives.

Can you imagine how it must have felt to be stuck 2000 feet under the surface of the earth for 17 days without knowing if anyone was even looking for you?  The fear that mounted must have been overpowering.

Even upon being discovered, it still took a total of 69 days before their survival was guaranteed.  And yet all 33 of the men who had been trapped survived.  They worked together as a unit and despite whatever disagreements may have occurred, they worked together for their mutual survival and made it.

It was a rescue, as President Obama says, that “inspired the world.”

It is an inspiration that shows us that the best way to fight our fear is to look to the good.  Realize that the fear can do us know good and see what the higher options are.

Each of the bellies that house the depths of our fears look differently.  What is fearful for me may not be for you.  I may be alone and afraid of losing my home but you have friends and family that are more than willing to help you out, so that is not a fear for you.

You might be afraid of starving but I have food growing in my back yard that allows me to eat.  It is not a fear for me.

The thing to remember, though, is that fearing loss or lack is guaranteed to amplify that with which we are concerned.  You conjure lack of food, that is what you are going to get.  You invoke lack of living space, that is what you are going to get.  You fear illness and you will get sick.  Count on it.

While we may never know what techniques the miners used to fight their fear but one thing was certain.  They took each day, one at a time.  And they certainly stayed in the moment.  The roof may collapse even further tomorrow, but right now – at this moment – everything is as fine as it can be.

How is your “right now”?  What is happening in your current moment?  Learning to live in the present moment is the best weapon in fighting fear.

One of the most common mistakes people make in attempting to handle their fear is to look at it as an enemy.  While it is certainly true that fear can subject you to a litany of discomforts, which could lead to serious health issues and even death if left unintended and allowed to fester, fear is truly nothing more than energy.

The energy of emotion begins as a single atom, just as any other energy begins.  How it is shaped and where it goes is up to its shaper.  The shaper, often times, is our self.  As we fill the emotion with more energy, it becomes stronger and more defined.  Fear is the easiest to shape as it has so many others assisting in the molding the face of fear that it takes on the definition of the current mindset or trend.

Fear takes on the persona of a national pastime and becomes the emotion of choice for so many of us. We become almost addicted to its beckoning, tantalizing adrenaline rush.  And yet we know it is not good for us so we attempt to conquer its influence over us.  This becomes extremely difficult to do as the media and other image making devices keep the object of our fear shoved into our faces in all types of ways.

As we attempt to conquer fear, it gets stronger in the midst of our fighting fire with fire.  And we cannot win when we meet fear on its own playground.

Imagine what would happen, instead, that we emerge our fear in love, by elevating the energy up from the pit of our stomach and changing its compound make up so that it returns once again to the basic energy source it originally was.  It would then become putty in our hands.

How do you conquer fear?  You don’t.  You change it instead.

Are you ready to transform your fear?