( Image by Pavelas Laptevas )
I spoke with a professional stunt man recently who makes a living jumping out of planes and falling from high buildings… He admitted to me that he too, feels fear and is always afraid before the act!
Is there anyone who is truly fearless, anyone who is completely without fear?
I know that many people handle fear well and appear to be in control. We all probably know people like that… But what about facing our own fears?
Fear keeps us paralyzed and stuck in a place and way of being in which we do indeed exist, but do not live… Time passes by in our lives, but with little or no joy…
Fear exists, it can’t be denied. Denying fear only puts it on hold. Fear is there to be faced head on. It is there to be accepted and then risen above…
Fear comes in many measures, very large, very small and everything in between… It can make you feel hot or cold and it can make you feel like you want to hide… We will often make excuses and do anything rather than face whatever the present obstacle of fear might be… Fears don’t need to make sense. They can often appear quite ridiculous once we start facing them, and yet they bring with them, very real and often seemingly insurmoutable, feelings…
To face fear and to let it go is the hardest thing in the world to do until you have done it! But once done, there comes a huge sense of relief, triumph, and strength… Facing our fears – even the small ones – allows our self-confidence to grow, giving us a greater sense of self and of who we really are…
It really helps to talk about fear, and even to journal and write things down… Talking to others and letting them see how vulnerable you feel can be a very positive move, breaking down the macho archetypes that we all try to pretend to be and live up to in our culture… It also in turn, gives everyone the opportunity to be kinder and more sensitive towards each other…
You could even start a group in your area ( edit: or online! ) and call it “Facing your fears”! People could get together and talk in productive ways… It will certainly beat talking about the weather and other mundane topics! Together we can find the answers, as we all know and understand ourselves… In this way we will begin also to know and understand others… We will find that, after all, we truly are all one… With each of us being a different aspect and expression of that one self…
Such a commitment would be a real step to changing our reality into a positive one… We would see that beyond fear, there is a whole, other, beautiful, world…
