One of the hardest things I’ve ever done is come face to face with how incessantly fear ruled my life. Love connects us to self and others and fear divides us. I believe all feelings and philosophies are on a continuum between love and fear, and for the first few decades of my life, I hung out at the fear end. Since babies are born more curious than fearful, how did I get to be such a scaredy cat? Partially, I was taught to be fearful, but mainly I absorbed it energetically from the circumstances and people around me. I was born on the only day that week my dad had found work, money was tighter than today’s jeans, and war was on the horizon.
With good reason, uncertainty was rampant. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Society is once again in a time of transition, and it is not an easy one. Domination and imbalance need to change—in self, society, community, business, and home—and dominating people in entitled positions are not going to make that easy. However, facing and moving through fear will help us have the strength to bring about fairness, equality, and freedom for ourselves and others.
The first step is to courageously face our fears. Everyone has fear. The faces of fear change as we journey through life, but one thing is undeniably true: unexamined fear has the upper hand. Unacknowledged fear weakens, diminishes, and silences us. Hidden fear dampens happiness and hobbles us to self-sabotaging behaviors. Let’s disempower fear by gently becoming aware of it.
During your day...
With no judgment, courageously begin to notice big
and little fears.
If you think you don’t have any fear, tenderly dig a
little deeper.
The fears we don’t face become our limitations.
—Robin Sharma
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