Sad for No Reason ebookOvercoming fear
Overcoming fear seems to be the topic of the week, as The Women Masters conference call was on living a fearless life, and on a separate blog Happy Lotus, Nadia isolated the movie Defending Your Life as one that masterfully deals with the topic of overcoming fears.
Wikipedia introduces fear: Fear should be distinguished from the related emotional state of anxiety, which typically occurs without any external threat. Additionally, fear is related to the specific behaviors of escape and avoidance, whereas anxiety is the result of threats which are perceived to be uncontrollable or unavoidable. Bill Tancer’s top ten list of fears as culled from search engine keywords consisted of flying, heights, clowns, intimacy, death, rejection, people, snakes, success, and driving. In general, people appear to be most afraid of two things: the threat of pain or death, and the threat of social rejection or isolation.
I think it is fear of “the threat of social rejection or isolation” that drives us all to adopt strange and dysfunctional coping skills. We’re quirky. We have baggage. We are eccentric. We are trying to feel as though we fit in to something. Isn’t the entire field of counseling/therapy devoted to helping people get over their fears?
The web site that was introduced to me this week on The Women Masters call was Fearless Living by Rhonda Britton. I had never heard of her before, even though she’s managed to appear on Oprah several times, she’s written four books, and she has a daytime reality drama, Starting Over. (I don’t watch very much daytime TV!) But I know just from the short bit I heard from her that she is authentic! In fact, getting to your authenticity was a big topic in her call. How can I live authentically if I’m stuck battling my demons by constantly resisting that which I’m afraid of? I can’t. One can’t dream of living a life of purpose when shackled by fear. Check out her programs and books because I know she helps people step by step.
I have issues and baggage! For me in this moment, the act of keeping this blog titled Live on Purpose is my way of holding myself accountable for my own evolution. It forces me to grow beyond my comfort zone, it allows me to converse with wonderful people I would have never met, and it keeps me constantly seeking out new information in the topic I love dearly, self-growth!
I remember that I posted a video from Isha last year, and I decided to check in with her Youtube channel just now. Looks like her movie “Why Walk When You Can Fly” is ready! She says, “we are not our thoughts, we are not our fears, we are not our emotions, we are so much more than that!”
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May 3rd, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Comment from Todd Kashdan via Twitter http://www.toddkashdan.com/
Well-written. Pursuing valued living regardless of the fears &negative thoughts being carried resonates with my own approach.
May 3rd, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Comment from friend on a social network:
Lovely post, Jess! ‘We’re quirky. We have baggage. We are eccentric.’ – yes! Guilty!! Human as charged.
I love that, despite the shelves and shelves of self-help books, and the big money shelled out for therapy, Wikipedia can manage to sum up fear so concisely! And that, if we can just bring a little bit of light to those small, dark corners that still scare us, using simple consciousness and loving attention, we can perhaps transform some of the major gunk that really bogs us down in life. Live on Purpose, indeed!
I love the video you posted – have you seen the Ashes and Snow project? I think you would really dig it! There’s also a lovely folksy song by Mary Chapin Carpenter, Why Walk When You Can Fly!