Fear is one of the most debilitating conditions there is.....bar none. It seems that everyone lives with some level of fear, whether it's fear of being abandoned, fear that someone close to you will die, that you will die, that the world will disintegrate before our very eyes, that you will become very ill and lose control physically or emotionally, that your spouse will leave you for another, that your child will be struck by a car, that you will lose all your money,...........you want me to go on? Of course I'm not absolutely sure, but I would venture to say that you've probably come across some, if not all of the circumstances above that would cause you to fear. These are all scary situations that none of us want to go through or experience. Some of them not so bad.......some that would totally devastate anyone that had any real feelings at all.
I believe what goes on when we experience fear is, for one moment we recognize how vulnerable we all are on this earth......and what little control we have over what goes on. Sure, we can control what we eat, what we wear, where we live, what we listen to, etc...... and daily make it a point to prove we have control over those things. But, when the lights are out and we are alone with our thoughts, or when we are actually faced with something we thought we would never have to deal with, it becomes very clear that we really do have little control over what happens to us or around us.
Trust me, just writing that paragraph is enough to remind me again, I have no real control over what happens to me, my neighbors, my children, my family, or ultimately the future. It's as if I have thrown myself onto a roulette wheel, spinning around to settle where ever I happen to land.......and I can either give into the fear of not really knowing where that might be, or I can be at peace that no matter where I land, that I will be able to survive and be happy.
I try to practice something each day that I learned several years ago, and it actually seems to help me trust and have faith that everything is as it will be. I play the worst case scenario game. I act as if the worst has happened, whether I'm short on money, never get healed, or the absolute worst thing, which I would have to say is losing one of my children. What will happen to me if those happen, and more importantly, how will I handle it? Well, of course I can speculate, saying that I would be alright with no money, for some solution would arrive, or that there is no doubt that losing a child would push me over the edge and that would surely be the end of me. These are all simply speculations, when in reality, I have no clue as to what would happen to me if these things happened. My point is, playing the "what if" game will only guarantee you will live in fear...period.
So if I am to live in this world, with all the things that could possibly happen, how can I not be completely consumed with the fear? Or more importantly, how can I help the world stay away from speculating what will happen to them beyond this exact moment? I can encourage you to replace the fear with a recognition of what is happening on this particular day, and how you in fact can change the direction of the world just by your attitude. If I am on a plane that is going down, I would want to be around someone who is sitting quietly praying, not jumping around screaming, thinking that will surely keep the plane from crashing.......and that is in no way saying that this world is doomed, and we need to just sit and accept that fact. I'm only stating that you can either choose to hang onto the chaos and fear, or the people who choose to live in chaos and fear, or you can make it a point to choose wisely those people in your life that will build you up, comfort you, try to understand and accept you without judgement or ridicule, and of course more importantly, you can choose to become one of those people who recognize the good in others, and realize the power of positive comments and kindness.
Life is way to short, and time is precious. Much too precious to dwell on what you don't have or what could happen as opposed to all the good things to experience in this life. So I believe a sure fire way in which to stay away from fear each day, and I'm speaking fear of the unknown, is to learn to live in the moment. And you can think this is another new age flower child speaking, or a miss mary sunshine who really doesn't understand what true pain and suffering is all about.....but of course you would be very wrong.
So what if you could change the world by transforming your fear into gratefulness for what is.....and what could be? And just remember, fear and desperation cause the world to become stagnant. When you live in fear and focus on the negative in life, that permeates the minds of those around you. When you live in love, hope, kindness and appreciation for those people and things around you.....it ultimately changes the energy of the earth. Talk about going green!!!!!
