The gift of fear
I want to give you a gift this year. The gift of fear.
Fear has been famously described as the mind killer. This is unbelievably wrong.
For years I’ve believed this, I’ve let fear stop me. I’ve met fear and I’ve run.
But now I see it differently, and if I can give you this gift. Then I’ve helped you find something priceless.
If we begin to feel fear in a new way, it will stop keeping us from our goals and will instead act as a catalyst for our successes.
Fear is a chemical reaction which can energize.
Fear heightens sensations, gets us ready for action, floods us with chemicals. Fear isn’t a mind killer, fear is what pushes us to climb Everest, jump out of planes, and build cities.
Fear can shut down higher thinking processes, but that can be good. It can help you focus on what is important at that moment? Your reaction to fear changes everything.
The book “The Upside of Stress” by Kelly Mcconigal gives us some keys to this. We tend to focus on the fight/flight response to fear of stress. It’s a false dichotomy. Mcconigal tells us that we have more options; Excite and delight.
You need to know that you fear, that something is dangerous.
The moment you feel fear, it needs to be identified. Anxiety, shrinking away, the heightened sensation, the intake of breath, the increase in blood flow, the rush of chemicals. Identify it, and know it for what it really is. A gift.
We can use fear to excite us, there is something there that is causing an extreme emotional response. That’s incredible, it means we’ve found something that has meaning for us.
Fear is a possible indicator of meaning. It could be a chance to connect, or to change, or a call to adventure. It’s our body’s way of telling us what is deep in our subconscious mind.
Assuming we aren’t in immediate physical danger, fear shows us that something meaningful is near and sets us up with the energy we need to face it.
We need to start seeing fear as energy and allow that to excite us or delight us. Seeing fear as a gift, as an opportunity allows us to use that fear to change, conquer, and overcome.
Understand and using fear is a key to becoming the masterpiece.
What we want, need, and deeply desire is always on the other side of pain, fear, hard work, suffering. You can’t get the gold without facing the dragon.
You are the masterpiece, face your fears, face your dragon.
