Image by TeeFarm
Narrated by Lawrence Doochin.
"Do the thing you fear
and the death of fear is certain."
-- RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Fear feels crappy. There is no way around that. But most of us don't respond to our fear in a logical way. Anytime we bump up against long-held beliefs that no longer serve us and need to be released, which is what is being accelerated individually and collectively during this time, we will feel fear.
We can choose to medicate it and suppress it, which won't be successful and the fear will only knock at our door more loudly. Or we can choose to face and heal the fear, welcoming its message and the growth that will come out of it. As Robert Frost said, "The best way out is always through."
Allowing the fear simply means that we don't run from it, nor do we dive into it. When a baby is in a birth canal and is being squeezed, she doesn’t try to go back into the womb or stop the process of moving. She relaxes and allows the process to unfold so that she can get through the birth quickly.
Along with everything else that arises in us, we embrace our fear as a part of ourselves as that is the only way we can feel whole. We ask it where it originates from and what it wants to teach us. This is the natural response that is within each of us, but our ego minds override this. We have all of these subconscious beliefs that sabotage our healing and prevent us from hearing fear’s message and healing from it for good.
Transforming Our Fears
In order to transform our fears, we have to recognize what we can control and what we can’t. We can always control our ability to live from an open heart, to be kind, and to show compassion and love to ourselves and others. We can control our ability to stand in our divinity and not give our power away. We can also control our ability to love and trust in God, that there is a higher plan, and that if we pay attention we will be shown the actions we need to take.
There may not be much more we can control. For the things we can’t control, we have to first recognize what they are and then surrender them to God and know we have done all we can do. This may sound simple, but this will keep us out of fear.
Warriors still have fear, but they are willing to face their fears and work through them, which takes great courage. Nelson Mandela described this when he said, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
Moving Through Fear
One of the best ways to move through pockets of fear is to take whatever action we can concerning what we have fear about, assuming we know this is what’s in our highest good. Dale Carnegie told us, “Do the thing you fear to do and keep doing it ... That is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.”
Although I have been in a lot of fear, I have never let it stop me. I always knew that I had to take the action and push through the fear or I would never recover from the fear. The fear would win and be my master. Fear of staying in fear forever, and fear of not being the best husband, father, and human being I have the potential to be, motivated me.
Unfortunately, many people stay in fear most of their lives, but facing our fear will bring us heaven. Mythologist Joseph Campbell stated, “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
Taking an action to move through the fear could mean having a difficult conversation with our spouse or boss, starting meditation, going into therapy or rehab, putting more money into a venture that we know is doing good in the world but is still in the red (that was me with HUSO), or moving into a completely different career without a safety net.
Taking action can also mean non-action, like not giving advice to someone because they need to come to a realization on their own, even though we know that our keeping quiet could end up in disaster for them. If we are still and pay attention to what God is trying to tell us, we will get the action or non-action that’s in the highest good for us and those around us. This is the quickest way out of fear.
We are called to move through fear at different times, as taking the action or non-action will peel back another layer of our beliefs so we can come more fully into a deeper recognition of our divinity, which is the answer to all fear. Marie Curie said, “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”
Understanding Fear
The problem that’s least understood is that so many people have invested their identity in what is false, such as who they are in their job or community, how much money they have, or whether their sports team wins. Only by moving into the safety, identity, and love of God and a unitive perspective can fear be dissolved. We can love our career and do well in it, enjoy what money brings us, or enjoy watching our team win. But these things are not our identity or our god.
Gandhi told us, “The enemy is fear. We think it is hate, but it is fear.” I mentioned in the preface that fear can be our friend. We have seen fear as our enemy because we have tried to run away from it, but it’s time to reframe our perspective and see what it’s trying to teach us.
It really doesn’t matter what the external circumstances are. Fear is just an energy in the body. What it becomes for us is based on how we see and respond to it. It can be debilitating on the “negative” side, or it has the potential to be powerful on the “positive” side, releasing false beliefs and an immense amount of energy and creativity.
One of the things I have noticed greatly with the coronavirus crisis is that there are bright pockets of cooperation and love, offers to help out those who can’t or shouldn’t get out, and more people being in nature. I am seeing these things because I am looking for and expecting them, and because I am open and grateful for the positive changes that this crisis has already brought in me and the world. Even with the deaths rising, we can make lemonade out of lemons as this gives us the potential to increase our empathy, be there for others in need, and really see what’s important in life.
Even with each of us being part of the whole and partially affected by the actions of others, we must recognize that we are truly the creator of our life. How we choose to see things and act will determine what happens for us. In the words of the song “Nights in White Satin” by the Moody Blues, one of my favorite musical groups, “Just what you want to be, you will be in the end.” The problem is that we have been headed individually and collectively to what we thought we wanted to be, but this is not who our spirits came here to be.
Take your personal power back. “Know thyself” and trust in who you are in God. This will transform your fear. We are being given the opportunity to stay open-hearted and come from love, compassion, and empathy, versus being in fear and contraction. The power of choice lies within each of us. Choose wisely.
MAIN TAKEAWAY
You have the power to determine how you see things and how you respond to fear.
THOUGHT
Feel into the fear that just came up within you. Ask what it wants to teach you and just be present with it.
Copyright 2020 by Lawrence Doochin.
All Rights Reserved.
Publisher : One-Hearted Publishing.
Article Source
A Book On Fear: Feeling Safe In A Challenging World
by Lawrence Doochin
Even if everyone around us is in fear, this doesn't have to be our personal experience. We are meant to live in joy, not in fear. By taking us on a treetop journey through quantum physics, psychology, philosophy, spirituality, and more, A Book On Fear gives us tools and awareness to see where our fear comes from. When we see how our belief systems were created, how they limit us, and what we have become attached to that creates fear, we will come to know ourselves at a deeper level. Then we can make different choices to transform our fears. The end of each chapter includes a suggested simple exercise that can be done quickly but that will shift the reader into an immediate higher state of awareness about that chapter’s topic.
For more info and/or to order this book, click here.
About the Author
Lawrence Doochin is an author, entrepreneur, and devoted husband and father. A survivor of harrowing childhood sexual abuse, he traveled a long journey of emotional and spiritual healing and developed an in-depth understanding of how our beliefs create our reality. In the business world, he has worked for, or been associated with, enterprises from small startups to multinational corporations. He is the cofounder of HUSO sound therapy, which delivers powerful healing benefits to individual and professionals worldwide. In everything Lawrence does, he strives to serve a higher good. His new book is A Book on Fear: Feeling Safe in a Challenging World. Learn more at LawrenceDoochin.com.
