Have you ever wondered what you would be like if you had no fear? Often times, life can feel like a never-ending cycle of anxiety, one worry replacing another. Is there a remedy? How can we conquer fear once and for all?
First, we must align our perception with reality. What does this mean? With an approximate 7.5 billion people living on this planet, we have a wide variety of different human perceptions in the world, all interpreting one reality. A lot of the time, the discrepancy of how we see things can cause a lot of conflict.
There are so many ways in which our perception can keep us from seeing the truth as it really is. Most of our skewed perceptions are perceptions of ourselves. A lot of people hold false beliefs about their weight for example. Just because someone thinks they are “fat”, doesn’t mean they really are overweight. However, this false perception can force them into a vicious cycle of judgment and fear.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, we end up treating others as we treat ourselves. Therefore, only once we heal our own self-perceptions, can we see others through the loving lens of who they truly are.
If we want to work together rather than against each other, we need to all be committed to seeking the reality we live in as accurately as possible, no matter what our religious or cultural backgrounds are. Being aligned with reality helps us appreciate and work towards similar goals, because in the end, we’re all looking at, describing and longing for the same thing: the expression of our true selves and the ability to love and be loved.
Usually, fear tries to keep us from seeing the truth. For example, because we may be afraid that someone we love is disappointed in us, we will read all sorts of messages into something they have said, assuming they must be angry with us. These anxious thoughts can become quite toxic in any interpersonal relationship if they aren’t recognized as false. So, how then do we notice and overcome these fears before they take over?
The number one thing that cures anxiety is to stop resisting it. We’ve got to fully embrace fear, because otherwise we are just giving it more power. If we embrace fear while recognizing it as a false perception, we’re giving it the room it needs to breathe without letting it dictate our actions. Then, anxiety really just is another opportunity to practice aligning with reality.
If we don't believe there is anything more powerful than fear, it logically doesn’t make sense to practice courage. The only way a sane person would confront a fear is by knowing that there is something they can access that can overcome it. Otherwise, we’d just be blindly running towards our end, and because deep down we sense when we have no foundation, we say "no" to courage. There's nothing that we have created ourselves that is stronger than fear. But there is something flowing through us that is more powerful…
That reason for courage is love.
