On Being Afraid

I've been afraid lately. Afraid of the future, of what might be asked of me, of failure. I'm not talking about fear of something real, like a grizzly bear running toward you in the forest or getting robbed at gunpoint. I'm talking about fear of something that isn't even real.

Here's how fear works. One minute I'm doing just fine, then I have a scary thought (like, I have to let go of all my attachments right now) and - POW! - I stop in my tracks.

A wise teacher recently told me, "Grasshopper, fear is like a balloon. It is full of hot air and it can be popped easily." Okay, she didn't really call me Grasshopper, but she did say the other stuff. Well, she didn't say the part about being full of hot air, I added that. But she definitely said the part about the balloon and it being popped. Here is my commentary on what she said.

Fear is tricky because in the moment you think it's real, like a warning from some reputable source. But fear (when there's no bear and no gun) is more like balloon Snoopy in the Rose Bowl Parade. Imagine you're standing in Los Angeles one January morning minding your own business and all of a sudden you get a weird feeling and look behind you and you see GIANT SNOOPY. In that moment you would be scared. But then, one second later, you would say, "Hey, that's just balloon Snoopy. If I had a pin I could demolish him. One pin prick would do it.

Well, that's how fear gets you and that's how you can respond to fear. Remember that you have a pin (called your awareness) and you can demolish it. So this is what I'm doing now in response to fear.

I'll end with some quotes:

From Kalindi G.: "Don't let the fear stop you."

From Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Always do what you're afraid to do."

Thank you and good night.