Fear

I think fear is one of the most debilitating of all emotions or states of mind.  And most of fear is based on the unknown.  What will happen if......This might happen if I do this.......but if you notice, we don't fear things from the past.  Unless we fear that it will catch up with us, like a law someone broke or such.  Most fear is based in the future.  It's an unknown future event that may or may not happen.  I'm talking about internal fears though.  These are fears that we basically make up.  Not a fear of a ghost or a boogy man of some kind coming to get us.  The fears I'm talking about are fears like, will they accept me?  Will they like me?  Am I too fat?  Fear stops us from doing what we probably should be doing.  You as an individual know which fear I'm talking about.  For you, it could be fear of failure so why bother trying.  You can't fail if you don't try.  Maybe it's fear of being laughed at and not with.  Maybe you love to paint but have never shown anyone because you think they will laugh at your attempts.  Or worse, maybe you think you're too old to even try some of the things you longed to do in your youth but was never given an opportunity.

Fear is a dark shadow, a boogyman who is out to get us.  To render us useless to anyone's team.  Fear is the ghost or the being laughed at or the failure.  Fear is the never trying.  One of the worst types of fears is the fear of not being taken seriously.  Maybe you have a dream of learning to sail and others say.....are you crazy?  You don't even live near the ocean.  Why would you even bother?  Or maybe you really want to move out of state and open a coffee shop or whatever and no one thinks you're capable......and you believe them.  That's the fear I'm talking about.

I believe one of the most powerful things we can do for ourselves is be willing to be laughed at.  Get up in front of everyone and sing karaoke or be the person who sticks their hand up when looking for volunteers for a comedy act.  If we become willing to laugh at ourselves, and stop caring so much about what others may be thinking of us, imagine what kind of power that would generate within you.  If you actually wore that silly hat or mismatched shoes or socks on purpose....just for the fun of it.  I think looking fear in the face makes fear lose it's power over us.  Even if your knees are knocking.  You've won, if you've tried.  Til next time, take care of each other and yourself....and laugh more often.  Patty