PEBBLE
You don’t want your fears to dissolve, you want your fears to evolve.
-Coach Sean Smith, shared by Marilyn in Arroyo Grande, CA
BOULDER
Live with your fear, not inside it.
Do not mistake permission to feel afraid in times of flux
as permission to cower.
Stand up.
Uncover your eyes.
-Maggie Smith (the American poet, not the British actress!), shared by Sara in Madison, WI
PONDER
It’s okay to be afraid. In fact, it is a neccessary part of being human and essential to our ongoing existence. As long as we’re alive, we’ll be spending some of our time being afraid.
Adulting gets easier and more productive as we figure out how to relate to our fears in a more mature and effective way. One of the biggest challenges we face in evolving our fears is that our systems were wired quite early in the evolution of humans. As a result, most of our instincts around when to get scared and what to do about it hasn’t kept up with the times we live in.
For today and for now, try this experiment: choose a relatively small thing that recently brought fear into your consciousness and see if you can play the role of curious scientist while you wonder what your system is trying to warn you about. Is there a way to upgrade how you respond to the fear?
Peace,
Paul
P.S. If you’d like to dig a little deeper, here are links to a few previous issues of Ripples where we explored topic of fear:
Ripples #1108: Face Fear & Flourish
Ripples #939: Conquering Fear
Ripples #910: Dropping Fear
