To The Silent Army:
Fear of the dark. Fear of failure. Fear of monsters. Fear of the ramifications of your success. Fear of heights or falling. Fear of being hurt. Fear of being vulnerable. Fear of what others think. Fear of hurting others. Fear of the creatures that lurk underneath. Fear is something we all deal with. Facing our fears is something we struggle with every day. Some face every fear dead on, such as Aleister Crowley, who became viewed as crazy and evil for his lack of fear and disregard of of danger, of his self and of others because of it. Others are paralyzed by fear, to the point of completely shutting down, and being labelled as crazy for letting their fear overtake them, crippling them from the human experience. But we don’t need to be governed by our fear.
“Fear is not real. The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future. It is a product of our imagination, causing us to fear things that do not at present and may not ever exist. That is near insanity Kitai. Do not misunderstand me, danger is very real, but fear is a choice. We are all telling ourselves a story and that day mine changed.” –M. Night Shyamalan, After Earth
Fear is a sign for us to be cautious, but not to shut down. It is a call for us to overcome our emotions, so that we can see clearly and act accordingly.
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” –Frank Herbert, Dune
Do not give into fear. Yes, you may feel afraid. Yes, there are monsters in the dark. But you are meant to be a light in dark places. You are meant to conquer fear and shine even brighter than before. You are an inspiration to those around you, whether to coward away from what life has given you, or to make fear your servant as you take charge of your life.
“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” –Plato
To paraphrase Eben Pagan about fear and what to do with it, here are some extremely life-changing notes from one of his courses (adapted from http://www.listsandnotes.com/notes-on-self-made-wealth-by-eben-pagan/):
- Fear is meant to be a servant of intuition.
- If you are feeling fear it is almost certain evidence that that thing you are feeling isn’t actually happening. When an emergency does happen, you are not feeling fear; rather, you are looking to escape.
- We operate on a simple binary model, higher self vs lower self. We know when we are in our higher self when we are positive and know everything is going to be okay. When in your lower self, you view the world around you through the filter of fear and pessimism. When you are in your lower self you should not be making any important decisions, do not communicate anything important and do not take any important actions. When you are in your higher self is when you need to make important decisions; that is when you need to take important actions. When you are in your lower self, realize it, acknowledge it, but do not judge it and do not act on fear.
- Whenever you feel yourself going into your lower self, notice it, then make it your top priority to get back into your higher self.
