Monday Musing – February 18, 2019

Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power. You are free.

I wasn’t entirely sure if the most influential lead singer in rock history actually said these words. After a little perusing Google, I gathered enough evidence to suggest it’s a strong possibility. Origin aside, the truth they hold is profound.

As humans our natural instinct is to run from anything that makes us feel uncomfortable or unsafe. While that is fantastic advice when getting chased by a bear, in everyday living that instinct can be detrimental to our growth, success and relationships.

As I was pondering this quote on a recent drive home, I began to think about things I am fearful of and I compiled quite the list. Some of them had justifiable and sound rational. For example, my fear of alligators is 100% fueled by the fact that they run faster than me on land and swim faster than me in the sea… and they can bite my face off. I don’t know about you but I would prefer not to have my face bitten off by an alligator. The other fears I came up with were irrational. Take for example my fear of being eaten by Jaws after he crashes through the deep-end of a swimming pool. Even if Jaws wasn’t a great white and he was a bull shark (which can 100% survive in fresh water) there’s no way he’s crashing through the side of a swimming pool in suburbia… I mean unless of course it’s near an inland river connected to an ocean… I digress.

I look a little closer at this list of fears and I start deconstructing them one by one. As I do I begin to see that while some of them are deep-seeded fears, the things they are seeded into are lies and untruths. Little by little I feel myself gaining freedom. It’s a long process of overcoming fears we have held (some since the beginning of our lifetimes) and I don’t think the work is ever completed on this side of Heaven, but the process of moving through it, freeing up our minds and souls little by little is beautiful and gratifying work.

It’s hard work to stare your fears in the face. It’s uncomfortable and scary- but once you come nose-to-nose with the thing that terrifies your soul, you can name it, you can sit with the emotion around it and then, you can watch as these fears crumble and you become free.

Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power. You are free.

Meet you back here next week, same time, same place,