Living a Life Without Fear

So many people wish to move forward in life.

Whether in the realm of happiness, materialsistic things, a good job, a happy spouse, or a new car. They want bigger, better, and more. To live a life where they don’t have to worry and can finally relax their shoulders.

We blame why we don’t have these things on our circumstances.

The “I don’t have…”, “this is how it is…”and “this is the hand i was dealt...” mentality.

But, and here’s a hard truth to swallow, many of the problems that happen in our daily lives are problems we create ourselves. The worst part is most of the time we don’t even realize we’re doing it.

We move through life constantly reacting to situations without taking the time to wonder why we react in the ways that we do. Not realizing that we cannot control the things that happen to us externally; only how we react to it. And it is through internally controlling our reactions to the things that we externally go through, that we are able to face all the things that happen in our lives.

“The fears we don’t face become our limits” ~ Robin Sharma

Humans are self-aware creatures by nature. It’s part of what sepeerates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Downside to that being that the very mind we use to solve lifes deepest questions, is the very same mind that can talk us into staying in bed for days at a time out of fear.

What is Fear? Merriam-Webster says that it’s an “unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger”. That makes it easy to see just how useful a tool it was in our prehistoric times of hunting and gathering.

But now?

Not so much.

Don’t get me wrong, having a sense of caution is always good, but that paralyzing sense of fear? In our age, it can be more of a hindrance.

Fear, while triggering physical responses, is a resident of the mind and thus manageable with practice and awareness. Through time, experience, and observation, I’ve noticed many fears aren’t the big, showy ones people have come to assosciate fear with: fear of heights, fear of the dark, fear of stepping on a loose lego, fear of spiders…