The “theme-of-the-week” (if a week can have a theme) has been fear. Of course, I love the plays on the word, such as false evidence appearing real. I found a website with many more. Here are just a few:
Frustration, Ego, Anxiety, Resentment
Forever Escaping And Retreating
Frantic Efforts to Appear Recovered
For Everything a Reason
Forgetting Everything’s All Right
Knowing everything is all right does not help much when you are in the middle a mental/emotional pattern that has triggered fear or anxiety. Tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique) is a good resource to learn now so you can navigate with clarity when you are confronted by a real risk. At some point, in some way, you must confront your fear or you will lose more and more freedom to enjoy life.
Every faith tradition seems to encourage us to overcome fear and anxiety. Hebrew scriptures say it this way: “I will not be afraid, because the Lord is with me. People can’t do anything to me.”(Psalm 118:6) According to Buddhism, fear is at the very root of ego.
In the article, “Starting on the Path of Fearand Fearlessness”, Judith Lief, writes, “We have our conscious day-to-day fears—of a close call, an accident, a bad health diagnosis. But then there is an undercurrent of fear, which is very relevant to practitioners. This undercurrent of fear lurks behind a lot of our habits. It is why it is so hard to just sit still or stand still or stand in line—not doing anything in particular—without feeling nervous and fidgety. We have a fear of being still.”
This week, I attended a book signing by Patty Chang Anker, author of Some Nerve:Lessons Learned While Becoming Brave, and former Director of Media Relations for The New York Times. Patty was in Saint Joseph to visit the scene of one of her overcoming. Having experienced a near-drowning in a river as a youngster, she faced the fear of water in one of the most chilling settings: Surfing on Lake Michigan in February!
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| Patty Chang Anker, author of Some Nerve: Lessons Learned While Becoming Brave. |
Recently, the local evening news ran a story about another brave woman, Jules Follett, who has overcome the fear of heights. Although it is not mentioned in the news story, one of our SCS/NLP graduates, Kimberly DeFields Bay, initially guided Jules through the Fast Phobia Cure (developed by Richard Bander) under my supervision as a demonstration of mastery. It is a simple technique, with profound benefits!
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| Jules Follet (your right), enjoying no fear of heights after the fast phobia cure, in Dubai. |
While it is true we do not have to become as adventurous as Patty—or as world-traveled as Jules—to know they are enjoying a life free of irrational fears, it is exciting just to know you, too, can. Then just sit back and see what marvelous things are able to happen in your life….
