The means by which we usually deal with fear is by avoiding things that scare us. This "solution" only
appears to keep us from being afraid. Without taking on challenges that provoke us emotionally, we are unable to develop the skill of working with charged circumstances. It is only in scary moments that we are able to awaken our inner bravery.
In fact, when we avoid the direct confrontation of fear, we limit our reality to the experiences that do not scare us. Little by little our world gets smaller, and eventually our fear squashes our freedom. Our lives become a game of steering to avoid provocative situations, rather than an exploration of what is possible. In the short-term we may avoid feeling unbalanced, but on the inside we are dying.
By learning to control our emotional response to the world, we are able to expand our territory, and our potential for experience. Deciding to move through fear is the first step toward breaking down the imaginary barriers that limit where we can go, and who we can be. We simply cannot experience all that life has to offer until we shed our fear of confronting our emotions.
Brave people are simply
regular people
who are not afraid of being afraid
Fear happens. Accepting this fact is what allows us to move forward despite an emotional component to our reality. Trying to avoid negative emotions is how we fuel them and give them power over us.
We survive by remaining focused on the actual danger, not by listening to the unpleasant side effect called fear. When our minds are preoccupied with fear, we cannot see the way. We are fixated on the direction that we do not want to go, and as a result we are either drawn to the danger, or repelled from it. Either way, our flow is redirected by our emotional response, rather than toward the best course of action.
In order to do something dangerous, we simply need to learn the way to do it. We do this by paying attention to our experience. There is no greater teacher of life than life itself. We find our way by reflecting on our experience, in the flow of the present moment. I have found no greater lessons in life than the ones that came to me as I observed my experience flowing through the world with the heightened awareness prompted by "dangerous" circumstances.
Danger Is Simply
Forced Enlightenment.
The secret to surviving danger is to see reality clearly, so that we may choose the correct course of action. We do this by remaining calm and in balance, staying soberly on the center of the path. The road through risk is laid out before us; all we have to do is believe that it is there and look for it.
Believing that there is a way through danger
is the only true bravery
The way through danger is always a series of simple steps. It may be preventative procedures such as checking your parachute before jumping out of an airplane. That is the external component to our reality. Another aspect of survival is paying careful attention to our internal experience, and engaging in a continual process of calming down. If we remain in calm awareness and take the steps one at a time, there really is nothing to fear.
