I am afraid.

I have learned many things in this life of mine and I have been fortunate enough to have met many wonderful sages who have shared their wisdom with me. Many of those sages have looked a bit like the man in today's artwork, not the kind of person you would think was going to share with you a little gem of knowledge that would change your life.

Of all the lessons I have learned I find it difficult to put one before any of the others, but if compelled to do so it would be the lesson of how to deal with fear. No one sage gave me the complete answer at any one time but little drops of wisdom one day all fell into place and I found my answer.

It is often simple things that bring fear into our lives. fear of the dark, fear of places or things that seem to make no sense. I have a friend who has a terrible fear of little creatures like mice. No matter how often I have joked or teased that I have never read in the news of anybody being mauled by a mouse it seemed to make little difference. Reminding her that she once had the same fear of dogs and that they could be dangerous, she began to see the sense of what I was saying.

My own fear was a fear of heights. I remember the day I was really confronted with this fear. I had gone most of the way to the summit of a mountain and feeling fine, then I was faced with a long sharp edge with steep drops on both sides, there was no way other than to cross it. I turned back and retreated to safer terrain.

The next day I listened to a friend telling me that day in and day out I ran and never considered seriously where I was putting my feet other than keeping my eyes to the ground and avoiding dangers. The mountain path if I thought of like that was just the same.  I returned and ran to the summit and have run up and down much scarier summits since.

Here is a little tale that makes this point much better.

Once there was a young warrior. Her teacher told her that she had to do battle with fear. She didn’t want to do that. It seemed too aggressive; it was scary; it seemed unfriendly.

But the teacher said she had to do it and gave her the instructions for the battle. The day arrived. The student warrior stood on one side, and fear stood on the other. The warrior was feeling very small, and fear was looking big and wrathful. They both had their weapons. 

The young warrior roused herself and went toward fear, prostrated three times, and asked, “May I have permission to go into battle with you?” 

Fear said, “Thank you for showing me so much respect that you ask permission.” 

Then the young warrior said, “How can I defeat you?” 

Fear replied, “My weapons are that I talk fast, and I get very close to your face. Then you get completely unnerved, and you do whatever I say. If you don’t do what I tell you, I have no power. You can listen to me, and you can have respect for me. You can even be convinced by me. But if you don’t do what I say, I have no power.” 

In that way, the student warrior learned how to defeat fear. 

The great wisdom I have learned about fear goes something like this.

Fear whispers into your ears all the time and whether you listen to it or not is the choice that you get to make in your life.  

Many of us make the mistake of assuming as true the fearful stories and fear scenarios that we confront in our imagination. Instead, what if you chose to befriend fear and instead of getting paralysed by the stories, you decided to find out for yourself and did the thing you feared.  

Fear is built on structures of assumptions, lack of action and lack of awareness. Once you move through the fog of fear and shine the light of awareness by taking action or moving forward, fear loses its power and efficacy.

Now that does not mean you become totally fearless and do some silly things in life, like somebody I know who is sitting right this minute typing these words, it means taking cognises of your fear and facing it and moving forward.

Have a marvellous day.