Sunday Story...Indomitable Spirit II

Sunday Story...Indomitable Spirit II

Face your fear and go ahead anyway.

Fear is prevalent. We can find fear anywhere we look, it isn't hard to find it. The question is: what are you going to do about it, with it?

You can let the fear own you. Let it control your life, dominate you and you will always be in fear of the fear coming back. Or...

You can take a look at your fear and decide if it is a real fear...or you can decide it is false fear...False Evidence Appearing Real. And what, you may ask, is the difference? The difference is very clear...real Fear happens when a bear is standing up on her hind legs and baring her teeth...that is a time to be afraid...False fear is when the biggest kid in school calls you stupid in the classroom. The first one is very very real...that bear is going to EAT you. The second fear arises when you anticipate and create all kinds of outcomes from being called stupid.

We are masters at creating meaning in our lives. Especially bad meanings. I can't pay this bill or that bill therefore I am a bad person. I got rejected therefore I am unlovable. Blah blah blah blah and on and on ad infinitum.

We often see this patterning happening very early...The English language is very difficult on this point...We say “I'm bad” or “I'm Hungry” when the fact are much different...I am feeling hungry or I think my behavior is not right or incorrect. But is has nothing to do with my being.

I'm afraid. But usually I am afraid of what might happen or what is going to happen. Way too often false fear is ruling our lives. I can be afraid of picking up a weight but the problem isn't in me or in the weight. It is all the stuff I create around not lifting that weight...its going to hurt, people will think I am weak, I am afraid to fail.

It is these false fears that paralyze us. They are the ones we anticipate, the monsters living under the bed or in the closet. These fears are the ones we create. As some of those kids were standing 20 or 40 feet up in the air I have no doubt they were afraid...afraid of falling, afraid of what would happen if they did fall...yet they were all secured by ropes so the danger of falling was miniscule and the danger of being hurt while falling was smaller still. Once they made up their minds and went ahead anyway the fear disappeared and confidence took its place in the place of fear. The transformation was obvious and palpable. Several years ago I was part of the Ultimate Black Belt Test. We traveled to the big island of Hawaii and swam on the black sand beach of Waipio. Our intrepid leader, Tom Callos, warned us of sharks being prevalent in the water...I made a joke about the self defense against sharks and really didn't take him seriously. I then swam 500 or 600 hundreds yards off shore. When Tom saw that he freaked out...tried to get guys to grab a boat, started wondering how he was going to explain this to my mother and the death blow to his business, writing my obituary! He was scared. I was not scared. I was enjoying a beautiful swim in a beautiful ocean under paradise skies. When I came in he was all over me like white on rice. I told you, there's sharks, you could’ve been killed and on and on. None of that happened.


Most of the fear we face in this world is self induced and false. We won't die. We can recover from almost anything save death. We can overcome obstacles and road blocks but only if we act in the face of our
False
Evidence
Appearing
Real

Fear its whats for breakfast!


Namaste

John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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