Thursday, May 21, 2009

FEAR....

While it is one of the Carolina Capes, that's not this particular usage. I've been musing about how many people are captivated by fear in their life. I'm not talking the extreme paranoias, either; rather, the daily self-captivation of thoughts and emotions that control one's very being.

"Oh, I'm not afraid of anything," many would immediately say...but fear itself wears many hats. Maybe the more common idea is that of a boogey-man-coming-out-of-the-shadows-to-get-me fear, but fear comes in many more colors and disguises. And it directly affects our behaviors and psychological health.

I suppose I got off on this tangent after yesterday's post...when someone gets boisterous and self-righteous about something, I get the clear sense they are feeling threatened in some way. Maybe it's just their ideology, but it's like being the proverbial cougar in a box canyon, where the only way out is to turn around and attack.

It's easy to fear money woes, foreclosure, bankruptcy, especially in our current economic climate. Jobs aren't secure, and the idea of devoting your life to a company with the expectation they'll take care of you in return...well, that baby was thrown out with the bath water long ago. Day to day life and 'survival' fears make more understandable sense to me than someone that gets in a huge lather because Obama might be re-elected for a second term. The mind can and will play fanciful tricks as it runs through the myriad "what if" options, and for those that either don't recognize it or choose to control it, they take themselves down a risky path. At the very least they turn into a jerk.

I first read it in one of Neale Donald Walsch's "Conversations with God" books, though I've seen it written elsewhere since then. It's "fear" as an acronym...

F alse
E vidence
A ppearing
R eal

There's no more a simpler truth than that. The past is just that, the past. The future hasn't happened. There is only the Moment of Now. To worry about what already happened or what could happen is wasted time and energy, and there is a monumental amount of that being done every second of every day by the masses.

However, there is much more to the situation than getting all worked up over something that hasn't happened yet...and it, too, has been written about in various forms:

The Law of Attraction.

You are what you eat. You are what you think. You are what you believe. You are what you do. We attract what we focus on, and if you think the worst of everything will happen to you, strap on for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride because it will. If you think someone is out to get you, you'll create an Oscar-winning movie about it. If you think a country has weapons of mass destruction, you'll make sure your actions are justified as you face that 'fear'...or face that emboldened lie with a hidden agenda, but I digress...

If you live and walk in love towards others, ALL others regardless of color, religion, status, your whole energy field changes. Your colors are brighter. You enjoy everything more. People enjoy you more, your overall health improves, and 'life' operates more smoothly and successfully. You don't obsess about a setback or negative experience and boil in self-pity; instead, you dust off your feet and get back to the business of walking in Love. Another of Walsch's 'conversations' deals with the very fundamental starting point of life:

Love is all there is.

If something is not Love, than it is Fear's technicolor dreamcoat, which is 100% human-derrived. Love is of the Divine, purely, simply.

It's one thing to stand up for what you believe in...but it's a whole 'nuther matter to put down other people at the same time, which is an excellent signpost for fear. Self-righteous Superiority. You can drape it with an American flag, or place a King James Bible on top of it, but you remain what you are: a fearful bully.

I guess that's what I wanted to ramble about. Fears come with daily life; it's how we deal with and process them that makes all the difference in how we "walk" our days.

May we all walk in beauty today and every day.

Aho.

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