Page 31 - Life is a Fight for Territory
P. 31
As adults though, if we are stuck with a certain irrational fear, it may or may not be a problem. If it is stopping us from getting what we want, then maybe it is a problem to be worked on and overcome.
It’s an interesting thing about fear; we put total faith in it. We feel that something is going to happen and we then trust that implicitly. We allow it to control our thinking, our feeling and our actions...and therefore our results.
Perhaps this is what Roosevelt was talking about in his inaugural address when he said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
If you think about it, it’s interesting because the fear we experience doesn’t exist anywhere in the entire universe except inside of us. You can’t point to it anywhere in the world other than the feelings, thinking and actions, and sometimes even the symptoms you experience in your body.
So does that mean the fear isn’t real? If two people face the same situation, one feels fear and the other doesn’t, does that mean that one of them is making it up?
The fear is not to be confused with the danger. Make no mistake, danger is real. Busy roads are dangerous and cars can kill you. They can kill you if you step out into the road. If you are in the road and there is a car coming for you, you should get out of the way quickly! In the right situation, panic can even be a very appropriate emotion. But that’s very different from sitting safely in your house panicking because of the cars out on the road. Experiencing a fear of cars when you are safe inside is an irrational fear. It’s not real.
It sounds like a silly statement, but that’s what we do when we
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