Nothing to Fear
If you’d rather watch or listen, click here.
A friend of mine sent me a video this morning. It was a man named Neale Donald Walsch, and he was talking about fear.
Walsch says, “Fear is the thought that we’re not going to be able to have something we think we need. A person who doesn’t need anything doesn’t fear anything.”
I can relate. When I forget to be grateful, fear creeps in. What if I won’t have enough money for xyz? What if I can’t get xyz done? What if that person decides they don’t need me in their life?
After worrying for a while (which is absolutely useless, by the way), I always seem to circle back around to a thought I’ve heard from several different people: I have everything I need. Sure, there are things I’d like to have, but deep down, I know I truly do have everything I need.
Walsch asks the question - how do we get to fearlessness? He says we have to look at what it is we need right then. We should then consider what if we really don’t need it? Or what if you’re afraid you’ll lose something you already have?
He said that often the fear of losing something is in terms of people. What if that person stops liking me? For me, the answer to that is how badly do I actually need that person to like me anyway? If a person is causing me to worry or be upset about pleasing them, it’s time to let them go.
Relationships with people should be a two-way street. One person should not always be doing all the giving or all the taking. I think when we begin to fear losing someone, it’s because we start recognizing that the relationship isn’t equal.
Walsch goes on to say that people who present themselves to the world as serene, joyful, strong, peaceful, and innately happy are aware that their happiness comes from within. We say they have it all together. That’s the path to transformation, or in my mind, the path to your authentic self.
He also asked what if we thought of fear as this acronym: feeling excited and ready? I can think of it as I fear not finishing my book, but when I switch that to feeling excited about it, I’m ready to take the next step, which might be sharing my manuscript with my editor.
He sums up his video in these three points:
Your fear is not real; you’re making it all up.
If what you fear actually did happen, you would still be here tomorrow. (Unless you’re not, and then it absolutely would make no difference at all.)
If you can call your fears adventure, you’ll bring in the energy that will heal the fear and bring in excitement.
The video gave me a lot to think about. I’d take it one step further and ask if you have any control over the thing you fear. In my case, if it’s a question of whether or not I’ll have enough money for whatever I’m hoping to do, I’d better get busy and make the money I need.
If I’m worried about getting something done, again, I’d better figure out a schedule so that I absolutely will get that project or errand done or book written. So again, I have control over the situation.
But in the case of worrying about a person not wanting me to be in their life? I don’t have any control over that. It’s useless to worry or even think about because if that’s something they’re considering, then I already know I’ll be better off without them anyway.
I guess fear isn’t so scary after all.