Fearlessness… Not the absence of fear

FEARLESSNESS… Not The Absence of Fear

Fear and humanity go hand in hand as is the need to breath for keeping body and spirit together. Therefore, endeavoring to feel absolutely no fear is as pointless as attempting to not breathe. Instead, one should endeavor to embrace, and, if you will, cuddle one’s fear. Recognize, welcome, and embrace the issue that you fear. In this way one can slowly but surely transform the energy of fear, which is stagnant, into light, which is flowing. This will increase inner harmony and trains one’s mental process in recognizing fear for what and where it is inside of you.

Whilst fear has a very important function, for instance, self preservation and bodily protection, on the other hand, fear can and does exceed this role. And here is the kicker – fear has it’s own sense of self preservation, and we are it’s home. So, as long as we are in the flesh, we are a home to fear, and fear will be our constant companion. This is why finding a way to embrace fear rather than deny or fight with it is the only path to peace. There are many types of fears that keep us in or “comfort zones”. They camouflage themselves expertly as other things… perfectionism, logic, wisdom, being needed by others, the list is endless. How to spot these crafty fears? First step, be sincere with yourself and recognize where your fears are. Even if you know you are fearful of something, learn to embrace the fear without enabling, or running away from it. Recognize and gently walk through the fear. In the same way that training the muscles of the body takes time and consistency, so does learning and practicing to gently walk through your fears.

From my own life I can share with you that perfectionism was, and is, one of several of my favorite camouflaged fears. I have a background in songwriting. I have been fortunate enough that from a fairly young age, and without a lot of formal training, I had the opportunity to collaborate with established producers and songwriters. Adding to my good fortune, many of these songs turned out to be quite successful.

The down side, unbeknownst to me at the time, is that a little voice of doubt inside of me was beginning to grow. A question slowly began to form…could I write this successfully on my own? This burning question I would consciously answer with a resounding YES! Yet, as I began this journey of writing on my own, after any song I would finish a little voice inside would say, “no…not good enough, yet.” I would play the songs to family, friends, even complete strangers. They would all praise my talent and appear to be truly enjoying the songs. But, all it would take would be one “negative” comment from anyone to drown me in self doubt and fear of, no, not good enough… yet. Interestingly, I wouldn’t let myself consciously believe that I wasn’t good enough. I would tell myself the song just needs a little more of this or a little more of that. The bottom line is, even though I had enough life experience to fall back on, even though I was consciously telling myself I had sufficient talent, even though I would convince myself that I was being “professional” and “thorough” in my pursuit of perfection… I was simply afraid of failure. Plain and simple. However, as easy as it is for me to describe this here, it took me years to recognize, and even longer to fully admit to myself that indeed this was one of my many fears.

Today, I recognize this fear is still there, but now I can see it and act accordingly by embracing it’s presence rather than fighting or looking outside of myself for a source to relieve the uneasiness. Instead, I tell myself, “This IS good enough and only good things will come from sharing with the world.” Another way I have of thinking of the songs I write is to see them as only products of spiritual channeling for which I am only the vessel. Therefore, they are not mine to begin with anyway. I’m just the messenger.

As I said earlier, the list of fears are endless, large and small. We all are GUARANTEED to have them in one form or another. So don’t let your pride/ego tell you otherwise. Start practicing the art of recognizing these fears, then finding ways to harmonize with them inside, embrace them tenderly, then warmly proceed forward right through them as if they weren’t even there. In this way,  over time they will gently melt away. But remember, like weeds in the garden they can and will sprout again in the most clever of spots camouflaged as something perfectly benign right behind your bush of denial.

Happy gardening!!

Peace, Love, and remember… YOU Are Divine Light!!

Ben Barrington Whittier (www.benbarringtonmusic.com)

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