Stop being in love with fear

I started reading Make Me One with Everything by Lama Surya Das, and I weekly read an astrology newsletter by Rob Breszny…. and the idea that stuck with me yesterday was to stop being in love with fear. Who would agree they are in love with fear? So I thought about how many moments in life are surrounded by some kind of fear. Fear of things not going well, not making enough money, fear that someone doesn’t like us, fear of not being happy… we might agree more with the word attachment, that we are attached to fear. Well, don’t we usually cling to the things we love and push away the things we don’t like? So maybe we are in love with fear.

Living life with awareness, wakefulness, consciousness is the opportunity to see things as they are, meeting them with equanimity (mental calmness, an evenness of temper). Meditation on and off the cushion is a choice to stay awake. To not just let ourselves fall in the patterns of fear but choose to stay present to the now that is happening. It doesn’t mean that things will feel nice, that bad things will just go away, it just means that instead of pushing at them to get away, where the strain makes things worse, we instead choose to just meet it all where it is which develops compassion. And we all know, once we can find it for ourselves, we are open to share it with others.

Different tools help us to practice this, seated meditation, taking a long walk, dancing til you fall over with exhaustion, drawing, singing, cooking, therapeutic bodywork, whatever works as a salve for you helps relax you and open up perception. So more of it! Get in in the calendar and make it as important as making the coffee in the morning. And so hard it seems, but easier the more we practice it….take it with throughout the whole day. Catch yourself falling back into fear, pause, smile at yourself sweetly, and carry on.