Fear Courage and the Lesson of Fear

[Omnicron Solaris]

Anyone who tells you they have no fear is a liar.
The bravest warriors embrace their fear and overcome it.
Cowards repress and deny their own fears, so when crisis comes,
they are paralyzed by the fear they have no experience in facing.

Fear is a gift and a curse.
Learn how to use fear.
Those who can look into their fear,
Master it
See the truth in it
These peole can use their fears like a powerful man-at-arms to guard them at all tims.
These people wake up in the body in times of crisis.
Those who do not learn, freeze like a deer in headlights.
Those who do not learn, succumb to those who use fear to control others.
Control through intimidation or through false promises of delivering them from fear.
These human sheep will just wind up as tools in some madman’s schemes.
Look into your fear. Have courage.

[Mystique4me2]

I no longer fear fear.  Since my father passed away what I thought I feared most was actually my own projection of the future.  When the future finally arrived, what I feared was actually just a challenge to overcome, to learn from.  Yes for the longest while I feared a lot., myself, others, and I would avoid all.  Now I can use that fear and understand myself - take myself to the next level.  Takke the fear and use it to challenge myslef further .  Because understanding it will help me grow...anyone grow.

[Prof. Akers]

'Anyone who tells you they have no fear is a liar.
The bravest warriors embrace their fear and overcome it.
Cowards repress and deny their own fears, so when crisis comes,
they are paralyzed by the fear they have no experience in facing.'

So very, very true.
The problem for most people is finding a way to 'face' their fear. I've faced a few of mine but there are still some left - bears!!!!!!!!!! eugh hate them.

[RoseRed]

'Anyone who tells you they have no fear is a liar.
The bravest warriors embrace their fear and overcome it.
Cowards repress and deny their own fears, so when crisis comes,
they are paralyzed by the fear they have no experience in facing.'

So very, very true.
The problem for most people is finding a way to 'face' their fear. I've faced a few of mine but there are still some left - bears!!!!!!!!!! eugh hate them.

'bears' hahaha!!
I feel the same way - some days I can do it no problem - other days...well...yeah...

And I also liked the part of "they are paralyzed by the fear they have no experience in facing." because that is just so true.
If you don't do something and practise it - sometimes get it 'wrong' then you can't/don't learn how to do it the 'best' way for yourself.
Just don't have the resources to deal with the situation.

Thanx Omnicron Solaris, really enjoyed reading this.

[prabakaran_cad]

Nice topic and discussion.. Yes FEAR is in-evitable in normal human's life.. Let us discuss the FEAR technically to face it. Given below is the nice article from a Dr.

COURAGE  - The Bridge Between Fear and Peace

Change and loss mark life on the physical plane. We will ultimately lose everything, including our loved ones,possessions, and ultimately, the body. At death, we must face the abyss, the infinite unknown. Fear, a natural and intelligent response to these changes, has two key functions. It identifies the nature of the dangers we face, and it helps us fashion the best strategy for survival.

Fear becomes a problem itself, however, if we avoid it. If we run, it takes on a life of its own. Although we may temporarily gain comfort by pushing our fear into the subconscious, it does not remain dormant. Rather, it infuses the conscious mind with fearful fancy, chronic worry, and doubt. It may escalate to panic or terror. Irrational fear ties up energy, impairs judgment, adversely affects health, and obstructs psychological and spiritual growth.

Fear is often difficult to detect: we design all kinds of creative disguises to avoid it. If we dig deep enough, however, we can find our fear hiding behind anger, jealousy, addiction, dependency, self-importance, and rigid beliefs. To master fear, we must first strip it of its many costumes, experience it directly, and face it with courage.

Courage is the bridge between fear and peace. When we courageously work through our fears, new levels of peace and strength slowly emerge. If we face it until it is gone, we eventually reach the grand prize, the fearless peace of the soul.

In ordinary consciousness, we feel insecure, knowing that we can lose what we have at any time. In spiritual consciousness, we feel safe, since there is nothing to lose. The soul is conscious, immortal peace. Nothing can touch the soul. It is eternally protected and safe. With sustained spiritual practice, we can shift from the fear and insecurity of the material plane to the permanent peace of the soul.

The key to maintaining peace is the mind. Everything that happens is perceived by the mind. The mind, in turn, determines the body’s response. The mind is conditioned to respond to events with fear or tranquility. If the mind reacts with fearful thoughts, the body responds with an elevated heartbeat, sweat, shortness of breath, butterflies in the stomach, dry mouth, and a feeling of impending doom. If the mind stays calm, the body stays relaxed.

By practicing the spiritual methods described in this work, we can recondition the mind to remain calm in frightening circumstances. Ordinarily we use a small percentage of our concentration, our minds thus remaining susceptible to thoughts of fear and insecurity. A concentrated mind maintains its focus on the peace of the soul, no matter what. In effect, our work is to change thoughts of fear to those of peace by practicing mindfulness, meditation, the presence of God, affirmations, yoga, and other techniques. With sustained practice, the mind remains calm, positive, strong, and focused under all conditions. Eventually, we can achieve the superconscious state of fearless peace.

There are three stages of fear. In stage one, we try to avoid fear. This makes it grow. In stage two, we face all of our fears with courage. Slowly, peace replaces fear. In stage three, we reach the permanent peace of the soul.

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If this finds appealing let me share the techniques explained in the same article to face the fear.

[RoseRed]

Awesome!
This is completely and utterly FAB!!  
Thank you so much for taking the time to type this all out.
I am def interested in what more he has to say.

To master fear, we must first strip it of its many costumes, experience it directly, and face it with courage.

This reminds me of this:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Fear

Has anyone really given thought to your current conditionings?

What are your conditionings about?

Relationships –  

   That relationships have certain rules? Like I belong to him/her and only him/her.

   Can only be in a relationship with one person? If I’m a good friend then I expect them to be a good friend. I am a good child because I give my parents no hassles?

Sex –

   A good sex life is when both partners both have an orgasm. I’ll only know what I’m doing if I sleep with as many ppl as possible? Tame sex/ Extreme sex what are those really? No sex before marriage.

Love –

   That it is conditional, that you have to earn it, that it doesn’t exist, that it does!

   That is only just a word. Love is for wimps.

Weakness –

   I am weak if I don’t have a backbone, I am weak if I don’t live up to my expectations, I am weak because I can’t do this or that. I am weak cuz I am small/big.

Rewards –

   If I do something ‘good’ then I should be rewarded, he/she worked hard and deserved that.

Good/Bad-

   What is good, what is actually bad? That is just a conditioning through and through.

Unhappiness –

   I am unhappy because of this or that…

People having power over one –

   I couldn’t do anything, they just had so much power over me, but they are family how could I not listen? But but but…

Religion –

   that goes on forever….

Who decided these conditionings, did you decide them all? Or did your friends, family, media, dreams……Fear decide them for you?

Fear feeds on conditioning.

Say being unhappy. That is a choice! So weird I know! I was once in a relationship with someone like that and it used to bug the living hell out of me! I would get so pissed off and unhappy because he wasn’t doing the things I wanted him to be doing, living to my conditionings.

He would just look as me and say okay I’ve heard what you’ve said, but I’ve chosen to be happy. You’ve chosen to be unhappy and allow this to mess up your day. URG!!!!!

People having power over you, a choice! Nothing can touch you unless you let it.
Weakness, taught, shown to me by my own perceived limitations in accordance to others.

Maybe I shouldn’t bring this into the conversation but it fits so brilliantly,
“So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20

Why the hell not!
Your limitations are created by you. And no one else.
You can say but, but, but this that. But seriously. Take responsibility.

What about the kids in the squatter camps, they have no choice where they were born and into what circumstances..
Yes they had no choice where they were born, (wait actually they did. We choose our parents. Part of our birth vision. Read the 10th Insight- James Redfield)
They can either choose to carry on living under those conditions or they can get out.

Fear becomes this huge fiery vortex that is just too damn scary to face. It looms up in front of you; you get scared just looking at it! So it grows.

Face the fear. Walk on straight through. If you think it’s gonna burn you then it prob will. Cause that the little voice of fear in your head is stopping you. If there is any doubt then it, the fear, will find it and fuel on it.

When you face your fear it will certainly face you.
Squarely.

It will throw anything and everything at you!
Just laugh and shout BRING IT ON!
Because in essence you created it so you can uncreate it!
Just with a thought and intention.
But we like torturing ourselves! Heehee
Cause we are actually facing ourselves.
Yin and Yang.
Crazy hey!
LOVE & LAUGHTER

(You can really push the envelope on this one.)
P.S. Fear is the easy way out…heehee "
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Wonderful discussion!
RR

[prabakaran_cad]

Continuation of my previous post:-


The following process offers a way to help us achieve mastery over our fears:

TECHNIQUE

1. Introspection
2. Spiritual practice
3. Grace
4. Mastery

1. INTROSPECTION
To gain soul-peace, we need to identify our fear whether it presents itself directly or in disguise. We may experience fear directly as an increase in heart rate, respiratory rate, tremors, butterflies in the stomach, dry mouth, or a feeling of impending doom.

Fear can also manifest indirectly as anger, rigid beliefs, self-importance, domination, aggression, or addiction. To get to deeper states of peace, we need to face these hidden fears. We can start by unmasking our defenses through introspection. Then we are in direct contact with our fear.

To unmask the defenses that cover your fear, retreat to a quiet place. Practice deep breathing and meditation to achieve stillness. Go deep. Ask your subconscious and Higher Power to guide you to your hidden fears. Be patient. Listen for the soft voice within. Let nothing stand in the way of the truth. Eventually, you will realize that fear is hiding behind your many defenses.

2. SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
Fear is a difficult emotion to master, but we can do it. We can become masters of fear if we face it. We must stand our ground, step into the fear, and stare it down. This is difficult, painful, and requires long-term practice. With persistence and perseverance, we can slowly reduce our fears, expand our peace, and eventually reach the permanent peace of the soul. As soon as you become aware of fear, practice one or a combination of the following techniques:

a. Breathe: Practice deep abdominal breathing.

b. Progressive muscle relaxation: We can tense and relax our muscles as described in Chapter 12.

c. Affirmations: We can affirm the existence of the immutable peace of the soul even if we do not feel it. We might also practice affirmations related to strength, courage, heroism, endurance, faith, trust, belief, confidence, power, and immortality.

d. Visualize: We can picture ourselves in fearless peace even as we go through our trial.

e. Mindfulness: Mindfulness practice helps us surrender into the moment, take a stand, and hold our ground. We are awake, aware, and ready for anything. This is the stance of a spiritual warrior.

f. Meditation: In the stillness of deep meditation, the peace of God dissolves all traces of fear.

g. Activities: When afraid, we can distract ourselves by engaging in constructive meaningful activity, such as recreation, socialization, the arts, and hobbies. We can practice these or other methods described in this book in any comfortable combination. We persevere, fight our battle with courage, and do our best. While we do our part, we can get additional help by turning to our Higher Power, a bottomless source of strength. To make contact with our Higher Power, select an image, practice the presence of God, pray, and have faith.


h. Select an image: We can choose an image such as Father, Mother, Buddha, Krishna, Christ, and so on. The image is symbolic of God’s benevolence. We can make our attachment to the image stronger than the fear that confronts us. We can apply all of our will, thought, feeling, and concentration to our image. We hold on to the image
as the waves of fear move through our being. If the image is swept away, we bring it back.

i. Practice the presence of God: God is Omnipresent peace. In the face of our fear, we can practice the presence of God as the immutable peace within ourselves. It is there, just underneath the stormy weather.

j. Prayer: We can talk to God and ask for help. We can tell Her that we want to experience the changeless peace of the soul.

k. Faith: We can have faith in the Omnipotent healing power of God. She is there, helping and guiding. She cannot fail.

3. GRACE
When we do our part, grace flows. We realize God is here, helping, potecting, guiding, and caring. God’s power is infinitely greater than our fear. On Her schedule, she comes to our rescue. The turbulent waves of fear subside. Peace comes.

4. MASTERY
When fear returns, we continue our spiritual practice. Slowly, we gain confidence and trust as we realize our effort, combined with God’s grace, can get us through anything. At mastery, we move forward fearlessly because we know God is there, taking us to safety. Here nothing can touch us, nothing can harm us, and nothing can ruffle us. We are fearless peace.

To be continued