Have you ever thought of fear as your friend?
My young son came crying to me the other night.
“I am scared of the dark”, he said.
As I comforted him I thought to myself, who taught him to be scared of the dark?
As a parent I understand that our children look to us as leaders, role models and examples.
But neither I nor my husband are afraid of the dark and have not expressed this.
And I thought to myself: fear is a reaction that we have when we feel we are in some sort of danger.
Fear is there to protect us.
Fear is there to tell us to get out of there!
On the other hand, sometimes we believe that something is scary or that
we are in danger, when in fact, these things aren’t dangerous at all.
They may even be wonderful for us.
We can explore whether these
thoughts about what we believe to be dangerous are really true and
whether or not these situations are the right instances for us to apply
our feelings of fear.
When we view fear as our friend, we need not run away from it or feel ashamed.
In those times when we realize that there is really nothing at all to
be afraid of, we can simply and lovingly meet fear and say:
‘Thank you fear for being with me here today. I’m glad you showed up and are there to protect me. I got this one. I’m okay.’
How do you handle your fears?
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