Fear. That word seems to be popping up in all sorts of ways these days. Be very afraid of illegal aliens, they say. Be very afraid of the other political party [‘They’ are very scary!]. Be afraid of extraterrestrials. Be afraid of the economy. I could go on and on with the list, pulling stories just from today’s news. [OK, I haven’t actually heard any extraterrestrial stories today!]
But it seems to me that there are so many ways to be fearful that it’s a chore to avoid fear. I work very hard at it. That’s not to say that I don’t sometimes experience fear, but I’m pretty certain there’s never been a saber-toothed tiger chasing me. So why do we keep ourselves poised in ‘fight or flight’ mode, filled with adrenaline and cortisol, if there aren’t any tigers on our tail?
The stress of living in these days creates its own sense of a saber-toothed tiger chasing us through our lives. We have constant sources of information being bombarded at us – radio, TV, conversations overheard in line at Starbucks, newspaper headlines on the street corners, internet headlines when we sign in to email. Even if we choose not to listen to the news or to read the newspapers we can’t avoid hearing what’s happening and it’s always sensationalized, isn’t it? So our primitive brains think this is the modern day tiger nipping at our heels. Stock market report? Tiger. Housing prices down? Tiger. Job market tough? Tiger.
So what is a person to do who is trying to live a Conscious Life when they are constantly subjected to negativity? The first thing to do is to figure out a way to de-stress your life and your body, starting with your thoughts. How do you react to negativity? If you take it in to yourself and embrace the negativity as the only possibility, then you have accepted that the field of all possibilities is very small. What if you were, instead, to look at the negativity as the other side of a coin that has something positive for you to find? What if the negativity could be observed without being taken in? Pretend for a moment that you are surrounded by an air-permeable Plexiglas bubble through which you can see what is happening around you but where those happenings cannot penetrate your own private space. This allows you to observe with detachment. This also allows you to create the energy vibration of positivity within your own personal space so the negativity doesn’t lower your energy level. When you’ve done this, you are free to look for the lesson to be learned in the experience.
Have you ever spent time with someone who is constantly focused on bad news or dire predictions or what’s wrong with their life? Contrast that with how you feel when you are around someone who always sees the silver lining in the cloud above, or who likes people without criticizing them. There is a huge difference in the energy of these conversations and you can feel that in your own body-mind. We do tend to want to be with people who are uplifting, don’t we?
There’s a reason for this. We are all striving in life to bring Light into our selves and our environment. If you are reading these words, then you are someone who wants to be living a Conscious Life, not drifting through life without learning and growing. In every moment there is something to learn, whether we are enjoying that moment or not. There is always a lesson. When we are feeling happy and joyful, we can look for the lesson to maintain that joy. When we are feeling low or fearful, we can also look for the lesson so that we can find our way back to happiness and joy. And as human beings we live in community so we are always hearing or seeing or being with others and their opinions and energy.
Think about the situations you experience in the coming days and notice how you feel. What makes you feel good? What makes you feel sad or low or angry? What causes you fear? When you can step out of your feelings enough to observe them then you can also see where solutions to problems lie. When you are feeling happy and joyful look at the lessons that show you what you can replicate so that you can prolong that experience. And look around you for ways to bring joy to others. Sometimes thinking of others is all it takes to move one from fear to peace.
The most important thing is to be fully present to the moment that is NOW. Are you being chased by a saber-toothed tiger or is there some other lesson to be learned?
And please let me know if there actually IS a saber-toothed tiger chasing you — after you’re safe, of course!
________________________
Please feel free to re-post this article and share it with your readers. All I ask is that you include the following information when you do:
Mystic Messages 
MUSE-INGS: What’s the lesson in the fear?
May 18, 2010 — RosemaryFear. That word seems to be popping up in all sorts of ways these days. Be very afraid of illegal aliens, they say. Be very afraid of the other political party [‘They’ are very scary!]. Be afraid of extraterrestrials. Be afraid of the economy. I could go on and on with the list, pulling stories just from today’s news. [OK, I haven’t actually heard any extraterrestrial stories today!]
But it seems to me that there are so many ways to be fearful that it’s a chore to avoid fear. I work very hard at it. That’s not to say that I don’t sometimes experience fear, but I’m pretty certain there’s never been a saber-toothed tiger chasing me. So why do we keep ourselves poised in ‘fight or flight’ mode, filled with adrenaline and cortisol, if there aren’t any tigers on our tail?
The stress of living in these days creates its own sense of a saber-toothed tiger chasing us through our lives. We have constant sources of information being bombarded at us – radio, TV, conversations overheard in line at Starbucks, newspaper headlines on the street corners, internet headlines when we sign in to email. Even if we choose not to listen to the news or to read the newspapers we can’t avoid hearing what’s happening and it’s always sensationalized, isn’t it? So our primitive brains think this is the modern day tiger nipping at our heels. Stock market report? Tiger. Housing prices down? Tiger. Job market tough? Tiger.
So what is a person to do who is trying to live a Conscious Life when they are constantly subjected to negativity? The first thing to do is to figure out a way to de-stress your life and your body, starting with your thoughts. How do you react to negativity? If you take it in to yourself and embrace the negativity as the only possibility, then you have accepted that the field of all possibilities is very small. What if you were, instead, to look at the negativity as the other side of a coin that has something positive for you to find? What if the negativity could be observed without being taken in? Pretend for a moment that you are surrounded by an air-permeable Plexiglas bubble through which you can see what is happening around you but where those happenings cannot penetrate your own private space. This allows you to observe with detachment. This also allows you to create the energy vibration of positivity within your own personal space so the negativity doesn’t lower your energy level. When you’ve done this, you are free to look for the lesson to be learned in the experience.
Have you ever spent time with someone who is constantly focused on bad news or dire predictions or what’s wrong with their life? Contrast that with how you feel when you are around someone who always sees the silver lining in the cloud above, or who likes people without criticizing them. There is a huge difference in the energy of these conversations and you can feel that in your own body-mind. We do tend to want to be with people who are uplifting, don’t we?
There’s a reason for this. We are all striving in life to bring Light into our selves and our environment. If you are reading these words, then you are someone who wants to be living a Conscious Life, not drifting through life without learning and growing. In every moment there is something to learn, whether we are enjoying that moment or not. There is always a lesson. When we are feeling happy and joyful, we can look for the lesson to maintain that joy. When we are feeling low or fearful, we can also look for the lesson so that we can find our way back to happiness and joy. And as human beings we live in community so we are always hearing or seeing or being with others and their opinions and energy.
Think about the situations you experience in the coming days and notice how you feel. What makes you feel good? What makes you feel sad or low or angry? What causes you fear? When you can step out of your feelings enough to observe them then you can also see where solutions to problems lie. When you are feeling happy and joyful look at the lessons that show you what you can replicate so that you can prolong that experience. And look around you for ways to bring joy to others. Sometimes thinking of others is all it takes to move one from fear to peace.
The most important thing is to be fully present to the moment that is NOW. Are you being chased by a saber-toothed tiger or is there some other lesson to be learned?
And please let me know if there actually IS a saber-toothed tiger chasing you — after you’re safe, of course!
________________________
Please feel free to re-post this article and share it with your readers. All I ask is that you include the following information when you do: