We are born without any fear. As we grow, we learn to dress in layers of popular fears, there are so many to choose from. We try fears on to feel if they fit, and breathe them in, and make them ours. We often share them with others.
We may have generalized anxiety, or trauma induced fears that sit us up in the early hours of the night, when we are most vulnerable.
Or we may fear a hundred or so small things, people, events – bundles of packaged anxieties. Every day the news offers us more fears to weigh and try on. Some of us self-medicate, thinking that it will help us bear the load. But unfortunately, that only makes us lose parts of ourselves. And fear attracts more fear, it will chase us down one way streets.
The trick is to decide when we have had enough, and then we will know that the only way to shed our fear is to uncurl our grip, to let go and open our hearts, and work our way through each hardened layer with awareness and patience, one small loving and determined step at a time, and in so doing, we will find more strength than we can ever imagine.
We will find out how beautiful it is, on the other side.