One thing that soothes me about fear is that we learned to be afraid and so, we can unlearn fear.
See kids, nothing scares them. They will be crawling to touch the flame on a candle. Why then do we as young adults cower from the things we know we have to do?
We think of courage as not being scared. Someone goes on stage and does a terrific job and we immediately think to ourselves “She doesn’t have stage fright - she is courageous.”
I know we have seen this a lot but let me iterate
Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the control of fear, the mastery of fear.
-Mark Twain
The fact is we are always going to be afraid of stuff. It is part of what makes us human. But fear is not always a negative feeling. Fear is just your mind telling you that this territory is not familiar and you have to be safe or whatever.
The difference between the ‘dauntless’ person and you is that the person confronts fear and is acting despite the fear he faces. Whereas for you you allow fear to decide your actions.
As a kid, I watched Samurai Jack and he never ever seemed scared to me.
Recently I learned an interesting fact about Japanese samurai warriors. They emerged in the 1100s during a brutally violent time in Japan. These people stayed calm through fierce battles and it seemed they were unafraid of anything. What I read was they practiced this ritual of waking up in the morning and believing they were dead. Imagining the worst possible outcome made them fight with nothing to lose.
As a believer in Christ, this sounds to me like the death we have to die to ourselves. With nothing to lose, you stand to gain everything.
John 12:24:
"Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."
How do we combat fear? I think the most efficient way is to talk yourself into doing what you have to do anyway. It sounds like it’s obvious but it can be gruesome to do it. Affirmations come very handy but while you’re affirming that you have overcome that fear, you have to physically get your butt off the couch and do what you have to do. There’s no supernormal way out.
2 Timothy 1:7:
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
This scripture is not only for reciting. It is meant for you to also believe and go do what you have to do!
The law of reversibility says
If you feel a certain way, you will act in a manner consistent with that feeling but if you act in a manner consistent with that feeling even when you don’t feel like it, you will create the feeling consistent with your actions
Read it again.
If you don’t feel confident, it will be evident in your actions. However, if you act confident in your actions even when you don’t feel like it, you will soon start to feel confident.
You develop courage by doing the thing you fear again and again until fear retreats. If you are afraid of public speaking, act as if you are not afraid of public speaking wherever it is called for until you no longer are afraid. Basically, you fake it till you make it bruv.
I remember a conversation with my Dad about spiritual growth.
Goga: “Dad, I feel like I am not genuinely looking for God. I am just doing it because well … that’s what everyone is doing”
Dad: “and what’s wrong with that?” if you do it long enough, you’ll eventually become genuine about it.
Play pretend till it is no longer pretend. Tell everyone you are not afraid of crowds until you aren’t. Do stuff that people who don’t have stage fright do. Stop playing small because “I am scared” Okay scaredy cat, watch the world wait for you until you’re not.
That’s never going to happen so you better own up to it anyway.
I have this humorous thing I tell myself when I feel scared or unsure about something “The worst that’ll happen is I’ll die.” It is a bad joke but it works.
What are you scared of today?
What would you do if you weren’t scared of it? Now go do that thing.
Until next week.
xoxo
Oigoga.
P.S. No media recommendations this week. Please read your bible or your school books.
"Play pretend till it's no longer pretend"
So apt!
Thank you so much for sharing