If there is a common denominator that
all human beings share it is a fear of something.
Whether that fear involves, health, death, money,
job, family, friends, home or the world, all of
those make up the bulk of our existence and have a
priority in how we perceive the world. We’ll
address each of them in groups of two representing
the first four faces of fear to understand how
they govern our lives if we let them. Born of
necessity from the earliest roots of our
evolution, fear is often the prison holding us
back from our true potential. Thus, the child of
that necessity constantly seeks a utopia free of
fear where the outside world with its chaos and
corporations can be kept at bay. Sometimes people
will turn to drugs, relationships or impulsive
purchases to achieve temporary utopias which end
up causing new fears of losing those attachments.
Meditation, mind games and a confident attitude
can also be employed when facing fear but what is
desired is a life free of fear a hundred percent
of the time. To get there, let’s look at the
landscape facing the student of life. Lessons are
given because the student is ready for those
lessons regardless of the outcome. If they must be
repeated, time is irrelevant and all of life’s
lessons are like that, they evolve as the student
evolves. Bringing you those lessons are the first
four faces of fear.
Health and death is the first face,
first because it affects us the most in the
decisions that are made. The fear of one over the
other can vary depending on the age group of the
person or what one is doing as an activity. Either
can prevent us from living life to its fullest and
fearing both at once can paralyze sensible
thought, bring on depression and trigger a
worst-case scenario. Trying to overcome a fear of
health or death is like trying to think of
nothing, the less you try to think of something
the more it comes to mind. Acceptance is the key
to overcoming this face, accepting our status as
infinite beings with an insatiable desire to find
out the next lesson replacing the fear of that
lesson itself. The face of money and jobs is about
economics and the fear of not having enough wealth
or losing that which has been accumulated. Even a
person living on the street fears losing all their
worldly possessions. Maintaining a job or finding
a job can bring fears all their own along with
worrying about the politics of a work environment
once a job has been found. Then there is the fear
of getting through retirement and enjoying the
times planned during the productive years of one’s
life. Are the dreams of knocking out a bucket list
or seeing the world still an option? Life has a
plan, a plan that requires trust in the knowledge
that nothing happening at any one moment is meant
for anyone but ourselves. Money, therefore, is a
tool with the real life savings being the lessons
that come out of how we use that tool.
Opportunities to enrich oneself either consciously
or financially are a result of the lessons needing
to be learned.
Friends and family and the fear of
the judgment of others is the third face of fear.
This one is pervasive in times when the lessons
require the help of the people who know us best
and will remember the actions and words of the
encounter. That is the key to this face of fear.
The help they are providing, even if it comes in
the form of an argument or judgment in the choices
that determine our reality, it's working out karma
that is lifetimes in the making as we assist each
other to find a resolution. Lack of resolution
just means there will be opportunities to relearn
the lesson again in another life or later in this
one. Finally, home and the world or better yet,
what is personal and what is impersonal but could
become personal depending on decisions out of our
control. Wars, climate, and earthquakes, fires,
floods, and famine. All of which could and do take
place without any choice of ours as countries,
business leaders and the planet set the stage for
our education. As for home, that depends a lot on
how well the previous three faces are handled.
Staying healthy in a clean home kept up by a good
job while being surrounded by those we love and
who love us back makes the problems of the world
fade into the background.
The final face is the one that faces
fear and smiles at the challenges of life as the
fear of them passes like an island in a river. The
word life itself is a misnomer because it isn’t a
life, it’s learning experiences repeated endlessly
through the process of reincarnation. It’s that
kind of attitude needed to take on the other four
faces without the kind of fear that can cripple
the spirit and crush the soul. Everybody on the
planet attends the same classroom seeing the same
reality play out with everyone else. It’s the
interactions with the other students and the
personalized lesson plans which are the priorities
of the self. Passing the class is easy, just show
up and participate. Excelling at the class takes
extra effort and, as with every school, it’s the
students who relish the challenges that get the
best grades. This brings on the fear of failure
and the only way to get around that is not to
worry about failing. What is important is how the
lessons play out in the immediate now because it’s
the attitude that brings success regardless of the
results. Looking forward to what comes next
attracts others also looking to learn how to no
longer fear fear. What forms then is a study group
that can exchange ideas, provide support and
debate those ideas back and forth. Such groups
could be the beginning of a movement of
consciousness which grows as more groups form
independently yet connected to one another through
the web. At that point, fear has no choice but to
take a back seat to hope.
