Fear

Fear is not real. It is fake. It is a lie.

In my opinion, fear is the root of despair. Fear leads to insecurity. Insecurity leads to irrational behavior. Irrational behavior leads to bad situations and pain.

Sometimes, fear makes people not act. And sometimes fear makes people act badly. But when fear is in the way, eventually it's the person holding the fear who is damaged the most.

My friend told me fear is this thing...a thing out there that just hovers, a figment of one's imagination. It is created by one's own mind. So if it is a piece of one's imagination, then it can be stricken from one's mind as easily.

Now in some situations fear can protect us...a fear of falling or a fear of crashing or a fear of physically hurting ourselves can force us to wear a seat belt or a helmet or take other precautions so we don't suffer bodily harm.

But this is not the fear I am talking about. I'm talking about the fear that paralyzes us in our daily life. Fear of the unknown. Irrational fears. What's the worst that can happen? The worst is what we fear.

But often, if we can get past the fear and do what we need to do, the reality is different and far less severe. And if we have to deal with the repercussions of scary decisions, well, then so what! We have a choice, live with the pain of being in fear, or live with the result of our actions. One leads us nowhere, and the other could possibly lead to a better outcome.

So if you take fear out of the picture what is left? Only the actual choice of what to do next and the concrete results of those choices. That's all that's left.

Now, every bit of fear that I cast away is replaced by courage -- because courage is also another piece of my imagination that I choose to create. And I'd rather live by courage than by fear.

So now that I spat that all out, am I still afraid? Heck yeah! But decidedly less so.