Living With Fear

I once read that you should do some thing that scares you every day, well it might have been every week, but the point was scare yourself on a regular basis. The theory is that by facing your fears you become less fearful of life and realise your full potential. I do not achieve anything like that frequency however I have held onto that thought and do try and push myself and my safe boundaries. (I have just looked up Scare Yourself Everyday on the quotations page and it would seem that Eleanor Roosevelt said it, amongst other people.)

Many of us spend a lot of time trying to create the safest environment for ourselves and our families that we can, and rightly so, however no matter how safe we try and make ourselves life will throw a spanner in the works and we can suddenly find ourselves facing fearful situations that we maybe could have been better prepared for personally. On the other hand some may argue that it is only when faced with extraordinary events that we realise our true potential by our ability to deal with them, and I would say this is to some extent true, however we can still push ourselves beyond the comfort zone, and benefit from it.

Just participating in life can be scary. When our first dogs died, of old age, I suddenly realised that I had become frightened of all sorts of things I had never bothered about before, cows for one! At first I thought it was the dogs that had made me brave but then I realised it was not the dogs themselves but the responsibility that they brought that made me brave.

I suppose it is like when you have children. From the moment they are born you are suddenly plagued with the worry of everything that could happen to them everyday, it must be overwhelming. But you cannot let it overwhelm you, it would be too much to deal with and would probably make you an over protective and obsessive parent. So the responsibility of children makes you brave, you still worry but you have to be prepared for dealing with anything. Something that lasts for your entire life.

Now we have dogs again all of my fears have gone, when we first got them, having been without pets for 3 years, I got so worried and stressed sometimes taking them out for fear of what could happen, but before I knew it I had completely calmed down, accepted my responsibility and conquered the fear in me. It has made me a better person.

I was thinking about this while out on my bike earlier. I went everywhere on my bike as a child and loved jumping steps and curbs on it, pushing it to the limit and regularly falling off. I do not go out on my bike as much nowadays however when I do I like to ride it the same way and push my boundaries. I don't so much think I am facing my fears with this example but I am keeping my potential fears at bay.

So I tore down every hill that came my way, full pelt, leaning into every corner, brakes off! It was wonderful!

As another clever Roosevelt said - The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

Image Credit: 21 Century Med