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

Comments

  1. In those fwd'd questionnaires folks send (that I don't particularly like) sometimes a question will be: "What are you afraid of?" and I've always put: Of being afraid. I admit to having fears, too many for someone who seems to be so "balanced" - ha ha! But I'm with you ... to be afraid is so limiting, very much like "worrying" is a near total waste of time. I also have quite a bit of "anxiety" on a pretty regular basis and that is like fear and worry ... hard to put your finger on it. I love your purple fear face ;oD ... I'll do my best NOT to look like that, OK? Hey! See that Imogen Heap is having a lot of concerts in the UK. She lives in London, I think. Wish I could see her in Cardiff where Dr Who seems to go often ;o)
    Have a great weekend, Dancin! It is a holiday wkend here--Labor Day. I'm not sure, but I think we're supposed to celebrate working. I'd rather be sitting and staring lately. Guess there's plenty of time for that! xo

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  2. Hey Honey! I think anyone who says they live without all fear, worry and anxiety are liars, except maybe Buddist Monks?!

    I will check out Imogens dates, it would be awesome to see her. Do you fancy a visit to the UK to come with us to the gig?

    I understood what you said about Canada, maybe one day we will get to meet up bud, you never know. And if there is anywas I can travel to 6ou in February, and you are free for a visit, I will try to make it for that cup of tea!

    Happy holidays and don't feel bad about sitting and staring, sitting still is as valid an activity as running round if its what you need. xxx

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  3. There were and are some very shrewd people about and its good to have their quotes to set your thoughts right.
    Fear as you say is paralysing.
    We have a book of quotations and have spent some good times reading through parts of it.
    You know, you look up one quote and it leads to another.
    I can recommend it for evenings when you have not much happening.I was going to say not much on, that however may have read wrong.

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  4. Hey Bowledover! I would find that book a very interesting read. Although we humans often seem to need to learn from our own mistakes it can only do good to remind ourselves of the lessons and gems of wisdom that others have had. I like old sayings too. One of my favourites is 'act is haste, repent at leisure' it is so true every time, its amazing!

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  5. Hi Dancin' Fool,yeah thank's for asking.I've been back home in Dapto Australia for a couple of months now.It was a pretty wild trip.Lots of booze and hallucigenics....probably lucky to have survived it.

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  6. Interesting blog post!! I am often fearful of things I don't feel in control of, or don't understand, and I fear for things going wrong, which is pointless because things always do go wrong and you cope! Since I have lived alone I have had to cope with all kinds of things and it's pretty scary sometimes - less of a specific fear though, just an overriding feeling. I do have a big fear of spiders though! x ps my sister is terrified of walking through fields of cows too ;-)

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  7. Hi Thomas! Good to hear from you and I am glad you are ok, are you blogging about your experiences? Best I pop over to see! Be well!

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  8. Claire I too am frightened of spiders. I have taught myself to be able to evict small to medium sized ones but the big ones make me shake and I cannot go near them. I just ask Mr Dancin to take them out. Once when he was not here for a few days I just abandoned the room it was in until he returned!

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