Befriending Fear

People say that I am courageous and I do things that need courage, but honestly I have never been consciously courageous, or felt courage coursing through my veins. In fact I am not really sure what courage means or how does it feel to be courageous. I do things that challenges me, excites me, makes me feel alive, keeps me on and off the edge. Whatever fuels my passion and love for the outdoors is what I do. But then what about fear! Now that’s something I can quite correlate to. I have felt fear, I know how your stomach knots and throat dries up when fear runs through your heart and freezes your blood.

Absence of courage is not fear and likewise absence of fear is not courage. Courage (if there indeed is a thing like that) is a fickle friend and is a weak ally since it flees so easily when faced with situations and adversaries. But look at fear, it never deserts you, it never abandons you, it stays and fear is not afraid of anything at all. Living constantly under the shadow and in the company of ‘death’ I confronted fear at an early stage of life and I also realized that it is a highly potent and overpowering force / phenomenon. I also realized that it was pointless to fight it, or to deny its existence or its potency. And I did what any sensible person should do when faced with something way mightier than him.

I befriended ‘Fear’.

It became my ally, my dearest friend and I was no longer afraid of it. Fear is an absolute feeling, though we end up relating it to different aspects and actions in our lives. As a force, as an entity it is absolute and is not necessarily related to anything else. It has its shades though and manifestations, incarnations, etc but I am asking you to befriend the entity in itself. Once you do that you would never be scared of fear. It is your friend now and instead it is going to give you limitless power and courage to move forward and do things that previously you couldn’t or wouldn’t.

Remember: Fear is not a Foe to be battled with; it is a Friend to be kept on your side. Fear is indeed the key to success.

So next time when fear stalks you (for whatever reason), look into its eyes straight and say: I am scared but I am not scared of you so please help me overcome it.

You will feel something amazing happening within and around you after that. Fear will hold your hand and guide you across the threshold of whatever had scared you.

Befriend ‘Fear’ like I do.