ISSUE NO.138 MAY 2022FIRSTSTEPS FORDISMANTLINGFEARWritten by Guy Finley
Are you afraid of some condition in your life? Here’s alife-transforming secret: that seemingly scary condition,whatever it may be, is not the problem. It is your reactionthat is fearful. This is why if you will become conscious ofyour condition instead of afraid of it, you will change foreveryour relationship with fear.It is only within this special kind of inner-relationship thatthere is real safety, because now you are interacting with fearin an entirely new way. You are no longer letting it dictate toyou how to act or what to do. Instead, you are aware of thefear. You are learning to quietly observe and study it. And,each day, as you discover something new about the strangeand shaky nature of your own fearful reactions, they begin tolose their power over you.Why? Because you are at last seeing them for what theyhave always been: unintelligent mechanical forces. You areslowly becoming stronger than they are because by seeingthem as they are - not as they would have you see them -you have helped yourself to climb above and outside oftheir influence. This self-insight is the difference betweentrembling through your life and being in command of it.To be consciously afraid means that you know you arefrightened, but at the same time you know that these veryfears, as real as they may seem, are not you. And no wrongreaction can keep you captive once you begin to see it forwhat it is.Fear is, and has always been, nothing but a self-limitingreaction that we cling to in the darkness of our present lifelevel,having mistaken it for a shield of self-protection. But,just as the faintest of early morning sunlight can dispel thenight-long darkness, so does the smallest of insights into apersistent fear lead to letting it go.You can prove this powerful principle to yourself anytimeyou want. Just dare to proceed even while being afraid. Butremember, your new aim isn’t to be courageous or to tryand act strong in the face of fear. No. We’ve seen that thiswon’t work. You simply want to be more curious about yourfrightened thoughts and feelings than you want to believe inthem.If you will follow this simple but higher instruction, notonly will you start to see these habitual reactions that havebeen keeping you scared and running, you’ll actually startseeing through them. This is where the real miracle occurs.Each new insight into the actual nature of these negativereactions removes some of their power over you. And theirloss is your gain. You are stronger now and you know it. Youalso know this new strength will never fail you because it isn’tjust the temporary appearance of a bold opposite. This newstrength of yours is the absence of an old weakness.Let’s look at just one of the ways in which this principle ofputting self-illumination before psychological self-protectioncan turn fear into fearlessness.Do you know someone who you would rather run fromthan run into? Most of us do! Nevertheless, starting rightnow, resolve never again to avoid any person that scares you.In fact, go ahead and walk right up to that critical manor aggressive woman and say or do exactly what you wantinstead of letting the fear tell you to do what it wants. Haveno ideas at all about the way things should or shouldn’tgo. You are there to watch and learn about yourself, not towin an ego victory. Let that person see you shake if that iswhat starts to happen. What do you care? Besides, it is onlytemporary. That unpleasant person before you can’t know it,but you are shaking yourself awake.For the first time, you are letting your reactions roll byinstead of letting them carry you away. As you stand there,momentarily apart from your usual self and working hardto remain as inwardly watchful as you know how, you cansee that this flood of previously unconscious reactions hasits own life story; a shaky sort of story that up until now youhad embraced as your own. But now you are beginning tosee the whole story. The fears do not belong to you. Here isthe explanation:You have never been afraid of another person. The onlything you have ever been frightened by is your own thoughtsabout that person. Yes, you did feel fear, but it wasn’t yoursand it wasn’t towards someone stronger than you. The fearyou felt was in what you thought he or she was thinkingabout you.Amazing isn’t it? You have been afraid of your ownthoughts! And seeing this ends this. Now you can let thisthought-self go, because no one holds on to terror.About The AuthorGUN FINLEYGuy Finley is an internationally renowned spiritual teacherand bestselling self-help author. He is the founder anddirector of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit centerfor transcendent self-study located in Merlin, Oregon. Healso hosts the Foundation’s Wisdom School — an on-line selfdiscoveryprogram for seekers of higher self-knowledge. Guypresents two free talks each week via GoToWebinar. Eachtalk is followed by an open Q&A session.To Learn More Visit:www.GuyFinley.org/online
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