Fear is the strongest obstacle on the path to Love and freedom. To overcome our fears, we always need to confront them. What we are truly afraid of is not the situation itself but its consequences, which always produce some kind of pain.
The pain we fear is, in reality, sadness, which can grow into deep emotional suffering. However, there is something positive in this. Sadness is somewhat time-limited, as it gradually fades over time. If we don’t consciously hold on to it, if we don’t “cling” to it, it loses its power. It is crucial that we change our attitude toward accepting different possibilities.
Above all, we should enjoy what we have and not grieve for what we don’t. When we are not living in the past or the future, we are present in the moment. The present moment does not know the pain that results from past experiences, and these experiences need to be somehow detoxified.
Closing ourselves off and nurturing past pain means not living. Worse yet, giving attention to pain means more pain, as we all know the famous rule of the Law of Attraction: “What we focus on grows.”
Fear also causes uncertainty and a loss of self-confidence. We tend to avoid situations that are unfamiliar, that we haven’t experienced yet. On one hand, we desire them, but because our ego hasn’t encountered them, it resists, and fear arises within us. We fear disappointment, we fear gossip and ridicule, and much more.
We are afraid to show our vulnerability, afraid of letting go, afraid of failure, and most definitely afraid of expressing our own opinions. How many times are we afraid to show that we are happy, content with ourselves? All these fears are interconnected, feeding and building upon one another.
All our fears exist only in our minds. Past experiences, constantly relived, upbringing, habits, norms about what is right or wrong, what is allowed and what is not, restrictive systems—the list goes on. All fears are merely limiting beliefs that prevent us from stepping onto a different path.
Just think, how many times have you wanted to say or do something, yet despite a strong desire, you didn’t out of fear of what your partner, family, friends, or society might say. We lack courage and slip into a spiral of fears. But we need to understand something: when we take stock of our lives (and we all will at some point), it’s not the potential failures that we regret, because they have taught us something.
What we deeply regret are the missed opportunities. Hesitation leads us nowhere. Once we decide to act, we’ll realize it wasn’t as difficult as we thought—it didn’t destroy us. All it takes is firm determination and action, for without action, there is no reaction.