As we expand and say yes to new things, fears inevitably arise. If we do not stay present with the fear, we accumulate a kind of energetic debt. If we stay with fear, we can move all the way through it in the moment so it discharges and cannot get backed up. If instead we disconnect, when we reenter, all the undigested moments of terror are built up and we can experience them as if they are coming for us.
This by no means implies being inside the terror of fear is easy. It will require everything we have to remain alert. However, there will be a point where we accept this as the only option; if we do not, we destroy ourselves or disappear behind fear. To live a truly awakened life, we must feel our fear. We must remember that the option of hiding behind a sensation, or of having armor up, is inevitably a dead end. Instead, we apply a focused, calm aim and sustained attention.
Our fears will tell us to look at our recent failures. They say we are not smart enough or resourceful enough, or someone else is much better at it than us. These things may be true, but we are the ones who miss the opportunity to stay alive to the becoming of the people we deeply are.
In fact, we need fear. Fear propels us. We learn to act with or inside our fear. We learn to have an intimate relationship with its contours, tendencies, where it stops, where it listens. We have to know that fear is one of the best and hardest states to work with. If it senses it has power over us, it will not stop. But it only has power over us when we withdraw our attention.
We all have the capacity to maintain attention at whatever level fear arises. We know where we are heading and who we want to become. And despite our fears, we can ask will this action take me away from or toward that place? When we can stay with it, we are not at the mercy of the world, and we can instead be of service to it.
