What are you afraid of?
Today's Tiny Buddha article contained this sentence, appropriately sectioned off as its own paragraph: "I find this is true for a lot of people: the things we’re afraid of are nowhere near as damaging as the way we suffocate ourselves in those fears."
I am often disheartened as I look around and see so many people engrossing themselves in what I perceive to be a culture of fear. So much of what they do (or don't do) and the decisions they make are based in their fears and negative assumptions. The Culture of Fear present in America today is a big reason why airport security has gotten out of control, why workplace policies are starting to verge on Draconian, and why people are distancing themselves from everyone else more and more all the time. Everyone is so afraid of what could happen to them if something goes wrong that they try to distance themselves from anything that could go wrong. People hole themselves up inside protective walls, thinking, "In here I'm safe." Unfortunately, in there you might as well be dead.
Bad things happen in life. It always has, it always will. It's what you do with and how you respond to the bad things in life that determine the overall impact those things have on your life. If you let them beat you and you cower in fear from them, then your tendency will be to withdraw from life to escape them. If you accept them and face them head on, and find ways to learn and grow through adversity, then you can escape the Culture of Fear and move forward with determination and self-control. (In this case I don't use self-control in the typical sense - keeping yourself under control and not letting yourself run wild - but rather with the sense that you retain control of yourself, instead of letting outside forces control you.)
I leave you with the final two paragraphs of the Tiny Buddha article:
"Make a conscious decision to see everything anew instead of tainting your perceptions with worst case scenarios.
The best things in life can only happen if we’re fully open to experiencing and receiving them."
I am often disheartened as I look around and see so many people engrossing themselves in what I perceive to be a culture of fear. So much of what they do (or don't do) and the decisions they make are based in their fears and negative assumptions. The Culture of Fear present in America today is a big reason why airport security has gotten out of control, why workplace policies are starting to verge on Draconian, and why people are distancing themselves from everyone else more and more all the time. Everyone is so afraid of what could happen to them if something goes wrong that they try to distance themselves from anything that could go wrong. People hole themselves up inside protective walls, thinking, "In here I'm safe." Unfortunately, in there you might as well be dead.
Bad things happen in life. It always has, it always will. It's what you do with and how you respond to the bad things in life that determine the overall impact those things have on your life. If you let them beat you and you cower in fear from them, then your tendency will be to withdraw from life to escape them. If you accept them and face them head on, and find ways to learn and grow through adversity, then you can escape the Culture of Fear and move forward with determination and self-control. (In this case I don't use self-control in the typical sense - keeping yourself under control and not letting yourself run wild - but rather with the sense that you retain control of yourself, instead of letting outside forces control you.)
I leave you with the final two paragraphs of the Tiny Buddha article:
"Make a conscious decision to see everything anew instead of tainting your perceptions with worst case scenarios.
The best things in life can only happen if we’re fully open to experiencing and receiving them."