Overcome the Fear Related to Self
Imagine a carefree world where every second that unfolded was guaranteed to be beautiful and magical. The word ‘uncertainty’ or ‘crisis’ did not even exist in the dictionaries of that place. Nobody in that world had thoughts about future because everything was expected to be good. People always remained happy, carefree, and stayed in the present moment. Can one remain carefree in the current world that is constantly fluctuating and uncertain? People in the imaginary world were happy because there was light of positivity everywhere. Folks in this world are scared because they are surrounded by the darkness of negativity. Spiritual knowledge emits the light that is needed to remain carefree in this dubious world. I thought I was mostly carefree, but at Brahma Kumaris I came to know that many times the carefreeness was actually carelessness. I also realized through knowledge and meditation that there were many inhibitions within that were preventing me from stretching myself. The light of knowledge is clearing the darkness within me, showing me the right and accurate path to walk confidently in this uncertain world.
One of the primary fears related to the self is doubting our abilities to fulfill responsibilities. Whether it is to take care of the family, finances, work, or any other types of duties. We create fearful thoughts related to failures in accomplishing a responsibility. Indeed, it is challenging to fulfill responsibilities in today’s world because everything outside is constantly in flux.
I learnt the deeper meaning of failure and that understanding is helping me accept people’s feedback open heartedly. It is our Ego (low or high self esteem) that prevents us from taking feedback and criticism from others. Only wanting appreciation from others is another way of saying we are already the best, there isn’t any room for improvement. Is there any point of living if there is nothing more to learn? Feedback from others is good because it tells us how we are being perceived. It is our mistake that we give others the power to decide if we are respectable or successful. Its in our hands that we be our own judge or use others (1000s of others) constantly wavering feedback to judge ourselves. We are successful if we putting in effort and growing steadily irrespective of the end result. This way of thinking enables us to respect ourselves independently and frees us from others opinion. A person that is consistently able to main respect for the self automatically succeeds because they are confident and fearless.
We need the power to tolerate the constant fluctuations that occur in results inspite of putting in 100% accurate effort. Power to tolerate develops when we keep the reality or truth in our awareness. It is almost like seeing the reality face to face or in the eye, and nothing seems like a surprise anymore. Would anything seem new or unknown if there was clarity in our consciousness that results are meant to be sometimes expected and sometimes unexpected? Fear initiates when truth about the reality of life is not in our awareness. Practicing few thoughts below in Raja Yoga meditation helps in developing tolerance power.
Fear is an illusion that we create through our thoughts about the future that is unknown. We feel that we don’t stand a chance in front of challenging situations so inaction, avoidance or least risky ways become our best friends. Due to this, at the core level the respect of the self starts diminishing. The power to tolerate enables us to accept the challenges in life because they are expected. The power to face enables us to look at our inner weaknesses and inabilities face to face. There are two players in this game, one is life and the other is us. The player, life, is strong and challenging. If we the 2nd player had all the powers, skills, and abilities to deal with life then nothing could scare us anymore. We need Power to Face our inner weaknesses, acknowledge them, and slowly overcome them. A self reflection exercise to note down the inabilities, doubts, and lack of power within is needed to face the inner reality. It's only when we know (inner face) ourselves, that we can start the work of correcting ourselves.
3. Faith in the Self and Life
The Power to Face helps in understanding the 2nd player, self, accurately. The Power to tolerate helps in understanding the other player, life, that is constantly in flux. I learnt at Brahma Kumaris that the challenges outside (2nd player) does not stand any chance in front of our powerful inner state (1st player). The majority of folks are focusing on the outside circumstances (2nd player), trying to control it, and their inner state becomes weak, filled with fear. In order to build a strong inner state, we need to maintain full faith in life and the self. It is not blind faith where one does not put in effort and hopes for the best. It is a deep faith in goodness, that in the long run everything will be fine. A belief that the self is capable of handling the instabilities of life. Faith automatically enables two beautiful virtues needed to face crisis - courage and enthusiasm. Fear on the other hand eats away our courage and kills our enthusiasm. How does one deal with crisis if courage is missing? The faith in the self and in life develops and increases by practicing the thoughts below in meditation:
Our potential is to remain carefree and cheerful at every step of life. We inhibit that potential by creating fear and that in turn prevents us from stretching. We are capable of saying ‘Yes’ to every new task, and grow every second of life. Are you ready to reach your highest potential by maintaining full faith in yourself?
Fear Related to Self
Fear of FailureOne of the primary fears related to the self is doubting our abilities to fulfill responsibilities. Whether it is to take care of the family, finances, work, or any other types of duties. We create fearful thoughts related to failures in accomplishing a responsibility. Indeed, it is challenging to fulfill responsibilities in today’s world because everything outside is constantly in flux.I learnt the deeper meaning of failure and that understanding is helping me accept people’s feedback open heartedly. It is our Ego (low or high self esteem) that prevents us from taking feedback and criticism from others. Only wanting appreciation from others is another way of saying we are already the best, there isn’t any room for improvement. Is there any point of living if there is nothing more to learn? Feedback from others is good because it tells us how we are being perceived. It is our mistake that we give others the power to decide if we are respectable or successful. Its in our hands that we be our own judge or use others (1000s of others) constantly wavering feedback to judge ourselves. We are successful if we putting in effort and growing steadily irrespective of the end result. This way of thinking enables us to respect ourselves independently and frees us from others opinion. A person that is consistently able to main respect for the self automatically succeeds because they are confident and fearless.
Steps to Overcome the Fear of Unknown
1. Power to TolerateWe need the power to tolerate the constant fluctuations that occur in results inspite of putting in 100% accurate effort. Power to tolerate develops when we keep the reality or truth in our awareness. It is almost like seeing the reality face to face or in the eye, and nothing seems like a surprise anymore. Would anything seem new or unknown if there was clarity in our consciousness that results are meant to be sometimes expected and sometimes unexpected? Fear initiates when truth about the reality of life is not in our awareness. Practicing few thoughts below in Raja Yoga meditation helps in developing tolerance power.
- Results are unpredictable because everything in this world is perishable, constantly changing, and beyond our control.
- Uncertainty is expected in this constantly changing world.
- Changes at job, finances, physical health, and relationships are inevitable.
- Every human being in this world is seeing unexpected results.
- We are lucky that most of the results have been favorable.
- We are fortunate that most of the fears have not materialized.
Fear is an illusion that we create through our thoughts about the future that is unknown. We feel that we don’t stand a chance in front of challenging situations so inaction, avoidance or least risky ways become our best friends. Due to this, at the core level the respect of the self starts diminishing. The power to tolerate enables us to accept the challenges in life because they are expected. The power to face enables us to look at our inner weaknesses and inabilities face to face. There are two players in this game, one is life and the other is us. The player, life, is strong and challenging. If we the 2nd player had all the powers, skills, and abilities to deal with life then nothing could scare us anymore. We need Power to Face our inner weaknesses, acknowledge them, and slowly overcome them. A self reflection exercise to note down the inabilities, doubts, and lack of power within is needed to face the inner reality. It's only when we know (inner face) ourselves, that we can start the work of correcting ourselves.3. Faith in the Self and Life
- I have taken care of many challenging situations in the past, and will continue to do so in the future too (visualize the past success clearly).
- Every challenge life sends on my door (in the form of a person or situation) is tailored made lesson for me to grow (bring up the past stories where you grew more after facing a challenge).
- Can one grow without facing a challenge? Thank you life for sending me challenges that are helping me grow.
- Life has been very kind to me. I maintain the faith that past was good, the present is better, and the future will be the best.
- I can tolerate ups and downs of life, can remain patient as I have full faith in life and its beauty.
- I want to live fully, experience every aspect it has to offer, explore new avenues with full confidence.
- I don’t want to die every breath by fearing life and doubting the self.
4. Meditation and Journaling
We need to activate our conscious mind regularly with the light of knowledge that fear is very damaging and needs to be replaced with faith. Our mind continues to create fearful thoughts on an auto pilot mode till have not given it another reliable and easily available source of information. Our conscious mind will become that reliable source if we awaken it daily in meditation by creating thoughts about damages from fear, merit of maintaining faith, and how to overcome fear. It takes time to finish any trait that we have developed over multiple years. Hence daily practice of meditation is key in seeing positive results. Another way to activate the conscious mind is by keeping track of the thoughts that were created by the mind were fearful. At the end of every day, we should journal about the number of times we created fearful thoughts and the reason for them. Check how those fearful thoughts can be dissolved and replaced by positive thoughts. Note down also situations where you were able to successfully replace fearful thoughts with positive ones.
Our potential is to remain carefree and cheerful at every step of life. We inhibit that potential by creating fear and that in turn prevents us from stretching. We are capable of saying ‘Yes’ to every new task, and grow every second of life. Are you ready to reach your highest potential by maintaining full faith in yourself?
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