posted by Paige on Uncategorized

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Where’s the fear pointing? At any given moment when you’re feeling fear, where’s it pointing you?

Because fear is always directing us to look somewhere. It asks for our attention. Commands it, even. This is the job of fear, actually, to sense into a situation and respond by directing our attention toward something in particular.

Sometimes it’s directing us to run in the opposite direction, but more often it’s directing us onward into an experience that’s necessary for our own growth.

Since it’s always alert, fear shows us what’s important in any situation. It guides our attention and asks us to examine what’s there. Look a little deeper. Sometimes we have to dig to find an answer, but the answer is there.

It’s a bloodhound that sniffs out what matters, even if it’s not immediately clear to us why it matters. The intensity of its focus can be startling, and for that reason alone we’re tempted to turn away, to ignore it. But fear generally doesn’t take no for an answer, at least not for long. It returns to ask for our attention again and again, if the issue at hand is one that needs noticing.

Fear asks us to investigate and decide on a forthcoming action. This can be simple and immediate, even instinctual. A deer steps in front of your car and you swerve to avoid it; that’s your fear coming to your aid. Not only is this fear normal and healthy, but without it we wouldn’t survive.

The same can be said of the fear that comes to us in other situations. Frequently we respond to fear by avoiding, and thus may not even recognize it for what it is. We may call it procrastination or distraction or resistance, but when we watch ourselves carefully we can feel it arise and catch ourselves as we turn away.

That moment right there is trying to guide our attention toward the very thing we’re turning away from. What’s under that avoidance? What’s behind that? Fear points to it and lets us know that there’s something there worth discovering.

Maybe you’re not painting because there’s a niggling thought that, really, you’re just not good enough. Maybe you’ve been pretending to be fearless for so long that the fear’s had no outlet, and has settled into the kind of gently vibrating anxiety that makes it hard to do even simple things like go to the grocery store. Maybe you can’t let yourself relax into a relationship because underlying your external shell of confidence is the belief that no one could ever really accept all of you.

This is where fear comes in to guide you. When you’re willing to feel it, to listen, to take its wisdom into account, it will point you toward exactly where to look. And it will ask the question, as trustingly and openly as a loyal bloodhound, “Where to now?”

To turn away? To move forward? You get to decide from there.

 

Tags: emotions, spirit