We are born fearless. We come into this world ready to live, breathe, and experience everything anew. As infants, we reach out to things, and see them as an adventure, and fear does not come knocking. Childhood is a free-fall into life’s deliciousness! As children, we naturally know how to live in the NOW— what it tastes, smells, sounds, and feels like.
Fear lives in the future. It grows as we make decisions and assumptions about previous experience, and pair that with our desire to avoid repeating “negative” outcomes. “I’m afraid that will happen again” (future thinking). We also develop fear about things we perceive to be a threat. Often these fears are not based in reality at all. Somehow, we make them our truth, and our world of possibilities gets smaller as we get bigger.
Did you know that babies are not afraid of snakes? It’s true. Babies reach out to a snake as a new experience– “what’s this? Who are you?” The fear of snakes is built over time, based on assumptions (very rarely based on personal experience). This can also be true about fear in general– By the time we are adults, we have built an entire scaffolding that supports fears that have no basis, and they can slowly squeeze the life out of us.
What if…we coaxed ourselves to the NOW–this place we knew as children, where anger and fear do not gain ground? What possibilities would be unlocked?
Try it–when you feel fear, practice coming into the present moment-don’t worry about the past or the future. Experience the moment with a clean slate. Quiet the internal voices, and greet yourself in the moment that has been generated–taste, smell, hear and feel it. Remember what it is like to be fearless.
