I recently read about a workshop whose subject was ”Smile at Fear.” It took its name from a book of that title, ”Smile at Fear: Awakening the True Heart of Bravery,” written by Chögyam Trungpa. This was a new thought to me — I have never smiled at fear, fear has often consumed and overwhelmed me. The subject made me think more about fear and whether one can better deal with fear and tragedy by looking at both in the face, trying to examine what is frightening and what can be mastered, rather than to allow fear to dominate our lives. As fearful as we are, can we marshall our own inner resources to look fear in the face and defeat it? I want to think so, I don’t want to go around walking with fear in my heart all the time. To do so takes all the joy out of our precious life.
I woke up this morning with the thought that one thing fear does is give you energy, and maybe the key is to use this energy in a positive way, to work to overcome the fear rather than allow the fear to overtake you and paralyze you. Maybe laughing at fear means to do exactly that, to look fear in the face and say to ”it” the words, ”You have lost your power over me. I shall continue on and survive in the best way I can — despite it all.” I know this is not easy, but it must be done.
What about you? Have you been able to overome your fears? If so, how did you do this? What is the secret of courage?
