Fear – False Events Appearing Real
Unlike many addicts, I was driven by a hundred forms of fear.
Resentments usually rule the day with us addicts. For me, it was fear for as long as I can remember. As soon as I turn my thought life away from faith, fear shows up at the front door. The very essence of faith is taking the next indicated right action, despite any self-centered fear. The fear of losing what I had or not getting what I wanted defined my addiction. God never removes fear while I stand on the sidelines of my life and fail to act.
Spirituality and a healthy community seem to be the antidote for fear. When I’m in conscious contact with my creator fear dissipates and leading with love takes center stage. I thirst for this freedom with each new day. Being paralyzed in fear around “what other people may be thinking of me” is such an overt waste of time and energy. What cracks me up most is my awareness that nobody truly cares. These stories of inadequacy are all made up in my fearful mind.
Just like Mark Twain said, “My life has been filled with many tragedies, almost none of which happened."
I’ve always admired my wife, Stacy Lee, for many reasons, none greater than her ability to be 100% authentic wherever she finds herself. It can be her guttural laughter, her ability to morph into a rock star at any given moment, her ability to love unceasingly & without judgment regardless of circumstance, or the fact that she can dance freely anywhere as if no one is watching. She does not care what other people think of her. She only wishes to be her most unique and unfiltered self. Stacy is completely comfortable in her own skin. That’s what I’m talking about!
Today, we all have an opportunity to live without fear.
Defining your own spiritual journey daily seems to be a constant with people who are truly free of fear. I do believe it’s true that we addicts, (and normies honestly) get a daily reprieve based on our spiritual condition, and our emotional fitness as it relates to this condition directly impacts our relationship with fear. I don’t know a single soul that lives without fear, who also doesn’t nurture a robust spiritual life that they are all actively participating in.
This is where we can get truly comfortable in the “unknowing.” If we recognize that we don’t know shit, and it’s ok, we gain the opportunity to stay in a constant state of curiosity, with a ravenous thirst for greater knowledge and awareness. These truths, though self-evident are yet more evidence that living a life in recovery is the way to go. Faith will always win over fear just as light will always drown out darkness.
What’s actionable here is to look “inside rather than outside yourself” to understand more fully what your relationship with fear is. Faith needs to be relational in order to grow. I believe that until we understand that something far greater than any of us created this amazing experience, we each call life, we will always fall short of truly experiencing all that is possible.
Each of us needs to take action with each new day that will simply draw us closer to God (or a higher power), through this effort, fear will always be in the back seat as opposed to the driver of our lives.