What you fear will not go away: it will take you into yourself and bless you and keep you. That's the world, and we all live there.
— William Stafford, For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid
What you fear will not go away: it will take you into yourself and bless you and keep you. That's the world, and we all live there. — William Stafford, For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid
How to bear the terror of failure? With Shakespeare as our guide, though the impulse may be to turn away from fear, what can calm us down is to sit with what scares us most. We should dare to investigate the terrifying scenario so as to drain it of its strangeness and stop apprehending it only through the corners of our eyes in shame. Shakespeare o
... See moreAlain de Botton • A Therapeutic Journey
If we have a peaceful moment, a moment of meditation, we can call it up again. “My dear fear, come up here so I can embrace you for a while. It is my nature to die; I cannot escape death.”
Thich Nhat Hanh • Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through The Storm
Of course it sounds as if it were the most abject fatalism to have to admit that I am what I am, and that no escape or division is possible. It seems that if I am afraid, then I am “stuck” with fear. But in fact I am chained to the fear only so long as I am trying to get away from it. On the other hand, when I do not try to get away I discover that
... See moreAlan Watts • Wisdom of Insecurity
Fear becomes anxiety when it makes its home in you. Its chief attachment is not memory or villain or situation or future; its chief attachment and subject is you. This strange and imprecise fear can torment the body and enshroud all other fear experiences.
Cole Arthur Riley • This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us
“I hope you live without the need to dominate, and without the need to be dominated. I hope you are never victims, but I hope you have no power over other people. And when you fail, and are defeated, and in pain, and in the dark, then I hope you will remember that darkness is your country, where you live, where no wars are fought and no wars are wo... See more
That which is blocked and buried within you forms the root of fear. Fear is caused by blockages in the flow of your energy. When your energy is blocked, it can’t come up and feed your heart.