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Fear grows
out of the things we think;
it lives in our minds. Compassion
grows out of the things we are,
and lives in our hearts.
Barbara Garrison |
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fear
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Fear tastes like a rusty knife and do not let her into your
house.
John Cheever
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The
original Eeyore had at least a certain grim sense of humor, a sort
of funnyness-with-its-lights-turned-out. Latter-day Eeyores seem to
be missing that. One thing they do have, however, is fear. Eeyores
are afraid--afraid to risk positive emotional expression, positive action,
positive involvement in anything beyond Ego. Those things are
stupid,
they say, and they don't want to look stupid. (They don't seem to
mind
looking Paralyzed with Fear--they just don't want to look stupid.)
Benjamin Hoff
The Te of Piglet
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All of us experience fear, but when we confront and
acknowledge it,
we are able to turn it into courage. Being courageous does not mean
never being scared; it means acting as you know you must
even though you are undeniably afraid.
Desmond Tutu
Believe
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It
is no accident that all of the world's wisdom traditions address
the fact of fear, for all of them originated in the human struggle
to overcome this ancient enemy. And all of these traditions,
despite their great diversity, unite in one exhortation
to those who walk in their ways: "Be not afraid."
Parker J.
Palmer
Let Your Life Speak
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Anger is a response
that can lead to harm if we don't evaluate
what we are upset about. Ask yourself what you are afraid of,
as anger is almost always fear in disguise. If we think something
or someone threatens us, we feel fear--fear that we are inadequate,
that our lives are out of control, that things won't go our way.
Then we fight. Find out what you're upset about. We rarely are
upset for the reason we think.
Jennifer James |
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Who is more
foolish, the child afraid of the dark
or the man afraid of the Light?
Maurice Freehill |
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I
know a lot of people who are healthier at age fifty than they've
ever been before, because a lot of their fear is gone.
Robert Bly |
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All manifestation of fear is a reflection of the fact that
humanity has
forgotten its spiritual identity. In beginning to remember it, we
put
fear on notice that its days are numbered.
Marianne
Williamson |
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How is your life
limited by your fear? What are you not doing that you'd
really like to do? When we use fear to our advantage by tackling
those
things that evoke a sense of excitement and trepidation, fear becomes and
ally. Each experience provides a challenge and an opportunity to
expand
your comfort zone. The way to create an extraordinary life is to
make
the challenge of fear work for you by building your courage muscles.
Cheryl Richardson
Stand up for
Your Life |
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What would
it be like to open our hearts to our fear, to befriend it with
wonder, as one would a deer in the forest? What if you could bring
it right into the hearth of your awareness instead of ignoring it and thus
allowing it to become an undifferentiated mass of demons that gang up
on your in the murk? Stuffed behind walls, fear becomes a horde--the
Demons of Doubt who will trample you under stories of what others
think, of your endless failures, impending humiliation, and lost control.
Together and ignored, they will drive you out of your own life. But
when
you invite them into the layered light of your awareness, they can't
join together and rule you from the shadows.
Dawna Markova |
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Denying
fear only feeds it and encourages its greedy appetite. Sometimes
we're reluctant to face a fear and give it a name or shape. It's as
if an
admission of being frightened will set the fear and all that comes with it
into motion. When we don't face our fears, we risk creating a big
lie by
telling ourselves we're not afraid. If you've ever done this, you
know
how much energy it takes to beat the fear into submission
and bury it without destroying it.
Leslie Levine
Ice Cream for Breakfast |
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All of us experience fear, but when we confront and
acknowledge it,
we are able to turn it into courage. Being courageous does not mean
never being scared; it means acting as you know you must
even though you are undeniably afraid.
Desmond Tutu
Believe |
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Fear is so
fundamental to the human condition that all the great
spiritual traditions originate in an effort to overcome its effects on
our lives. With different words, they all proclaim the same core
message: "Be not afraid." Though the traditions vary
widely in
the ways they propose to take us beyond fear, all hold out the
same hope: we can escape fear's paralysis and enter a state of
grace where encounters with otherness will not threaten us
but will enrich our work and our lives.
Parker J. Palmer
The Courage to Teach |
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Almost all fear is fear of the
unknown. Therefore, what's the remedy?
To become acquainted with the things you fear.
Peace Pilgrim |
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If you
overcome your fear to ask someone for a date, a raise,
or help with a project, that is an act of self-assertiveness. You
are moving out into life rather than contracting and withdrawing.
Nathaniel Branden
Self-Esteem Every Day |
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Fear is also
F.E.A.R. (False Evidence Appearing Real)--a famous
acronym that sheds the light of understanding on those phantoms of
fear. There are at least two false premises regarding fear.
First is
the belief that things are as they appear to be. Increasingly,
scientists
are discovering evidence to the contrary. For example, what seems
to be solid matter is, in fact, composed of patterns of subatomic units
of energy. Second, the fearful individual assumes that he or she
lacks
the resources to handle a tragic situation. The truth is, courage
belongs
not only to the heroes and heroines but can also be developed
within you as you meet life's challenges. . . . When you look fear in the
face, you may see right through it, for, after all, it is often only a
phantom!
John Marks
Templeton
Worldwide Laws of Life |
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Only when
we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.
Dorothy Thompson |
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I have
learned over the years that when one's mind is made up,
this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.
Rosa Parks |
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Part of our mind is
bent on love, and part of it is bent on fear. That
is how consciousness operates. The loving mind is called the spirit
of God, the Holy Spirit, the Shechina, and many other names.
It is
the holy Self that lies potential within all of us, the mystical drive
to return home. We always have the choice to align ourselves with
its presence and act accordingly in the world, or give in to fear and,
on some level, die.
The problem is that the voice of the spirit is not the
dominant voice
of the world. Fear is louder than love here. It takes
conscious effort,
therefore, to go against the voices of the world and to actualize our
spiritual nature. The fearful mind, or the negative ego, is alive
and
well within us and around us, but darkness disappears in the
presence of light. Fear has no ultimate power in a
situation dedicated through prayer to God.
Marianne
Williamson
Illuminata |
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If
you begin to face your fears, something bittersweet is going to happen to
you:
You'll grow up. You'll lose your dependency on the grown-ups of the
world,
because you'll realize that there is no time, no age, at which fear
suddenly fades
and you become one of these impervious beings. You'll begin to
recognize fear
when you see it, not only in the shivering of a frightened little kid but
in the
apparent coldness of a shy person, the viciousness of a bully, the
self-importance
of your narcissistic boss. You'll realize that the difference
between success
and failure isn't the absence of fear but the determination to pursue your
heart's
desires no matter how scared you are. Finally you'll realize that
fear is the raw
material from which courage is manufactured. Without it,
we wouldn't even know what it means to be brave.
Martha Beck
Finding
Your Own North Star |
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I believe it is fear we should be
fighting, not the "other." We all belong to
the same human tribe; that kinship supersedes our differences.
Terry Ahwal
"Finding the Strength to Fight Our Fears" |
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If my mind didn’t cling, I would be totally fearless.
Nothing would frighten
me, because there would be nothing I would be afraid to lose and nothing
I would need to be happy. But my mind still does cling, so I am sometimes
frightened that I won’t have what I think I need or that I’ll lose what I think
I want. It’s not such a big problem anymore because fear doesn’t frighten
me as much as it used to. I know it’s from clinging, and I know it will pass.
I can tell myself, “I’m frightened now because even though I know what’s
true, I have forgotten it right now. I know the possibility of remembering
exists.” That possibility, that conviction, gives me a lot of hope
in the middle of the biggest fright.
Sylvia Boorstein
It's Easier Than You
Think |
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If I had to identify one core
variable that drives and magnifies our
compulsion to sort ourselves into factions while at the same time
cutting ourselves off from real connection with other people, my
answer would be fear. Fear of vulnerability. Fear of getting
hurt.
Fear of the pain of disconnection. Fear of criticism and failure.
Fear of conflict. Fear of not measuring up. Fear.
Brené Brown
Braving the Wilderness |
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I’ve learned that fear limits you and your vision.
It serves as blinders
to what may be just a few steps down the road for you. The journey
is valuable, but believing in your talents, your abilities, and your
self-worth can empower you to walk down an even brighter path.
Transforming fear into freedom – how great is that?
Soledad O’Brien |
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It
is no accident that all of the world's wisdom traditions address
the fact of fear, for all of them originated in the human struggle
to overcome this ancient enemy. And all of these traditions,
despite their great diversity, unite in one exhortation
to those who walk in their ways: "Be not afraid."
Parker J.
Palmer
Let Your Life Speak |
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fear
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It is
said that before entering the sea
a river trembles with fear.
She looks back at the path she has traveled,
from the peaks of the mountains,
the long winding road crossing forests and villages.
And in front of her,
she sees an ocean so vast,
that to enter
there seems nothing more than to disappear forever.
But there is no other way.
The river can not go back.
Nobody can go back.
To go back is impossible in existence.
The river needs to take the risk
of entering the ocean
because only then will fear disappear,
because that's where the river will know
it's not about disappearing into the ocean,
but of becoming the ocean.
Khalil Gibran |
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