Fear - a joke?

[Cochonette]

Something happened to me last night. I called up a friend who I had been suffering over for months because she had stopped communicating with me... I told her I felt bad, and she told me that if she were in my position she wouldn't feel bad and not to worry because worrying is a waste of time. I said, "I hope we're still friends," and she told me to kick myself in a place called "doubt" for doubting. That was such a relief off my heart... to me, this is where love comes from. Very similar thing has happened to me before. Summer, me with all the time in the world to worry, intense self-doubt and misery... then someone I love gently laughs away my worries, my doubts. When C did that, I realized that all the suffering was a total illusion... I hadn't been able to see things from her perspective until I talked to her last night. All that worrying was a complete waste of time... I had projected all of my fears onto her. This world is a dream indeed... those worries were very real to me, yet in ten minutes months of worry were cast aside. What madness is this?

I think that when I have Pride, it is this murkiness... lack of clarity. It is such a projection of fear onto others! I couldn't directly ask her what was up because I was too busy projecting onto her all those fears - how blinding. "Hatred and fear blind us. We only see the faces of monsters, and that gives us the courage to destroy each other." This makes me want to detach from ALL of my thoughts. To see fear as a waste of time, a joke taken too seriously...

[FazK]

You have just taken the first step to living an amazing life. When you first realize that ALL FEARS are imaginary it is a liberating moment. The next thing to do is to go about systematically facing every fear you have ever had. If you do this you cannot imagine what a profoundly wonderful effect it will have on your life.

[Coffeesmurf]

I agree about the usefulness of facing imaginary fears, like the fear of rejection, social encounters or public speaking. Not all fears are imaginary, however - lots of fears are very real, a result of evolution and serve a good purpose. It can keep you away from harm and sharpen your reactions and alertness when faced with things that are actually dangerous.

Maybe I should have listened to my fear of crashing while heading down a particularly nasty descent on my mountainbike last year and slowed down just a bit.. since not doing so ended up costing me 1000USD in medical bills

If you have ever had a fear of jumping out of a plane without a parachute, that's a fear I wouldn't recommend facing..