Tired of Fear

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I've been noticing lately how much of my life is controlled by fear. I constantly feel threatened, as if I always have to stand guard and protect what is mine and what is me. It's disappointing because I want nothing more than to connect with people and this fear-based decision model works in the exact opposite manner. The more I use it, the bigger the boundaries become to having an intimate platonic relationship. It's the only model I know though.

I fear losing control. I fear losing my friends and family or that the vision for my company is flawed and doomed for failure. I fear I'm not a good enough husband. I have all sorts of fears that would stifle my growth if I think about them all the time. The problem is I *do* think about all the time, subconsciously. I'm tired of this ruleset being the criteria of how I respond.

Today I realized that all my fears can be lumped into one giant fear. Can you guess what that might be? My biggest fear is not wanting to be alone. That's the parent fear spawning off all its symptomatic siblings. I don't want to lose control because I don't know what I might do and people might not like me. If I'm a bad husband my wife might leave me, and so on.

Why do I not want to be alone? Because what I identify as *me* is my body and brains and If I'm separate, then I have something to protect which creates an obstacle to love. Love is open and honest and knows no boundaries. How can I really experience love when I'm too occupied building barriers?

What if I'm more than just my brains and body? What if I'm everything? What if I'm also you? I had an experience the other day of never being born. Sure, I was a baby and given a name and I have parents, but I felt as if I existed before that. This isn't reincarnation I'm referring to but an experience of the law that matter is neither created nor destroyed, it simply changes forms. I changed forms.

Take a moment to become everything. How big are you? See if you can find any boundaries to who you are. Now take a look at fear. Do you fear losing control? What is there to lose control of if you're everything? Do you fear being alone? What is there that isn't already you to fear? It's beautiful isn't it? The questions just fall away since there's no longer anything to fear or protect.

Sure, the paradox is that you're both a separate entity and also everything all at once. That's what make being human such a blessing. If we were all energy and just energy, we'd never be able to experience ourselves. Because we're human we have the ability to forget that we're everything and then remember again, and laugh. We are the millions of reflections pointing to the single mirror. We only become afraid when we mistakingly see the reflections as the real thing.

platonic love for matt

thank you for your words matt. i resonate with this a great deal... and wish that we lived a little closer so we could grow our friendship deeper. and so i could mine you for drupal wisdom. ;)

Keep pestering me to come to

Keep pestering me to come to those conferences you host and before you know it, you'll have acquired mad Drupal skillz! (Hug)

That was a beautiful post,

That was a beautiful post, by the way have you seen the film "What the bleep do we know?". It's an amazing movie. We are all connected, we are all everything. I am happy to see there are other people out there that feel the same way.

~om shanti om~

ha ha ha ha haaaa!

Re:
"Because we're human we have the ability to forget that we're everything and then remember again, and laugh."

Cheers to this; I love laughing. Sometimes I laugh so hard, it knocks me off balance. Falling off balance provides another chance to get back on again, maybe in a different way from the last time. Being upright again is always a wonderful feeling.

So neither "on" or "off" can be a "good" or "bad" thing; they're equal parts of the same experience.

Laughter is a release - and to experience release, there must exist something to be released *from.* My recurring "from" is the fear of "never good/intelligent/witty/talented/humble/considerate/perfect enough."

Ha ha ha ha ha....! Ha Haaa!

Fear & Control

Wise words Matt.

I think that the feeling of willing to control everything is common to many of us working with computers, specially programming. We don't want any bug in our lives, we want to forecast the future and we do it even sleeping.

When the day is ending a quick review of the important points is our lives will grant us peace.

And you are right on that:
"...the paradox is that you're both a separate entity and also everything all at once."

Paco

i feel you

I totally hear you, Matt. Fear and its affect on my life is something I grapple with on a daily basis. It's good to be reminded that everyone else has it too. Thanks for the ongoing great posts. I found your blog quite serendipitously a few months ago and have been following it since.

I'm a web developer who (besides questing for overall happiness and fulfillment) has been searching for the way to take my websites to the next level. Your blog led me to drupal and I'm extremely excited about it! I just received your book in the mail from Amazon today and can't wait to dive in.

Thanks for all the great observations on life *and* my new favorite web platform!

Thanks for the feedback man,

Thanks for the feedback man, and happy Drupaling!

touching

Hello,

I found this site because I was looking on line for work by J.R. Storment.

I totally understand the fear and have been controlled by it for the last few months......I needed a boost back into the true view of exsitence.

we are all one aren't we......it is those who love openly that truly allow us to see ourselves.

Thank you.

© 2007 Matt Westgate