Don't Move The Way Fear Wants You To

These are times that call for courage.  

Courage, is the capacity to maintain clarity, optimism, resourcefulness, and bold action despite external pressures and circumstances. "Move from within," says the Sufi poet Rumi, "don't move the way fear wants you to."

The capacity to move from within rests in our allegiance to our own powers-our knowledge, skills, experience, gifts,talents, and creativity. Each of us has been given abundant resources to follow our heart's desire, even when the journey grows challenging or difficult.

In the face of such challenges, we must remain vigilant to our commitment to our personal powers rather than succumb to the spread of fear that passes from person to person via the media, water-cooler conversations and our own self-talk. Doom and gloom is everywhere. It is easy to be engulfed by economic catastrophe and get wrapped up in the daily drama around us.

 But that is not the way of the Visionmaker.

Visionmakers are respectful of circumstances but refuse to be dominated by them. For every challenge there is a solution, for every downturn there are ideas powerful enough to overturn it. Visionmakers see the ups and downs of living as normal. They remain sober-minded, focussed and generative in any circumstance. They are committed to inventing the future rather than being victimized by it.

A Visionmaker defends the heart against the invasion of fear, recognizing that seldom is fear successful when we have the courage to face it.  Cultural anthropologist, Angeles Arrien reminds us that "whatever you can face, you can handle.  Otherwise it wouldn't be there."

The purpose of fear is to constrict energy.  It enters the mind and infects the heart.  Once the heart has been stricken with fear, it begins to close down and we lose our bearings and the courage to act. We begin to be filled with doubt, second-guess ourselves, and worry that we are no longer sufficient to handle our circumstances. It is here that we fall.  We allow ourselves to be overmatched by giving ourselves away to fear.

Don't move the way fear wants you to. Even if a neighbor, politician, news anchor, union leader, boss, co-worker, family member or friend wants you to. Take a stand against being swept away by a collective trance of consensus.

Move from within, from the heart, and give thanks as you make your way forward towards destiny.

© Patrick O’Neill 2009. All rights reserved.