19 February 2014

I want you imagine this scenario:

You are walking on a mountain railroad track. As you are happily walking you hear the sound of a train; you turn around and you see a train fast approaching. Your body most likely is telling you that you better move before it gets too close.

Now imagine that instead of getting out of the tracks you stay there waiting for it. What is your body feeling as you see the train get closer and closer?

Do you have the impulse to jump out of the tracks? Do you feel afraid?

Now imagine that instead of jumping out to safety, you are going to face the train head head on.

Now image that the train is a few feet from you, just about to hit you.

How do you feel? Do you close your eyes?

Now imagine that you closed your eyes for a few seconds and after the trained “hit” you, you opened them.

Most like you would wonder what just happened: Am I still alive? Am I ok?

Maybe you would be surprised that you are still alive and aware aware after being hit by a train. The surprise may come from the belief that you were certainly going to die. But you didn’t!

Let’s come back to reality, out of this scenario.

Now try to remember times in your life when you felt as if you were going to die if something you feared happened.

Maybe you thought you were going to “die” if you got divorced or separated from a loved one. Maybe you thought as a child that if the lights were off, some monster was going to come and kill you. Maybe it was a time when you were in a tight financial situation and you were very afraid. Or maybe it was a time when you were ill, but you survived the illness.

Are there any similarities between the feelings of the fear of the circumstance happening, and the one related to the train hitting you?

Maybe at the time you thought and felt that your life was going to end, if what you feared happened. But once it did, you realized that you were still alive. Like opening your eyes after the train passed.

i find than most often than not, when we face what we are afraid of, we realize it can not kill us (or you would not be reading this and I would not have written it).

Is it worthy then to live in constant stress, worrying about a “train” hitting us and killing us when we know most likely it is not true?

I don’t think so.

Intense fear can create unnecessary and unhealthy stress that destroys our health and sense of well being.

Take a look at these statistics:

One in five american experience extreme stress symptoms. Stress is related to 60% of all human illness. It increases the risks of heart attacks an heart disease. Three out four doctor visits are linked to stress related issues. It influences overeating and eating unhealthy foods. I can go on and on.

Why would we then give up our dreams of living a healthy and joyful existence by surrendering to the illusion of fear. Why let it kidnap our soul?

If we want to transition out of living in fear we need to increase our knowledge and education of it. We need to understand what fear is, we need to get to know it closely to be liberated from its enslaving claws.

We all have the opportunity to live not feeling as if a train is always going hit us. But to do so we need to open our eyes and face that which we are afraid of.

Remember If the train is not real, we can only discover its un-realness by engaging with the illusion.

And if what what we are afraid of is real there’s no need to fear it. We always have the option to live even our worst tragedies with dignity and compassion for our selves.

To move in the direction of love and not fear I invite you to each day look closely at one thing that you are afraid of and see if it is true. Are you really going to die if that which you are afraid happens?

Is what you are afraid of really a “train” approaching to kill you?

It may feel like that, but mostly likely it is not.

And if it is really a bad thing about to happen, do what you can. But if it is not, let it dissolve into the nothingness where it belongs.

I hope this helps in your journey to freedom and love.

@ Edgar Boone

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The Journey To Freedom & Love