“Scared and sacred are spelled with the same letters. Awful proceeds from the same root word as awesome. Terrify and terrific. Every negative experience holds the seed of transformation.”
~Alan Cohen
Anyone who experiences fear knows about fearful thoughts. Without exception, these thoughts project into the future and expect the worst. Should I or shouldn’t I? What if I do – or don’t? The imagination runs wild thinking of all the negative scenarios that could happen.
And the effect? Afraid to move, stuck, limiting yourself, playing it safe. And all the while caught in your spinning mind and missing the beauty of what is real and alive right here and now.
These fear-infused thoughts rob you of happiness and well being that are rightfully yours.
The Rational Approach
As humans, we are blessed to have access to a well-developed frontal cortex, which gives us the capability of being thoughtful and rational. In contrast, fear comes from the limbic system, a more primitive, animalistic part of the brain that drives basic survival.
The intelligent investigation of fearful thoughts invites us to fire up the cortex and subject them to rational analysis.
Now is the time to bring these thoughts out of the shadows. Why wait one moment longer? When they float through your mind without your full attention, they exert their power and control over you.
But with a logical laser focus, you can see through the lies and distortions they make you believe. And, by doing so, you enter into the realm of truth and sanity.
The Truth of the Unknown
At the foundation of every fear-filled thought is a desire to know what cannot be known. This desire manifests as an imagined negative, scary outcome.
- I won’t find a job.
- I’ll always be alone.
- I’m afraid I’ll be rejected.
- What if I fail.
Each of these common thoughts makes an assumption about the future.
And here is the logical truth: you cannot know anything until it actually happens. You have two choices: you either know or you don’t know. You absolutely know something to be true once it has already occurred. And if something hasn’t yet occurred, you don’t know what the outcome will be.
Fearful thoughts guess or assume the worst with no logical evidence. When you take these assumptions to be true, you end up paralyzed and miserable.
“I Don’t Know” Revealed
Part of being free of the effects of fear means shifting from emotion to logic, using all of the brain’s capabilities. Logic shows you the distortions in these fearful thoughts that sap your energy and slam the door shut on your potential.
What you do find is one of the most useful truths: I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll find a job, or be rejected, or fail.
“I don’t know” opens the door to unlimited possibilities that the fearful mind can’t begin to contemplate.
Seeing the truth of the unknown is like a healing balm for fearful thoughts. And here are the effects:
- No more wasting energy and time worrying about the future.
- No more pressure to know what you can’t possibly know.
- Openness to all possibilities.
- The end of “should” – what you should know or should be doing.
Living in the reality of the unknown brings our attention clearly into the present. Let go of the imagined future, and you will discover:
- A focus on doing what needs to be done now
- Appreciation and gratitude
- Relaxation
- Enjoyment
- Acceptance
- Wonder
The unknown is the truth, and the truth will set you free. Do you want to be free of the effects of fear? Say “Yes!” to the unknown.
Have you discovered the value of not knowing? Are you struggling with fearful thoughts? I’d love to hear…
