In These Anxious Times . . .
What’s the Real Source of Our Fear?

David Robert Ord
Namaste Publishing Editorial Director

The thing we have the hardest time with in life is allowing ourselves to discover and fall in love with who, uniquely, we are.

We are afraid of falling in love with ourselves, fully embracing ourselves, and thereby showing up in our life in all our magnificence.

Doesn’t it strike you as strange that humans are afraid of their own center, their essence, their authentic being?

It’s especially strange when you realize that we are afraid of a center where there is no fear!

Of course, if we were to ask most people, “Are you afraid of yourself?” they would likely respond, “Don’t be silly. Why would I be afraid of myself?” In most of us, this fear of our own center isn’t overt, you see. But afraid of ourselves we are, nevertheless—and it leaks out in all sorts of areas of our life.

If we take a close enough look at past behavior we are ashamed of, or perhaps some aspect of our current behavior we keep hoping will someday change, we’ll see that all of these behaviors are fear-based—and that our fear is why we don’t unabashedly, unapologetically, unreservedly, and uninhibitedly simply be ourselves.

Where we should above all love ourselves—in our center—we instead fear ourselves.

You might wonder: Why are we so afraid of ourselves?

The answer is really quite simple. Consciousness is, through a long process of trial and error, manifesting itself in the world of matter. As humans, we are the cutting edge of this grand adventure. For 14.7 billion years, the entire creation has been inching toward the very threshold on which we are now poised!

In other words, we are being asked to go where no one has ever gone before, which is a fear-inducing venture.

Having reached this threshold at which consciousness at last has a chance of taking the reins of our evolutionary journey, we are being invited to take charge of our evolution.

Both as a species collectively and in our personal lives, we find ourselves enticed by the idea of such a way of living, but also wanting to leave part of ourselves out of the equation.

This is why so many of our decisions have an escape clause, so many of our commitments an exit route. We tend to go for things, but not quite wholeheartedly.

Our center calls us to wholeheartedness, yet we find ourselves experiencing conflict at the very thought of plunging in without reservation. Something in us absolutely dreads the whole of us coming together with a resounding “Yes!” to something or somebody, with nothing of ourselves left out.

In contrast to this fear that causes us to keep ourselves at arm’s length from life’s call, the deepest peace we ever know is when we stop running away from ourselves.

However, let me be clear that I’m not talking about “forcing” ourselves to stop running. I’m talking about surrendering to that inner peaceful state wherein we no longer have any need to take flight.

Every bit of craziness, disorder, or dysfunction in our life traces to not yet having entered fully into our center, there to find an absolute peace that can’t be disturbed by anything in our external world—a “peace that passes understanding,” that’s beyond comprehension, as Jesus put it.

Can you imagine the effect of such a peace in the troubled economic climate of the world right now? Can you imagine the difference it would make to our anxiety about our finances, terrorism, and all the other avenues via which the evening news regularly scares the life out of us?

The peace I’m pointing to isn’t brought about by placating our thoughts, struggling with our emotions, and “trying to be relaxed.” It can’t be bought at the spa or in a bottle. It’s a peace that springs from opening up our heart, so that we allow what’s already within our center to surface.

When we do so, there follows a miraculous cessation of fear of every kind. We find ourselves relaxed and at ease, flowing spontaneously with the river of pure being.

The wholeheartedness characteristic of inner peace transcends all fear because it springs from that center within each of us that’s fearless. This center is fearless because it’s linked with the creative heart of the universe that is driving the evolutionary adventure of which we are all a part.

It’s only in recognizing that our only fear is our fear of ourselves—fear of what is now seeking to break forth within us—that resolution occurs.

Just how this resolution comes about will be our topic in the coming week on the daily Namaste column The Compassionate Eye. Join us on the Namaste Publishing website each day for another step in this wondrous journey.

You can Find The Compassionate Eye HERE.