Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Out of Control Fears

Whenever you find yourself stuck in a social ditch filled with the emotional stench of fear, worry, and struggle, you probably wonder how you ended up in such a deplorable place. Unfortunately, life, as we know it, is filled with unexpected twists and turns. So if you discover you're mired deep in an emotional ditch of despair and suffering, now is a good time to use your limitless resources to dig yourself out.

The digging begins with you recognizing that you have an untapped reservoir of power within you. This power is filled with options that you are currently unaware of, however, it contains the plan and expression of everything you need to solve your current problems. It clearly illustrates that you, and you alone, are responsible for your actions.

In the meanwhile, make no mistake about the seriousness of solving your problems, even those that you find daunting and frightening. There's two problems -- lack of money and poor health -- many people are afraid to confront. These two problems are responsible for most of the suffering in the world.

If you are free of these two problems, then you can focus your attention on some of the other problems that are frightening to you. Regardless of the problem, fear is fear, and you must overcome it to move forward in your life.

Today, we are focusing on the fears caused by the lack of money and its ancillary suffering. When you don't have the money that you believe you need, it causes problems for you. It means you are struggling to pay your rent or mortgage, or you feel impoverished to purchase a new car, or repair the one you have now, or you even might be unable to buy food or clothing.

Whenever you find yourself in a seemingly desperate situation, you can rest assured that fear will become part of the problem. This point is eloquently stated in the self-empowerment book, The New African American Man,
"For those people who have traveled with fear for so long that all memories of empowerment are lost, fear is master and lord over their lives. It manifests in many different images, which form the foundation for our reliance on rational knowing.
"Some examples are:

1. Fear of losing.

2. Fear of peer ridicule.

3. Fear of success.

4. Fear of failure.

5. Fear of living.

6. Fear of dying.

7. Fear of rejection.

Your fears lead you to yourself. They are your creations, your problems. They exist because you empower them to exist. The New African American Man further states,
"It is things outside of ourselves that feed the fears, causing us to become paralyzed and afraid to take the actions necessary to accomplish our goals. These fears must be treated as responses to appearances outside of the body and mind."

So, it's not so much the lack of money that causes the turmoil in your life, it's your beliefs about it. The road that leads away from pain and suffering is the untraveled one. It's the one that leads you to your intuitive consciousness -- the victim-free consciousness.

To begin your journey on the road to empowerment, you must first face your fears and work to overcome them. You do this by acknowledging that beneath the layers of suffering in your life is an intuitive power willing to assist you with the arduous task of problem-solving. Its sole purpose is to serve you.

Whatever you think and believe about yourself is the truth about you. The magnitude and duration of your problems are determined by the level of your fears. If you have few fears, then you have few problems. However, if your mind is clogged with fears, there's no room for new ideas.

So the first task is to focus on clearing your mind to perceive new ideas, new options, and new resources that will assist you with overcoming your self-imposed limitataions. In the chapter on Fear in the The New African American Man, there is a poignant statement about problem-solving:

"Identify the sources of your fears. Examine what causes you to believe that your present challenges cannot be removed. Exactly what do you anticipate happening if you take action to remove the fear?

"Remove the fears one at a time until their individual and collective powers are harmless to you. Challenge every fear with a positive action empowerment. To do this requires that you deny the existence of the illusions created by the senses."

When you change how you think about yourself, you enter into a world without fears. In this world, you are truly in control of your fears.


"The new personal growth book, "Seeds from the Ashes" is coming soon!