Scary Openings

An Opening has appeared. Seeing it scared me a lot. I don’t feel ready. I want to grow but can I do this?! I am very uncomfortable.

Stasis

Inactivity and rest can be good for short periods of time. However, if we want to grow and progress on our journeys, movement is required. Staying in a life that no longer serves us brings its own set of problems. What surrounds us is no longer fulfilling. We know it is time for change, but the idea of change stops us in our tracks. Although unfulfilled, we are not ready to make a move.

There are many reasons why we stay too long where we are. Humans like safety and familiarity (what we are doing is tried and true). Change often requires a significant amount of work. Change asks us to stretch, sometimes uncomfortably. Change introduces uncertainty into our lives. We are afraid of failure. We doubt that we are up for it and lack the confidence we need.

When we stay too long, it becomes harder to embrace change. We get set in our ways. Fear takes hold within us, sometimes unconsciously. We ignore signs that the present state of things is unfulfilling. We experience frustrations and anxieties that tell us so, but we ignore them. Life just goes along. We feel safe and we coast along without anything new. We settle into life as it is.

Helping Us Grow

Openings advance us. Sometimes, they are smooth Openings. Sometimes, they are scary ones. Some Openings move us a short distance; others move us far. Some Openings move rapidly and others slowly.  In this post we are looking at Openings that are quite challenging and that have the potential to move us far distances. They awaken the power of our will by jolting us out of our everyday routine to a place unfamiliar to us.

Often, change is unavoidable. We can resist it, but it will happen anyway. We have choice. We can embrace change and find our way through it to what lies on the other side. We can try repelling it and expend a lot of energy in the process that could have been used to adapt to the change. We can fall into negative emotions (anger, fear) that take us out of what is happening but do not protect us.

As difficult as it is for some of us to accept change, it is a constant in our lives. We can grow by accepting it and developing ways to handle it in our own interest. Being pushed out of our comfort zone is a sure way to grow and see things in a new way.  We learn about ourselves each time we experience change. We become more flexible in our lives and handling what comes along. Change can transform us.

Fear

Fear is an emotion, not a fact. Fear shows up with our perceived threat of harm, whether real or imagined. Fear does focus our attention. When the danger is real, fear mobilizes what we need to protect ourselves. When the danger is not real fear can take us on an unproductive ride into stress, worry, anger and actions that do not serve us.

Some have said that fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. There is something to this. We must cultivate the ability to discern the roots of our fear. Is what we fear presenting a real danger (e.g. can cause us significant physical or emotional harm) or is it of our own making (e.g. fear of something because it resembles or reminds us of something that caused us pain in the past)?

Our minds and emotions often like the status quo. We want to stay where we are and avoid changes in our lives. Where will this get us? Not very far. At a certain point, our lives will start going backwards because we are meant to grow and learn and fully realize ourselves. This growth makes us happy and fulfilled. Fear can trap us and keep us from Openings that are here to open new worlds to us.