Swami Vivekananda : Kicking a Football…

In order to kick a football into a goal, one must possess skill. Skill is acquired through the practice of uncritical observation, focus, and sustained concentration. To kick a football into the goal, one must be fully involved and cannot hesitate.

So many times when we go after our dream, we start to doubt ourselves. "What would other people think?" ; "What if I fail?"; "It's too difficult. I am just gonna give up". When we are spellbound by these thoughts, we are unconsciously pressing the accelerator and the brake at the same time. We are lost in a story, spinning the wheels of old mental habits and stopping ourselves from taking constructive action.

Like everyone, I experience “fear” whenever I attempt something new.  And every time I am willing to step out of my comfort zone, I realize that it was not really all that it was hyped up to be in my head. I saw that the only thing that was holding me back was a fear of the sensations itself and a narcissistic attachment to a story that has been rehearsed many times over, pretty much like an old recording.  To have an insight that fear, irrationality, and exaggeration go hand in hand, disempowers fear and loosens its imagined grip on our minds.

So what can we do whenever fear comes up? We must be

• willing to look at it,
• examine the nature of how fear arises,
• investigate the beliefs surrounding the fear,
• release the associated feelings, and
• determine if being fearful has any value in helping us problem-solve.

The sensations of fear are fleeting, you may notice, and without the mental rehearsing of the past and the compulsive need to imagine a future, they really have a half-life.

Knowing that we do not have to be hostage to fear is wisdom.

Seeing that you have the option to no longer live through the reflection of the past is LOVE.

There truly is another way to live where you can be free, fully involved, and relaxed without being entangled in a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts.

We become the observers of our reality instead of the full-on participant in our personal nightmare.

Wisdom liberates.

And focussed sustained and acute observation gives us insight into what is already free, our very own Self.