Fear of the Unknown

What makes you most anxious or fearful? What keeps your mind busy at night when you should be sleeping like a baby? So, what is FEAR? I heard a really interesting TED talk (TED is all about inspiring ideas in 20-minute talks) about FEAR. Fear is simply a wonderful imagination that projects “not so wonderful” future worries into the present moment. The imagination part is a creative and awesome aspect of your consciousness. If you fear a lot, you have a fabulous imagination, however, this is not being put to positive use. The definition above really says that fear is an “unknown” but projected future outcome based on imagination. 

It has no based reality and is just as likely not to happen in your life. So if fear is simply fear of the unknown, how do we work through it and let it go? In my understanding, there are two sides to the fear of the unknown: the NEGATIVE ASPECT and the POSITIVE ASPECT of NOT KNOWING. Both are useful and you need to know WHEN you should be using either one.

What is the POSITIVE ASPECT OF NOT KNOWING?  The positive aspect is more about your inner journey and life path. Sometimes it is great to “not know” your next steps because you are transitioning between two worlds; perhaps in between jobs or relationships. It can be a time of death and rebirth where you are not meant to KNOW the next steps but rather, sit in the ‘womb of all potential” and let your path greet you. We often need to sit in this place of not knowing when we go through a big life challenge and need to sit and reflect before moving on. Rushing this stage will only corrupt your next steps. What the universe is asking you to do is reflect and work through your stuff. If you don’t, you will attract similar challenging situations in a new form that will force you to go through the same difficulty. It can and should be somewhat scary but this fear is around facing your dark aspect of self, not of future worry. Staring straight into this fear is very therapeutic and once you break out to the other side, you do feel amazing. 

What is the NEGATIVE ASPECT OF NOT KNOWING? The negative aspect is more about day-to-day life situations where you put your “head in the sand”,  and try to ignore a stressful situation. “Not knowing” about a day-to-day matter such as financial or legal issues, work conflicts, and relationship miscommunication is creating a bigger problem. Putting the front foot and addressing niggling issues by initiating action is important. If you don’t take action, that means you are blind-sighted and unable to tackle a challenge properly. As a result, you stew on issues and end up projecting a far worse outcome than what reality might deliver. You might end up (through the law of attraction) creating in your reality the very thing you fear the worst. After all, our thoughts affect the holographic universe around us!

So, don’t put off dealing with issues that niggle you. You are a free, powerful, and sovereign being. Stand up for yourself. Have those conversations, and write any letters you need to. Make inquiries. Tell people to leave your life if they are pulling you down. Have a chat with your boss about money or performance. Realize that clarity does equal power and when you KNOW, you feel in charge and powerful.

Call to action? Assess your life and think about what negative day-to-day fears you have going on that need immediate action. This is a very YANG and ACTION-ORIENTED APPROACH. Assess also what big life challenges you will allow yourself to not know and just sit or reflect until the answers make themselves clear. This is a cool YIN approach that will deliver you the richness of life experience that you cannot buy anywhere else.

If you work out when to KNOW and when to NOT KNOW, life will become a whole lot clearer.