Sunday, March 18, 2007

FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real

I'm currently reading the Conversations With God Trilogy, and came upon a definition of FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real. I usually find acronyms pretty cheesy but I thought that this perfectly describes that unnecessary torment that we put ourselves through. If we can just remind ourselves of this everytime that fear rears its ugly head, in whatever form, we can return to a place of peace. Some people say that fear is a necessary emotion to tell us when something is wrong, but I don't buy into that. If anything it can teach us that our THINKING is "wrong", in that it doesn't provide us with the complete joy and freedom that we are entitled to. We are all holy. We deserve nothing less than complete freedom from fear, anxiety, and all destructive emotions.

The trickiest part is catching ourselves when the mind starts spiraling into insanity and we feel our bodies begin to tense up. It doesn't take much, maybe a memory or a comment from somebody else, and our mind is catapulted out of the peaceful state it once was in, racing further from the present moment as the thoughts feed and build on eachother. Somewhere in this process of madness we need to say to ourselves:

"Don't believe this insanity. The ego thrives on fear, and wants to keep my perception distorted. I don't have to solve the problems that are swimming around in my head, I only have to remind myself that they do not exist"

The worst thing that we can do is get caught up in it and believe that we have to "solve" all the issues that are coming up in our head. It would be nice if this is possible but there are ALWAYS issues that can come up and stress us out. Life is too full of different people and events for there not to be a single thought you can think of that will be unpleasant. I don't care how important something is to you - the best solution can't come from a place of fear. We are not seeing truth when we are in such a state.

Instead of believing the illusion, move beyond it. Laugh at it. See the absurdity. I think we need a sense of humor in order to laugh at the rubbish we fill our minds with. We are spirit, experiencing reality from a limited perspective. It's all a big game, we can get caught up in its rules or see it for what it is and make it enjoyable. I choose to live in perfect peace and joy, nothing less. We are the makers of our reality, so lets start acting like it.

11 comments:

Constance said...

Mind chatter or our 'darkside' telling us what we can't do, or lack, or will never have, is definitely an aspect of fear...

Stopping that illusion, or thought process in our heads as soon as we realize we are doing it is very important.

It is a practice that can save you from beating yourself up unnecessarily...

Sophia said...

The ego is a creation of our physical selves. Every fear that the ego creates in order to preserve itself is also therefore a creation, but a false creation.

Brian said...

Loving Annie,
Yes thats exactly what it becomes -beating yourself up! It's amazing how many negative thoughts we can have about ourselve once the mind gets on a roll. Imagine all those thoughts were replaced with positive ones, we would feel on top of the world.

Brian said...

Puzzled woman,
It's amazing how real it seems though, isn't it?

Sophia said...

I know, and this makes it difficult. :( It puts up quite a fight! I am left wondering why we created egos in the first place, though I know it has something to do with protecting the body, which in turn leaves me wondering why we created the body... which leads me further to the fact that we created the body to experience the physical, but if everything is just right in the non-physical, why should we?

M said...

I think for me, what it always comes down to...when I am feeling Fear, I am not grounded and in the present moment...my mind has flittered away to some future event and is judging it against the past.

When I stay in the present moment there simply is no Fear. It just is.

Anonymous said...

Brian,
I have always enjoyed this acronym for FEAR, it very good. The truth is, there is nothing to fear. Fear is an illusion which we create. It serves no purpose other than to distract us from our path.
I agree, a sense of humor helps when confronted with fear. The key is knowledge and understanding that fear is simply a product a projection if you will of our ego.

Brian said...

reiki 4 life,
Yes there can be no fear right here right now. If only the present moment is real, then where does fear actually exist? Nowhere.

Brian said...

Mark,
Our ego always seems to be up to sneaky things...

M said...

yes, fear is just a figment of our imaginations...

Anonymous said...

People should read this.