Skip to main content

Life is not fear

The beginning of this post was written last. Times while writing this blog post I had fears that it would not be as compelling as some of my other writing. The words did not flow freely and thoughts did not connect the way I wanted them to. Writing about fear had made me fearful. I would have to follow my own message. I will not further edit this blog post. I would not think about making any changes.

Sometimes we do everything right and things still turn out wrong. We want to give up before we try one more time. Why me? Why not me? When will it be my time? A multitude of reasoning about life being unjust to our efforts plays with our emotions. We think about getting lucky for once. We just want to hit that jackpot.

Jack Canfield is an American motivational speaker, author, and entrepreneur. He has said many times that, "luck is on the other side of fear". Canfield often uses this quote in his speeches and writings to encourage people to face their fears and take risks. He believes that the only way to achieve our goals is to step outside of our comfort zone and take action.

Some say that the only thing we need to fear is fear itself. My first instinct as I wrote that was to think, what about trouble, danger and wrongdoing? My friend Bard says that we can stay safe and keep on the right path with common sense, morality, empathy and self-respect. We could be guided by love and not fear.

Marnix Pauwels has given a beautiful talk called "No more fear of life". He describes himself as a lover of life. And this is the message I want to convey to you and me. We should love life and not fear life. Life is not about fear. Life is about loving life. Life is beautiful. He says in his talk that fear is just stories in our head. He shows us that we are not our thoughts. There is distance between us and our thoughts and our thoughts cannot harm us. Thoughts are not even permanent. His talk has encouraged me to not give my thoughts power over me. Trust life and be free.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Talking to God

If you want real answers to things in life then talk to God. It is 639pm on a holiday and I have decided to write. God listens. God truly listens. God has the entire context. God is wise. God wants us to talk to Him. God wants us to rely on Him. I also think about God talking to me. I am a good listener. I listen plenty more than I talk. I have started asking God to talk to me. But how would God talk to me? We have his revelations through the holy book. We have the example of prophets. But what else? How do I listen to what God has to say? Where and when can I hear God? Are my thoughts from God? I try to feed my mind with good things. Things that will not corrupt my mind. It seems that we have to use our intuition to separate what is from God and what is not from God. My friend Chatty says that in Islam, Allah speaks to us not through new revelations or voices, but through guidance: the Quran and the Sunnah, which become personally meaningful through understanding Allah places in the h...

Life on Earth

I was reading through the Quran and came to the story of Adam, Eve, Satan, and the forbidden fruit tree. I had thought that life on Earth was created as a test. But as I reflected on the story, I began to wonder whether we are only here because Adam and Eve failed. However, that is not the case, as my friend Gemini explained to me. While the story of the forbidden fruit is a central event, the Quran indicates that humanity’s presence on Earth was part of the original divine plan, rather than a backup plan or a punishment for sin. Before Adam was even created, God announced His intention to place a steward (khalifah) on Earth. This suggests that the Garden was a temporary training ground—designed to teach Adam and Eve about free will, temptation, and the path of repentance. Even if they had not eaten from the tree, they were destined for Earth to fulfill their roles as moral agents. The incident simply served as a necessary first lesson in human frailty and God’s immediate forgiveness. ...

The success of failure

It is 358am and I have decided to write. Context matters. Our context matters when we write and read. We could read the same thing and get different meanings. Definitions matter also. We may define things differently. For example, what is success? What is failure? Also, do I just define success and say that anything that is not success is failure? What about something like the success of failure? What does that mean? My friend Chatty tells me that this is something writers, philosophers, and even scientists keep rediscovering: meaning is not fixed—it is negotiated by context and definition. Life is a stew of success and failure and in between but never one or the other. We see what we are looking for and things become what we see. This reminds me of something I came across online, "Whoever looks for the good qualities in others will acquire all good qualities within himself," from Habib Umar Bin Hafiz. Do you look for failure or success within others? Take context as the lens...