what are you afraid of?
What threats to your body, mind, and/or spirit have you found yourself facing in the recent past? Make a list of your biggest fears - the things that have stopped you in your tracks, turned your logical mind off, and prepped you for fight-or-flight action, and we'll subject those fears to a little philosophical inquiry so that we can get those great big monsters to morph into silly little cuddly creatures like the ones on Sesame Street. Once your fears turn into cute furry blue and green and purple monsters, you can take them out and play with them whenever you want to have some real fun.
So go ahead and write down your biggest fears, in all their terroristic glory. Just make a quick survey of the sorts of nagging, pesky fears that have been on your mind lately, and write them down. You can stop when you've gotten about five different monsters on your list.
worst case scenarios
Now, consider what would happen if these terrible things had their way with you. What would be the likely effects on your mind, body, and/or spirit if your fears came to fruition. Again, just relax while you're thinking about this stuff. Remember, this is all just a story, just like some goofy movie you watch on tv. Just write down the first things that you think might happen to you if worse came to worst, whether they be horrifically gruesome or just plain annoying. Focus on what would happen to you, not others, since taking good care of yourself is your priority right now, and really, you're only ever in charge of your own monsters in life.
By now, you've probably got a good, healthy list that contains plenty of juicy forms of suffering, right? Does your list look like it might make a good adventure story or psychological thriller? Hve you portrayed those old monsters as utterly creepy and terrifying as they had seemed to you? Good. Feel free to stop at this point and turn your list into a movie script, find a producer, and become famous! If, however, philosophy is more of what you're after, then continue on with the exploration...
fear is suffering
Now for the philosophical inquiry. Take your list of monsters and, one by one, consider each of the likely outcomes that you've come up with, and how horrific they really would be. As you consider these horrid outcomes, ask yourself:
- Is this likely to happen to me anyway, at some point in my life?
- Has this ever happened to me before? If so, did I survive it?
As you make your way down your list with these questions in mind, are you able to find anything that isn't likely to happen to you, regardless of what you do, or that you haven't already lived through? If not, does it really seem worth the effort just to avoid the inevitable, or the survivable? Was the suffering you were causing yourself, by avoiding and fearing these things, causing you more pain than you would suffer if you just let what is going to happen anyway happen? Maybe it is and maybe it isn't - it's up to you to decide. But it seems pretty silly to be afraid of something that is inevitable and that you know for a fact you can survive.
laughter is freedom
Imagine how much time you've spent in the past, all told, cowering from these silly monsters who are really only puffed up kids wearing costumes and pretending to be bigger than they really are. It's like being afraid of a sock monkey because it has big red lips. When you realize that the red lips are simply the decorative heel of a knit sock, you can just laugh, and keep going in life.
Now that you have the facts in front of you, you can use your own wisdom to decide for yourself what to do with those old fears. Now that you know that you are the one writing your own story, you can choose to write your story in a serious and horrific way or you can choose to write your story in a humorous and amusing way.
life is change
One of the philosophical definitions of "life" is change. Other words associated with the very essence of life are growth and death. If something does not have the capacity to change, grow, and die, it is not considered to be alive. If we want to be alive, we need to have change, growth, and death.
So, if you still have some lingering fears that you aren't able to laugh at yet, ask yourself if any of them might result in change, growth, or death? If so, it might turn out that the things you fear most in life might actually be exactly what you need to really live. You might want to keep some of those monsters around to play with sometimes. If you do think you'd like to keep a little fear in your life, to keep you on your toes, to keep boredom at bay, and to inspire some change, growth, and death (of lame ideas!) then go for it. And, of course, you can always keep in mind that you can start out with big, puffy, scary monsters in your horror stories and then have whomever you've cast as your hero discover that the monsters are really silly sock monkeys with big red lips that you can toss around and play with like when you were a kid plying games with your stuffed animals.
And remember, perhaps the worst thing that could happen to you in life is to not really live and to not enjoy your life.
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