Fear as a Friend: How it can lead to wisdom and liberation - Rasheed Ogunlaru

Without doubt, fear is perhaps the most misunderstood and paralysing ‘feeling’ that you may wrestle with in life. Sometimes simply because of its name, we feel that we should be afraid of it. But this is not the case. By understanding and being mindful of fear we can actually appreciate it, value it, learn from it and find deeper wisdom and liberation through it.

Fear is your friend:

Fear is not your enemy. It is a natural happening that is there to alert you, serve you, protect you, warn you and encourage you to find you. Fear - like most things it only becomes problematic when we don’t understand it, deny it or fear it.

Fear as an alert:

Fear is there to alert you to a situation. A car or wild animal rushes toward us. You feel fear. The adrenalin in you makes you take drastic action to get out of the way. If you are hurt the fear-released chemicals in your body helps numb the pain. Fear lets you know you need to act fast. In this way fear will save your life. Fear will stop you doing something that is life-threatening.

Fear as Fuel:

The nature of our world is change. Fear can help you stay awake and up to date. You are afraid that you’re not going to have enough money left at the end of the month so you start cut out all unnecessary spend. You learn that the company may be shut down, so you’re alert and this fuels you to update your CV and start looking for new positions. Fear in this case is again about helping us to survive progress and move forward.

Fear and self-realisation:

I have a saying: “Sooner or later you will hear what your heart has always been telling you; stop being who you think you should be – become who you are”.

You see sometimes the fear you feel is because you are not listening to your ‘self’. Instead you‘re constantly trying to please everyone else. You feel these nagging doubts and fears but ignore them. You think it is a scary thing but actually this type of fear is inviting you to stop being overly caught up in your mind and to discover who you are at your heart. Once you hear this calling it will lead you to a deep sense of understanding, joy and wisdom.

Fear will always be there but you will know it is far more a friend than a foe. by Rasheed Ogunlaru