2014-07-02       Reflection by an inmate in a Hong Kong prison

(Comments welcome here)

FEAR PARALYSES..

Fear is almost always about events that have not yet happened, it is therefore an illusion, even though it registers as an unpleasant feeling of the presence of danger and insecurity. Fear creates worries in our mind about the future; it can paralyse and cripple our thinking and limit our capabilities. But we must remember that fear is just a state of mind that the owner of the mind has every ability to control. If we accommodate fear too much, it can hold us hostage and distance us from success.

When the village of Shongoane Number 2 was planning to conduct a search in nearby bushes for a missing boy, a 14 year old youth wanted to join the search, but his mother refused to let him. This was because her husband, the boy’s father, was killed in those same bushes and it was his younger brother who had gone missing there. The lady was so scared to lose her only other son. But the boy insisted in joining the search and in the evening the village came back with the missing lad.

The fear of losing something we love is a natural reaction, but sometimes we need to break free of our cage of fear and be optimistic. We need to learn to convert our fearful thoughts into positive ones and act accordingly. The mother’s fear in our story was just such a ‘cage’; she dreaded losing her other child even to the extent of denying his help in the village finding his brother. If she had not eventually acquiesced in letting him join in, she would not have experienced the joy she did that night.

So break out of your cage of fear ! Take all the risks you need in order to get where you want to be in life ! Don’t fear to try in life, but fear to fail !

Fear is like stress and depression; all of them take away our energy and enthusiasm. Some people are trapped in unhealthy relationships yet fear to come out of them. Others are trapped in dangerous jobs but fear to quit. Others know they are sinking in life, yet fear to rise up.

This may be a good for you to evaluate you life and see what role fear is playing in it; fear may have paralysed you and stopped you looking at other options ‘outside the box’; this is the time to break out of your cage ! Fear is the greatest enemy you need to overcome in order to attain your goals and dreams. Be optimistic and let the unquenchable spirit of life in you defeat your enemy – fear. Good luck !!

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