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Fear Busters
 Spiritual wisdom and simple exercises to help you ward off anxiety and terror.
By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
From SpiritualityHealth.com, reprinted with permission.
Fear is a very potent emotion. Since the September 11 attacks, every aspect of daily life seems to be polluted by it. Through its power of suggestion, we find ourselves running various scenarios of death and destruction in our minds. Every day news stories about real and rumored terrorist threats feed our paranoia. Law enforcement officers are on "high alert," and citizens are being asked to go about their daily business but to watch out for "suspicious behavior."
Fear plays upon our natural feelings of vulnerability and turns them into expectations that another terrorist attack is about to happen. The concerns first voiced by children on the day of the 9/11 attacks--Is my house safe? Will something bad happen to me and those I love?--are now coming out of the mouths of people of all ages. The feelings of empathy, unity, and compassion, so strong in the months after the September 11 attacks, have been subsumed by the addictive nature of fear.
Recovery programs say that it takes three weeks--21 days--to break a bad habit or to start a new practice. To help you cope with runaway fears, we have collected 21 "Fear Busters," nuggets of spiritual wisdom coupled with simple exercises that you can do to work with any fears you may be wrestling with. We encourage you to check in daily and break the fear habit.
Fear Buster #1
Quote of the Day: When we are in fear, we focus all our attention on the point of danger and lose our capacity to find any courage, sanity, or peace within ourselves.... Perhaps this is why, in the Christian New Testament, the phrase "be not afraid" is found so often.
--Wayne Muller
Legacy of the Heart
Practice: Repeat the phrase, "Be not afraid," to yourself as you walk around today.
Fear Buster #2
Quote of the Day: Someone once described FEAR in an acronym: False Expectations Appearing Real.
--John-Roger
Do It!
Practice: Don't let your mind imagine something awful that hasn't happened yet.
Fear Buster #3
Quote of the Day: The great builder of dualisms is fear: Fear cries out for boundaries, divisions, districts, and absolutes, but love casts out fear.
--Carol Ochs
Song of the Self
Practice: Avoid talking in divisive "us" versus "them" terms.
Fear Buster #4
Quote of the Day: There is a marvelous story told about a four-year-old child who awoke one night frightened, convinced that in the darkness around her there were all kinds of spooks and monsters. Alone, she ran to her parents' bedroom. Her mother calmed her down and, taking her by the hand, led her back to her own room, where she put on a light and reassured the child with these words: "You needn't be afraid, you are not alone here. God is in the room with you." The child replied: "I know that God is here, but I need someone in this room who has some skin!"
--Ronald Rolheiser
The Holy Longing
Practice: Be present for loved ones who are frightened.
Fear Buster #5
Quote of the Day: Fear builds walls to bar the light.
--Baal Shem Tov
Practice: Shine the light on your fear and see its true colors. Is it simply an insecurity, a figment of an overactive imagination, or something else?
Fear Buster #6
Quote of the Day:
When the dragon of
Fear is examined it is
Found to be a mouse.
--Kenneth Verity
Awareness Beyond Mind
Practice: Don't allow your fears to blow everything out of proportion.
Fear Buster #7
Quote of the Day:
I was amazed at how much energy I had wasted on fear. Time after time, I found myself fearing I would not be able to do something. Then I would do it.... Our fears take us to the edge of our being, to a place where we are fully alive.
--Sarah York
Pilgrim Heart
Practice: Use moments of fear as opportunities to test your limits.
Fear Buster #8
Quote of the Day:
The original Pali word for a Buddhist monk or renuncient bhikkhu means "fear seer"--one who can tolerate his own terror.
--Mark Epstein
Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart
Practice: Look closely at what you are afraid of. Try to probe its depths like a wise seer would.
Fear Buster #9
Quote of the Day:
Fear is just another story with which we distract ourselves.
--Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfeld
Seeking the Heart of Wisdom
Practice: Make a conscious effort not to be distracted from what you can do by your fears about what might happen.
Fear Buster #10
Quote of the Day:
The poet Jelaluddin Rumi writes of night travelers who search the darkness instead of running from it, a companionship of people willing to know their own fear.
--Pema Chodron
When Things Fall Apart
Practice: Find companions with whom you can talk about your fears.
Fear Buster #11
Quote of the Day:
Fear has the largest eyes of all.
--Boris Pasternak
Hoarfrost
Practice: When you feel you are about to succumb to a panic attack, close your eyes and breathe deeply.
Fear Buster #12
Quote of the Day:
What is your greatest fear? The Kabbalists say that there are two kinds of fears, external fear and internal fear. External fear is the fear of losing the things we value in the outside world, like honor, wealth, health, or life. Internal fear is the fear of losing a sense of the divine within yourself, of disconnecting from what makes you sacred.
--Shoni Labowitz
Miraculous Living
Practice: Contemplate: What is your greatest fear? What does it reveal about your priorities?
Fear Buster #13
Quote of the Day:
The most fearful people in the world are Americans because they have so much to lose. And never has there been a people with so much who are still afraid of not having enough.
--Richard Rohr
Job and the Mystery of Suffering
Practice: Don't be attached to your things, and you won't be afraid of losing them.
Fear Buster #14
Quote of the Day:
Xenophobia, the fear of strangers, is an infection of the soul particularly virulent in our times, but it is not a fear only of foreign people. It' s a deeply disturbing anxiety that affects everything we do. At its root is a fear of "the strange."
--Thomas Moore
The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life
Practice: To combat fear of "the strange," watch a movie about a foreign culture or, better, have dinner with someone from a different culture.
Fear Buster #15
Quote of the Day:
The next time you encounter fear, consider yourself lucky. This is where the courage comes in. Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear. When I was first married, my husband said I was one of the bravest people he knew. When I asked him why, he said because I was a complete coward but went ahead and did things anyhow.
--Pema Chodron
When Things Fall Apart
Practice: Recall times when you have gone ahead and done things despite your anxieties.
Fear Buster #16
Quote of the Day:
Real fearlessness is the product of our tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your raw and beautiful heart.
--Rinpoche Chogyam Trungpa quoted in
No Enemies Within by Dawna Markova
Practice: Go through a news magazine and look at the pictures. Pick someone you might normally be afraid of, and try to empathize with their situation.
Fear Buster #17
Quote of the Day:
Fear is an acid which is pumped into one's atmosphere. It causes mental, moral, and spiritual asphyxiation, and sometimes death--death of energy and all growth.
--Horace Fletcher
Practice: Do something that energizes you: Exercise, go to a concert, laugh.
Fear Buster #18
Quote of the Day:
Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.
--Bertrand Russell, British philosopher
Practice: Get involved politically. Let community and national leaders know your views about their actions.
Fear Buster #19
Quote of the Day:
What do you have to fear? Nothing. Whom do you have to fear? No one. Why? Because whoever has joined forces with God obtains three great privileges: omnipotence without power, intoxication without wine, and life without death.
--Saint Francis of Assisi
Practice: Be grateful for these three privileges.
Fear Buster #20
Quote of the Day:
Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.
--Jelaluddin Rumi in
The Essential Rumi by Coleman Barks
Practice: Relish silence as a divine milieu where you can find love, which is the alternative to fear.
Fear Buster #21
Quote of the Day:
In dealing with fear, the only way out is in.
--Sheldon Kopp in
No Enemies Within by Dawna Markova
Practice: Remember, fear is a natural emotion. It best to face it so it doesn't get the best of you. Name it, test it, and replace it with love and compassion for yourself and others.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat are the media and web editors for Spirituality & Health magazine. They are the coauthors of the best-selling book 'Spiritual Literacy' and its companion volume, 'Spiritual Rx: Prescriptions for Living a Meaningful Life.'
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