What is your perspective on life? Does fear just remind us that we are here having a human experience? All questions so many of us have! I don’t know what your religious beliefs are, but I do believe “Many” of us, with the exception of atheists, believe “We are souls, with a mind, in a body”.

And some believe we are here on mission, some believe we are on a journey, and some believe we’re having a human experience. And then there are those who just go through the motions of life without any real care or purpose at all! 

And I am not here to talk about religion or what any of our beliefs are. Because truth is I dislike religion. I think it’s filled with rules with no real practice of action. And I have learned So much from other people’s beliefs, so I don’t discount or discourage people for their own ideas, based on their religious, political, or social interests. 

Until it affects me! Then we have an issue! But I am not here to push my ideas on you so let’s get that out of the way now! What I am here to talk about is fear and survival! These words mean something very different to each of us.

Fear keeps us in fight or fight mode!

And fight-or-flight or the fight-flight-or-freeze response “is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to Survival”.

Now as I have already said, I don’t care what your religion, culture, sex, age, ethnicity, or political belief is; one thing I know for sure is that SURVIVAL keeps every living thing on this planet living in FEAR!

We all act and react based on what survival means to us. And that can change at any given time in our life. Let’s face it, in every season our means for survival is constantly changing. Along with our perspective on life. Furthermore, what survival looks like to you, definitely looks different to your neighbors.  If I asked all my readers “what they were afraid of most”, I can almost guarantee everyone would have a different answer. Some answers might even make you rethink the answer you have already conjured up in your head as you read this and ponder on it. Some answers may even have you fearful while others make you feel thankful.

But sometimes, even someone else’s experience wouldn’t help you overcome your fear! Would it? Because when you’re in fight or flight, or freeze, you know there is no way you’re going to survive the current situation! 

Okay so what is my dam point? Fear is not always a bad thing. And sometimes it is there to help you along the way. The things we fear most will do one of three things:

1 – it protects us from harm 

2 – it teaches us something about ourselves and our situations

3 – it helps us advance ourselves and our situation 

How many of you believe with every struggle comes an opportunity? I know if you’re going through something tragic right now, that may be hard to grasp. Think differently and your situation will appear different. With every struggle comes a thought in our mind, an emotion in our soul, and our body reacts according to those thoughts and emotions. 

We have total control of our mind. We can think whatever we want, but what we allow ourselves to think on, will be the result of our circumstances.

I could be in a room with 100 people and ask them to close their eyes and imagine being on a cruise watching the sun set, and there would be 100 different perspectives and experiences. One person may not be able to see the sunset or feel the wind in their hair and on their skin.  They won’t smell the coconut and pineapples from the pina coladas. And another person would have such a vivid imagination that they will be able to taste, smell and feel like they are actually there on that cruise. And for the moment they will be in complete bliss and without worry of their current problems. Someone else may have such an intense experience that they begin to feel motion sickness and actually make themself believe they are sick.

We have total control of our circumstances because we have total control of our minds. The fear in us is the perspective we place on our own experiences. What lens are you looking through in this season of life?

TO BE CONTINUED…