Pranasana Yoga

Fear of Life

fear of freedom

The entire world is talking about the fact that all of our problems and suffering come from fear of death and a lot is suggested to eradicate it.

Would it be helpful to focus our attention in the opposite direction? I think so.

 
It’s not the fear of dying that we so desperately need to shake off  
It’s the fear of living!
I can’t do that! What would others think?
I can’t want that! What would that mean about me?
I shouldn’t feel that! I shouldn’t say that! I mustn’t think like this…
These are all fear of living! We are afraid to live the life we are so desperately wanting to live.
We are scared to liberate the real, the true and let it live through us.
What would others think?
 
The problem isn’t fear of dying. Fear of dying is a good thing (on a level). It’ stops you doing stupid things like crossing the road without properly looking. It’s the fear of living, crossing that road when you really want to know what’s happening on the other side but, getting lost in the inner dialogue. Never crossing to ever find out! Fear of living shows, not in big things: big decisions, massive steps, huge risks. It is deeply rooted and shows up in very little things! The courage to live starts in minuscule steps.

We can’t eradicate the fear of death, it is ingrained in us. If it weren’t we could drown ourselves by choice without using anything that forces us underwater. Fear of death is about preservation, self- protection which indeed, we do need. The only thing that takes us to the point of dropping the fear of death completely, like in the sad cases of suicide, is the bigger, much bigger fear of living and all that it entails. This is of course an extreme case and in other milder cases, the fear of life makes us miserable,  keeps us in constant compromise mode or sucks playfulness out of us.

In what small way do you fear life? How can you shake it out of the way? Is it worth doing something about it while you still have time?
Feb 2018

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