Click image for a bigger blessing.
Some superstition can help to overcome some rational fear when you sit on hundreds of tons of explosive fuel.
Fear can do terrible things to people …
Click image for a bigger blessing.
Some superstition can help to overcome some rational fear when you sit on hundreds of tons of explosive fuel.
Fear can do terrible things to people …
The older we get, the wiser we are supposed to be. As an old or older person your are not supposed to make a fresh start and start a new life … you can’t cut away age or memories. So regrowing a new self is almost impossible … or is it?
Isn’t it just a decision of our old ego to cling to it’s memories and old pain that is keeping us from refreshing ourselfes?
If the past is really the past – why are you clinging to it in your mind and heart? Do you fear loosing yourself when you simply cut away the old shrub to get more light and breathing space?
It might be painful to let go – but it makes no sense to just cling to memories of a reality that is long gone?
Grow now, stay green and fresh.
I am always suspicious about people who tell me they are overworked in their jobs. It usually means that they either can’t organize their jobs or their try to make themselves irreplaceable by sucking up every bit of work and responsibility they can lay their hands on.
The motivation is fear – fear of being replaceable and not important. But instead of being a useful coworker these people become bottlenecks, because they turn into control freaks.
And nobody like bottlenecks – not matter how ‘important’ or overworked they are …
Angst is the main reasons why we fail many tasks. Simply being scared can reduce the smartest and most competent humans to a shaky nothing.
But why is fear itself so terrible? Because it ‘kills’ our capability to think straight.
Our brains have so called lower and higher brain functions – based on in which part of the brain they are situated. (Click here to read a very well done introduction to the brain).
Our Stem Brain is the most automatic and stupidest part of the brain. It controls the (survival) reflexes/instincts and acts first (instead of ‘thinking’). Fear is not only a mental reaction (meaning it’s not just firing up your neurons to work harder), but also a chemical reaction. Adrenaline is pumped into our system and all muscles get ready for some action. Your heart and lungs start working harder too – pumping more oxygen into your system for extra power. And your brain actually speeds up thinking in dangerous situation – that is why fearful and dangerous situations are often described with "and time stood still".
Fight or flight is fears dedicated motto – on a most primitive survival level. That is why the body and mind go into overdrive to get yourself out of the danger zone if fear kicks in. But modern life is mostly social or work related stress. We are no longer faced with lions hunting us down or surviving in nature.
All these physical preparations for Fight-or-Flight happen before your higher brain functions can kick in: take control and really THINK.
To deal with fear, calming yourself down and really work the problem is hard work for your brain and has to be trained. An untrained brain simply goes into survival mode and acts on reflexes (which can be sometimes good in physically dangerous situations).
It takes some effort and training to learn to deal with fear – so your higher brain functions get the upper hand and you can think before you act – thus controlling your natural instincts and reflexes.
Let’s train da brain …
Here are some pointer of training yourself to deal with fear and stress:
Why are there no fitness centers to train your psyche and mind to have more endurance and dexterity?
Those are a few simple pointers to understand yourself and what kind of effects fear has on your mind.
Don’t be afraid of fear – the mind killer – you mind can be trained to deal with it and solve the real problem afterwards.
Often when people try to be scary it’s rather pathetic or simply funny. But what if you are scaring people without even trying? Are you projecting a hate shield to keep people away? Or are you a Guru, who’s insights scare the ignorant and stubborn? Or are you simply a mean spirit?
Being scary is not a compliment – it’s usually an ego deficit transformed into fear and violence.
Most esoteric types like to ‘go with the flow’. Extra effort or dealing with harsh obstacles or barriers don’t appeal to them. It’s always very cool and ZEN like to NOT want anything out of life or work to get SOMETHING.
But life is physical as well as metaphysical. Rewards for both planes of existence are worth some effort. And it is nice and rewarding to have accomplished something for yourself and others by NOT going with the flow.
People like Gandhi, Albert Einstein or Martin Luther didn’t go with the flow and waited for change – and they changed the world.
Achieving something means often to break your own comfort zone, work long hours and enduring serious pain. Often the result can be nothing, but sometimes it can be everything.
Some problems may look terribly threatening, but you’ll might discover that they have only a ‘limited range’ in your life. Just because something has teeth it doesn’t mean it can bite you all the time and everywhere.
So try stepping back and get a bigger picture when something snaps at you.
Being defeated in public is embarrassing. A tough thing is hard to overcome. But people love the comeback kid – but only if you are brave enough to learn from your defeat, stand up and try again.
No matter where Mr Crab goes – he always is at home. We also carry often a lot of baggage with us, but sometimes our minds won’t rest, feel safe or at home – no matter where we are. Maybe it’s time to work on that mental shell and get rid of it. A human can survive in all ‘nakedness’ – Mr Crab can’t. It’s our advantage – let’s use it to live without fear and burden.
Some spiritual disciplines are so focused on transcending everything that they can’t appreciate the silly side of life any more. If you can’t laugh no more, you are already dead and have to be reborn as a sitcom character. Laughter is good for the soul and an excellent tool to overcome fear.
Sometimes there is a huge reward waiting for those who take action and have the courage for a bold move. Don’t be afraid – take heart and take your chances …
Since their is no such thing as a ‘universal fairness’ clause we have to cope with pretty heavy problems from time to time in our life’s. Some people say challenges can make you grow, but some challenges simply knock you out. Not every bad situation has a ‘good’ aspect, not every problem will make you grow and help you to become a better or even happier person.
Life is harsh when you kick start the human spirit.
Humankind has spent a long time worshipping gods – since the modern Cro-magnon appeared and kicked the Neanderthal out of existence. One of the main difference between us and our ancestors is our imagination and therefore adaptability. No other ancestor started language, cave paintings or complex cultures.
But our imagination is also our greatest enemy. Where we lacked knowledge we invented ‘things’ to fill the gaps. So in shock and awe about nature we invented spirits, ghosts and gods to explain thunder, death and a lot of other annoying things.
Me Artist! Me Paint! Me Talk to Horsy Spirit! Me Shaman! Bow to me!
As our mental capabilities expanded so did our cultures, language and religions. If you look at the history of religions you also see how their concepts and liturgy evolved in complexity. But the human intellect is an amazing thing – and once our basic civilization was established smarter heads started to questions the gods themselves (like Epicurus).
They already concluded that nature is everything and that the gods are nothing. Even things like the atom were discussed long before they had the means to research it’s existence. Human imagination can work far beyond your cultural and technological limits.
But religion also proved to be a great tool over power – and rulers always like to have a divine backing. The people can ruled much easier if their leaders are in favor with the gods – not matter how dubious those connections are. And almost all cultures have creations myths that make THEM the chosen ones. For example the Japanese track themselves back to the sun goddess Amaterasu. I personally like the imagination and complexity of Hinduism. You hardly find a more colorful universe of gods.
The Enemies of my Religion are also our Enemies. Let’s crush them, because we are the Chosen ones …
As religion is an attempt to explain the universe (and therefore a search for the ultimate truth) it leads to science. Almost all early European scientist were dedicated Christians, who were VERY curious how god managed to run the whole show. Too bad that they discovered that the old stories of all religions weren’t true: the earth was neither the center of the universe nor was it formed out of a slain giants body.
But parallel to the myths of religion (and fairy tales) we humans discovered spirituality, our own psyche, the secrets of our minds and a new love for the beauty of the universe. Almost all major religions have their smaller departments dedicated to more serious spiritual paths – which are often more demanding and more abstract then the normal liturgy for the common follower. A truely dedicated lifestyle of a Yogi or Jesuit priest is NOT everyone – it’s very demanding. And people are unwilling to really give everything for their gods. Self preservation is usually stronger then religion.
Are you a true follower of your God(s)?! Spiritual nakedness and Yogi tea are not for everybody you know …?!
Life – the last twenty thousand years – was quite harsh to humans. Simply getting enough food was tough enough. Life was always very unfair and scary. Religion also helped to cope with fear and survival – tight rules and rituals helped tribes to survive and unite under a common banner/purpose. Religion also helped us to ‘organize’ power and hierarchies.
Religion helped us to survive and was one of the first components of our cultures. But culture will continue to evolve – even the evolution of ideas is pretty unstoppable.
Many people say that science is the true enemy of the gods or any religion. But no – our cultural evolution is the true ‘enemy’ (if you can speak in such terms anyway).
Cultural evolution brings not only full stomachs, but a separation of powers, the rule of the law, a more mutual sharing of technologies, education, medical supplies and science.
In the early 1500s European Christianity was becoming more and more aware of those ‘other’ religions and world views – simply because travel and trade was coming back to roman standards. In a monotheistic religion/society it’s much more shocking to hear that there is an alternative to just the one ‘true’ god. Polytheistic societies never had that problem to such an extend – they could cope with (just) another god …
The same Country and same God – three different groups fighting to the Death. A bit odd isn’t it?!
Luxuries like human rights, democracy, free markets and the separation of powers didn’t appear until the late 1700s in Europe. Instead of just fighting for survival, we could dedicate (again) more resources to social evolution and exploration, because we finally had the understanding how to help ourselves and survive.
Also we started to rule ourselves less by divine appointment, but by social and political ideas. The concept of the national identity was supplanting religious identities – especially in Europe after those devastating and fruitless religious wars.
So in some way Martin Luther’s idea split the Christian atom (much more then the catholic (western) and orthodox (eastern) separation before). This big bang lead to the Age of Enlightenment. But it was paid with a lot of blood and burned bodies.
He challenged the Power of the Church and tried to put believe back into Christianity.
Looking back in our history one could say we have fought many wars between conflicting cultural ideas: from tribes uniting under one religion, to great religions fighting each other and social ideas fighting religions to establish a new order within a bigger cultural context.
Overall our cultures evolved to ever increasing social structures: from tribes to kingdoms, from kingdoms to nation states, from nation states to continental entities (like the EU).
But old ideas never completely die: we still have tribalism as well as religion amongst us. The wars of the 1990’s in the Balkans and current conflicts between Muslims and Christians show how deep these old ideas are still embedded in our cultural DNA.
The Founding Fathers of America – one of the greatest moments in History. They put the Nation before God, the Citizen before their Rulers.
The idea of the nation state or even atheism are pretty new – hardly a couple of centuries old – compared to tens of thousands of years of tribalism and religions.
I say no more gods please – they had several thousand years to enlighten us, put an end to suffering, spread universal love and understanding. Gods and religions have failed to do so – although they had more then enough time and cost us a huge amount of life’s.
We are currently struggling to implement new concepts into our cultural evolution: a truly global society, universal human rights, total religious freedom (or betters say to protect ‘true’ believers from each other) and a free flow of information. No surprise people are scared and more blood is shed. But overall our current democratic, socialist and capitalist ‘ideas’ have feed and clothed more people then ever – safety and education are still on the rise although we still experience huge humanitarian catastrophes (like in Darfur or Africa in general).
Since democracy, technology and science have started to spread – we as a race have prospered more then ever. Gods didn’t build schools and hospitals, fed and clothed the poor, educated and explored the human potential – and this potential also includes our spirituality and imagination.
*repost from 2005*
How often do you really hold your own destiny in your hand? And how often do you carefully shape your own path? Do you leave it all to the universe by accident and pure faith? Or do you simply function?!
How often do we really apply our powers to shape our future in a conscious state of mind & spirit?
Some problems in life seem huge and you feel only tiny and insignificant. But David did beat Goliath – and small pinch in the right place can even make giant run away. Take your chance!
Nobody likes to be weak – but often we make ourselves smaller and weaker then we are. Why? Is it a lack of confidence? A lack of knowledge of strength and abilities? Or do we sometimes choose to be weak to get rid of any responsibilities and lucrative chances?
It’s a feature – not a bug!
My basic question: Is there a religion without fear?
Although we seem to find the motive or promise of love or eternal bliss in so many religions – we also find the element of fear and some form of damnation in them as well. There always seems a special place for the faithful: like Heaven or Valhalla. Even the concept of Nirvana is in it’s metaphorical meaning similar to a blessed place – compared to the wheel of reincarnation.
Some people are down to earth. Others like to fly between the clouds. The extreme ones go for the moon and stars. And the pros are one with the whole universe.
Why do people need to be someplace else with their minds & souls – except to stay in the here and now?
Only those who are on a mission to somewhere realize when they feel lost or alone. Everybody else will simply sit at home and repeat themselves. Only through a change of scenery you will be able to see differences – and with different perceptions and experiences you can start to make judgements and improve your own world.
A nice bath is a great way to relax and enjoyed by almost anyone. It once more shows that body and mind are influenced by each other – a hot bath releases muscle tension as well as mental stress.