226 Marbles
People living deeply have no fear of death.
Anaïs Nin
Yesterday I went with my son and his friend to the amusement park. As we waited in line for the large wooden roller coaster (that my son said looked like it was being held together by toothpicks), I noticed that I was feeling nervous despite the fact that I’d been on that rollercoaster several times since I was a child. My son and his friend were nothing but excited. What was I afraid of - an untimely and grisly death?
The question came to mind, “Do you know the difference between fear and excitement?” They both feel slightly anxious, yet one is steeped in the worst case scenario, and the other is injected with fun. I realized that it only took a slight shift to let go of the fear and get into the boys’ excitement of the adventure. (All of this was an internal shift because they couldn’t see me sweat - I had talked them into the rollercoaster in the first place.)
Our cart came along and we were buckled in for the wild ride – me in the front, the boys behind. The first hill was huge and I laughed all the way down. I could hear the boys yelling and I turned around to see the smiles on their faces. In a couple of minutes we were done. As we climbed out of our cart, my son’s friend said, “I survived. Now I can tell all my friends that I rode on the wooden rollercoaster.” He took away a survival story steeped in fun and bravery. I took away a reminder to be aware to shift from fear to excitement whenever possible.
When you go into fear, stop and ask, "Could I shift into the energy of excitement?" How many occasions do you experience fear when it is not an appropriate response? (Fear when being chased by a Tyrannosaurus Rex is appropriate, but that’s just not going to happen;) Wouldn’t life be more fun if you shifted into excitement more often? The magician Robert Heller said, "Fear is excitement without breath." Breathe into your fear and transform it into excitement.
The question came to mind, “Do you know the difference between fear and excitement?” They both feel slightly anxious, yet one is steeped in the worst case scenario, and the other is injected with fun. I realized that it only took a slight shift to let go of the fear and get into the boys’ excitement of the adventure. (All of this was an internal shift because they couldn’t see me sweat - I had talked them into the rollercoaster in the first place.)
Our cart came along and we were buckled in for the wild ride – me in the front, the boys behind. The first hill was huge and I laughed all the way down. I could hear the boys yelling and I turned around to see the smiles on their faces. In a couple of minutes we were done. As we climbed out of our cart, my son’s friend said, “I survived. Now I can tell all my friends that I rode on the wooden rollercoaster.” He took away a survival story steeped in fun and bravery. I took away a reminder to be aware to shift from fear to excitement whenever possible.
When you go into fear, stop and ask, "Could I shift into the energy of excitement?" How many occasions do you experience fear when it is not an appropriate response? (Fear when being chased by a Tyrannosaurus Rex is appropriate, but that’s just not going to happen;) Wouldn’t life be more fun if you shifted into excitement more often? The magician Robert Heller said, "Fear is excitement without breath." Breathe into your fear and transform it into excitement.
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