I will always have fears, but I need not be my
fears, for I have other places within myself
from which to speak and act.
- Parker J. Palmer
"No feeling takes over our lives more suddenly or more completely than fear. It seems to come up from nowhere and, in a blink or swallow, can infect everything.
The blind Frenchman, Jacques Lusseyran, describes how fear was the only thing that truly prevented him from seeing:
'Still, there were times when the light faded, almost to the point of disappearing. It happened every time I was afraid. If, instead of letting myself be carried along by confidence and throwing myself into things, I hesitated, calculated, thought about the wall, the half-open door, the key in the lock; if I said to myself that all these things were hostile and about to strike or scratch, then without exception I hit or wounded myself.
The only easy way to move around the house, the garden or the beach was by not thinking about it at all, or thinking as little as possible.
Then I moved between obstacles the way they say bats do. Otherwise what the loss of my eyes had not accomplished was brought about by fear. It (fear) made me blind.'
More than anything, fear blinds, and only by stepping without hesitation into the next inch of the unknown can we build confidence in the life we are about to live."
The above is an excerpt from one of my favourite books, The Book of Awakening, by Mark Nepo.
Now it's me, Marie-Chantal, talking (or typing, more accurately).
My message to you is that fear serves no purpose but to withhold your joy, light, freedom and life from being fulfilled.
I find repeatedly with my patients is that when they learn to stare down fear with courage and determination, laugh at fear, challenge it, behave indifferently toward it, guess what happens?
You got it.
Tinnitus distress goes wayyyy down. And I say that with the greatest emphasis you can possibly imagine.
I see it day in day out, like clockwork. It's not a magic wand, it's a scientific expectation. I love predictable outcomes. This is one of them.
So, with that being said, plunging into the unknown with faith and trust is where your true comfort and sense of safety is. After free falling, what we typically find, is that we land where we need to.
It is within the gift of hindsight that your journey will then all make sense.
Until that point in time, here's to facing fear, staring it down, and also, learning to leave it behind in the dust where it belongs.
Marie-Chantal x
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