January 10th Challenge: Fear Less Friday

fear of being alone

30% through the challenges-- you scared yet?

A little fear's a good thing.  It's a signal to avoid danger.  Unfortunately, there's a lot of noise to go with the signals these days, and we are jumping at paper tigers all the time.  Fear can stop us from doing things we love and that will help us grow.  It can encourage us towards paralysis in addressing real dangers that require action.  And needless fears can lead us to needless suffering.
 

fear of bugs

Today's challenge is to be brave in some way.  As in the rest of the month's challenges, this one doesn't need to be a grand gesture.  It's especially important you don't measure what is brave for you against what is brave for anyone else.  For some people on some days, getting out of bed is brave.  For others, returning a phone call or asking for something they want.

You may have seen the image making its way around the web for some years-- a vast field with a tiny circle on it.  Inside the circle is labeled "your comfort zone".  The expanse is labeled "where the magic happens."  I can't promise magic, but it's true that the smaller we get, the less opportunities we have for both loss AND pleasure.  And we still get the suffering.   As Anais Nin said:  ""Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." 

Maybe it feels brave to smile or say hello when walking down the street.  Or to show a piece of art you made to someone, or tell your story.   Your job is to figure out what quite possibly beneficial act is brave for you today.  You don't have to have "NO FEAR".  You just have to be brave anyway.

Quote of the day,
by the Reverend  Dr. Martin Luther King:
"Courage is an inner resolution to go forward despite obstacles;
Cowardice is submissive surrender to circumstances.
Courage breeds creativity; Cowardice represses fear and is mastered by it.
Cowardice asks the question, is it safe?
Expediency ask the question, is it politic?
Vanity asks the question, is it popular?
But conscience ask the question, is it right? And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right." 
 

Song of the day: