Most people don't like being afraid, except perhaps in the safety of a good scary book or movie. But when real life evokes fear, we don't like it. We have physical reactions to it as part of our animal nature, especially the 'fight or flight' instinct. There is a paradox to fear though, for beings with an ego. In some ways, we actually support the things we fear with our fear of them.

To buy into fear of any future event or circumstance is to add energy for manifesting that outcome. Focusing on even the possibility would then call more attention -and energy- into making it happen. Even though we don't like fear, in an odd sense, we want to be right about it. We don't really want to be afraid of something and then find out it was nothing. It's an embarassing blow to the ego, as if we should have known not to believe this or that. So in a way, we ask for the thing(s) we fear to actually happen, so the fear will be justified.

In the worst cases, we're almost happy to have a fear become reality. Part of us wants to say "See! I told you so!" even to ourselves. Fear can also be binding. Fear of failure becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy when we allow it to keep us from even making an attempt. We fear we will fail and so we do not try and thus we do indeed fail. Worry is a brand of fear which is at best useless, or at the worst harmful. To worry is to apply energy to fear, instead of applying that same energy to hope for a better outcome.

Decide. Would you rather be fearful and be right? Or hopeful and wrong? Which emotion is more likely to drain you of energy, regardless of the outcome? Ultimately, any event has a 50/50 chance - it will happen, or it won't. On which side do you really want to place your emotional and/or energy wager? And remember, sometimes when you hope, you are right.

We are not likely to stop all fears, but we can learn to work with them. We can acknowledge fear but not give into it. We can carry on as if we were unafraid and see what actually happens instead of trying to predict what will happen in an unknowable future. How many difficulties could we avoid if we simply pressed on despite fear? As The Alchemist says in Paul Coelho's book of the same title, "The fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself."

The bottom line is that neither worry nor fear changes any outcome for the better. Think about that. Acting or not acting because of fear or worry may yield precisely the feared or worrisome result. What you choose to do in response to any event, circumstance, or possibility, is what matters. Wasting your energy on fear or worry is not helpful for you or anyone else involved. Care. Love. Share what you're thinking and feeling, but do not let the fear take over. If you do, you may invest enough in it that the future will bring you exactly what you do not think you want, just so you can be right. Do not play into this paradox.