Fear and Anxiety Was My Lesson For Today - Sharing With You

Today's meditation dealt with the subject of fear and anxiety and how they can, with practice and a bit of bravery, turn into an open door to increased strength and possibilities.  That was a strong lesson, one I really need to take hold of like a dog will grab a favorite toy. Grasping it firmly, shaking it until it succumbs to my attentions, and then settling down with it to explore it in more detail, and finally, making it my own. 

There's nothing much cuter than a puppy with a chew 
toy, but when translated to your own life, you want 
to be the puppy, not the chew toy. Fear and anxiety 
can switch the roles for you, and suddenly you're 
the one turning into a mushy, wet, and torn mess. 

Do you have times when you suffer from fear and/or anxiety? I'm sure you've had times in your life that just stopped you short. Times when you looked ahead and could only see darkness, times when you couldn't choose the pathway to walk, among the myriad of choices. How do you choose to get through those times? 

The oncoming train of fear and anxiety cannot, and will not, 
stop for you. It's up to you to jump off those tracks of 
despair and watch the train pass through. Then, look 
carefully, and move onward, listening to and learning
from the lessons the fear is trying to teach me. 

I've had times like these in my life. I know the approach I would take today would be much different than the ways I tackled fear and anxiety in my past. In the past, I stood in the middle of the railroad tracks and dared the train to run over me. Often, it almost did, as I jumped out of the way at the last moment. Now, I work at understanding that fear, and accepting it as one more lesson in life. I walk with that fear, not as a friend - fear is incapable of friendship - but as a companion for the moment. And I listen to that fear. What is it trying to teach me? What can I learn from it that I can bring to my life from this point forward? 

The old saying is "Those that do not learn from the 
past are doomed to repeat it". Try to learn the lessons 
that the Universe throws at you today. If it's a good 
lesson, maybe it will be like that old song and you 
can dance. If it's a lesson poorly learned, however, 
it will repeat and repeat until you finally acknowledge 
it and learn from it. 

Lessons learned - whether harsh or smooth - are lessons that must not be forgotten or they will be repeated again and again until they are finally acknowledged. Don't turn your back on your fears. Don't accost them either. Let them have their space. Listen to them, learn from them, thank them, and then let them shrink more and more until, at last, they are so minimal that they are barely there, if at all. 

There you go - the lessons I learned today from my daily meditation. Have an excellent day, I'm heading out to the pool in about half an hour and I'll read everyone's postings and reply when I return home. Namaste and Mitakuye Oyasin.