FEAR BUSTERS FOR TROUBLED TIMES
4/03

Contributions by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Fear is a very potent emotion. Since the September 11 attacks and subsequently the current war in Iraq, every aspect of daily life seems to be polluted by it. Through its power of suggestion, we find ourselves running various scenarios of death and destruction in our minds. Every day news stories about real and rumored terrorist threats feed our paranoia. Law enforcement officers are on "high alert," and citizens are being asked to go about their daily business but to watch out for "suspicious behavior."

Fear plays upon our natural feelings of vulnerability and turns them into expectations that another terrorist attack is eminent. The concerns first voiced by children on the day of the 9/11 attacks - Is my house safe? Will something bad happen to me and those I love?-are now coming out of the mouths of people of all ages. The feelings of empathy, unity, and compassion, so strong in the months after the September 11 attacks, have been subsumed by the addictive nature of fear.

Recovery programs say that it takes three weeks--21 days--to break a bad habit or to start a new practice. To help you change your 'runaway fears,' we have collected 21 "Fear Busters," nuggets of spiritual wisdom coupled with simple exercises that you can do to eliminate any fears you may be wrestling with. We encourage you to check in with your thoughts (a.k.a self-talk) every minute of every day and break the fear habit.

Fear Buster #1
Quote of the Day: When we are in fear, we focus all our attention on the point of danger and lose our capacity to find any courage, sanity, or peace within ourselves.... Perhaps this is why, in the Christian New Testament, the phrase "be not afraid" is found so often. -Wayne Muller Legacy of the Heart

Practice: Instead of thinking of all the worst scenarios: Repeat the phrase, "Be not afraid," to yourself as you walk around today.

Fear Buster #2
Quote of the Day: Someone once described FEAR in an acronym: False Expectations Appearing Real. -John-Roger Do It!

Practice: Avoid letting your mind imagine something awful.

Fear Buster #3
Quote of the Day: The great builder of dualisms is fear: Fear cries out for boundaries, divisions, districts, and absolutes, but love casts out fear. -Carol Ochs Song of the Self

Practice: Avoid talking in divisive "us" versus "them" terms.

Fear Buster #4
Quote of the Day: There is a marvelous story told about a four-year-old child who awoke one night frightened, convinced that in the darkness around her there were all kinds of spooks and monsters. Alone, she ran to her parents' bedroom. Her mother calmed her down and, taking her by the hand, led her back to her own room, where she put on a light and reassured the child with these words: "You needn't be afraid, you are not alone here. God is in the room with you." The child replied: "I know that God is here, but I need someone in this room who has some skin!"
--Ronald Rolheiser The Holy Longing

Practice: Be present for loved ones who are frightened and teach them how their fear is faulty thinking.

Fear Buster #5
Quote of the Day: Fear builds walls to bar the light. -Baal Shem Tov

Practice: Shine the light on your fear and see its true colors. Fear is simply an insecurity; a figment of an overactive imagination. Each and every time you think fear based thoughts, tell yourself, "STOP" followed by a thought of hope and self-fulfillment. Such as: I am empowered. I have the ability to handle this task.

Fear Buster #6
Quote of the Day:
When the dragon of
Fear is examined it is
Found to be a mouse.
--Kenneth Verity
Awareness Beyond Mind

Practice: Avoid allowing your fears to blow everything out of proportion. Avoid the "Chicken Little-The sky is falling" syndrome.

Fear Buster #7
Quote of the Day:
I am amazed at how much energy I had wasted on fear. Time after time, I found myself fearing I would not be able to do something. Then I would do it.... Our fears take us to the edge of our being, to a place where we are fully alive. -Sarah York Pilgrim Heart

Practice: Use moments of fear as opportunities to test your limits. Thus, fear becomes your barometer of strength and courage. If you have the strength and courage to bring on the fear you have an equal force of strength and courage to bring on positive actions regarding the same situation. Fear is merely your strength and courage directed in the opposite frame of reference of your capabilities.

Fear Buster #8
Quote of the Day: Don't believe everything you hear. -Author unknown

Be aware that the news media has a profound impact on your perceptions. Do whatever you need to do to protect yourself from exposure to "negative" or fear-based stories in the media. This might mean giving up watching or listening to newscasts or reading newspapers, or it might mean that you filter your exposure to the news media and become very selective about what you read, listen to, or watch.

The media bombards us with negative reports of world events and therefore we get pulled into the negative energy. The media seldom reports "positive news" events. If we only have the media as our benchmark of what is happening on our planet, it would be easy to believe that only evil exists and that retaliation and pharmaceutical prescriptions solve every problem known to humans. The truth is; the reports of so-called negative occurrences that permeate newscasts are in most cases isolated incidences. Most of what happens on this planet falls into the "good news" arena, but positive news is not reported as the lead story, because it doesn't sell newspapers or advertising for newscasts. "Good news" stories are used for fillers rather than the "lead story." We have become conditioned to want to hear about the horror stories that the media has become so good at reporting. This conditioning is so insidious many people become addicted to the adrenaline rush created by the sensationalism. The act of bringing your awareness to the negativity that permeates the news media will help shift your consciousness and create a new paradigm.

Practice: Turn off the TV and radio news reports, which dramatize terrorism and war. Watch the Discovery Channel, Learning Channel, or Documentaries, which depict human goodness.

Fear Buster #9
Quote of the Day: Birds of a feather stick together. -Author unknown.

Surround yourself with positive thinkers. This may mean you will need to reevaluate your group of friends and find new friends who reflect your new vision.

Practice: Using only positive thinking. The glass is half full vs The glass is half empty.

Fear Buster #10
Quote of the Day: Fear is just another story with which we distract ourselves.
- Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfeld in Seeking the Heart

Practice: Make a conscious effort to avoid using distraction as a way to live life.

Fear Buster # 11
Quote of the Day: Fear has the largest eyes of all. - Boris Pasternak in Hoarfrost

Practice: When you notice you are about to succumb to fear, close your eyes and breathe deeply.

Fear Buster #12
Quote of the Day: What is your greatest fear? The Kabbalists say that there are two kinds of fears, external fear and internal fear. External fear is the fear of losing the things we value in the outside world, like honor, wealth, health, or life. Internal fear is the fear of losing a sense of the divine within yourself, of disconnecting from what makes you sacred. - Shoni Labowitz in Miraculous Living

Practice: Contemplate: what is your greatest fear and what does it reveal about your priorities?

Fear Buster #13
Quote of the Day: The most fearful people in the world are Americans, because they have so much to lose. And never has there been a people with so much who are still afraid of not having enough. - Richard Rohr in Job and the Mystery of Suffering

Practice: Avoid being attached to your things, and you won't be afraid of losing them.

Fear Buster #14
Quote of the Day: Xenophobia, the fear of strangers, is an infection of the soul particularly virulent in our times, but it is not a fear only of foreign people. It's a deeply disturbing anxiety that affects everything we do. At its root is a fear of "the strange." - Thomas Moore in The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life

Practice: To combat fear of "the strange" watch a movie about a foreign culture or, better, have dinner with someone from one.

Fear Buster #15
Quote of the Day: The next time you encounter fear, consider yourself lucky. This is where the courage comes in. Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear. When I was first married, my husband said I was one of the bravest people he knew. When I asked him why, he said because I was a complete coward but went ahead and did things anyhow. - Pema Chodron in When Things Fall Apart

Practice: Recall times when you have gone ahead and done things despite your fears.

Fear Buster #16
Quote of the Day: Real fearlessness is the product of our tenderness. It comes from letting the world tickle your raw and beautiful heart. -Rinpoche Chogyam Trungpa in No Enemies Within by Dawna Markova

Practice: Go through a news magazine and look at the pictures. Pick someone you might normally be afraid of, and try to empathize with his/her situation.

Fear Buster #17
Quote of the Day: Fear is an acid, which is pumped into one's atmosphere. It causes mental, moral, and spiritual asphyxiation, and sometimes death - death of energy and all growth. - Horace Fletcher

Practice: Do something that energizes you - exercise, go to a concert, laugh.

Fear Buster #18
Quote of the Day: Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear. -Bertrand Russell, British philosopher

Practice: Encourage your community and national leaders to be restrained in their actions especially because these are fearful times.

Fear Buster #19
Quote of the Day: What do you have to fear? Nothing. Whom do you have to fear? No one. Why? Because whoever has joined forces with God obtains three great privileges: omnipotence without power, intoxication without wine, and life without death. -Saint Francis of Assisi

Practice: Be grateful for these three privileges.

Fear Buster #20
Quote of the Day: Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence. -Jelaluddin Rumi in The Essential Rumi by Coleman Barks

Practice: Relish silence as a divine milieu where you can find the alternative to fear-Love.

Fear Buster #21
Quote of the Day: In dealing with fear, the only way out is in. - Sheldon Kopp in No Enemies Within by Dawna Markova

Practice: Remember, fear is a natural emotion. It is best to face it to avoid allowing it to get the best of you. Name it, test it, and replace it with love and compassion for yourself and others.

My thanks to Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat for their Spiritual wisdom and simple exercises to help you ward off fear.