Letting Go of Fear

I want more LOVE in my life! More love shared with family and friends and perhaps even with that Special Someone I have yet to meet. More love of the work I do. More love of humanity, the earth, nature. More self-love. More love of LIFE!

As I meditated about what, if anything, might be blocking the flow of love in my life, the answer came to me: Fear. Yes, F-E-A-R (False Expectations Appearing Real).

Now, as the process of letting go and clearing the clutter out of one's life goes, releasing long-standing fears comes pretty high on the list of challenges.

Fear of what, you might ask.

We all have our own pet fears, generated from past experiences of one sort or another. You have yours; I have mine. Mine come, as most do, from childhood experiences, and the most obstacle-producing ones come as a doubled-edged sword: a fear of rejection and a fear of being trapped. These equal-but-opposite fears have created some real challenges in my life; they sometimes create a tremendous push-pull tension between the desire to engage and the desire to flee.

Then there are the bodily-harm-what-if-I-die fears, which, for me, mostly take the form of a fear of heights, thus preventing me from sky-diving, free-falling, bungee-jumping, tightrope walking, cliff climbing, trapeze flying, doing roof work, completing a high ropes course, painting above the first story of a building, hot-air ballooning, or flying in an airplane. This is mostly OK with me, as I have very little interest in any of these activities, except perhaps for hot air ballooning, which seems divine, and flying which I have done on occasion, both for business and for pleasure, despite my fears.

In terms of blocking our relationship to anything or anyone in life, Fear inserts iteself between you, or me, and the Other, and creates a host of barriers including guilt, anger, caution, doubt, distance, anger, withdrawal, judgement, misinterpretation, miscommunication, mistrust, refusal to cooperate, isolation, and inability to be intimate or to commit.

What might it be like, I wonder, to live a life free of most fears - especially those that are made up in our minds, have no relationship to the present moment and therefore are not real? How does one go about letting go of Fear? You can't just put it in the trash or give it to Goodwill or sell it on eBay or at a yard sale, now can you?

Then, I remembered a book I had read in the 70's, pulled it out of my bookshelves, and read it again. The title really says it all: Love Is Letting Go of Fear (by Gerald G. Jampolsky, original edition published by Celestial Arts in 1979).

Amazon.com describes this short (131-page) tightly written book this way: "An inspirational classic since 1979, LOVE IS LETTING GO OF FEAR remains one of the seminal works in the transpersonal movement." I agree that this book is a classic, every bit as wise and as timeless as it was when it was first published 28 years ago.

After devoting some pages in this book to exploring the ways in which fear inhibits the flow of love, Jerry Jampolsky provides a series of 12 daily lessons, which can be reviewed in a few minutes each day and repeated day after day until they become integrated into your life. These lessons are based upon some of the teachings contained within The Course in Miracles.

Some of the lessons are:
--Giving and Receiving are both acts of love.
--Forgiveness is the key to happiness.
--Letting go of judging anyone or anything is a way to inner peace.
--Staying in the moment almost always eliminates fear (fear is almost always based in the past or the future rather than in the present moment).
--Changing how you think about things is the key to letting go of fear.

So, in the abstract, Love is Letting Go of Fear. How does that translate to everyday life?

Here's an example from my life: I am working on a new work project for a client - a project I want very much to love and commit to. But those pesky fears are raising their nasty little heads and getting in the way. They have names like "fear of scarcity" and "fear of loss of control". I am a work-in-progress on this one. My intention is to work through and release these fears and have a joyful work experience. Time will tell.

What fears might you be ready to release? Perhaps Jampolsky's book could be your coach? What have you got to lose? No, a better question would be, what do you have to gain?

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Email: connie@conniekomack.com
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