To Live Your Best Life, Be More Curious Than You’re Scared
Courage is not the absence of fear.
The other day I’ve cut my own hair following a random YouTube video. It doesn’t sound like such a big deal. But if you’ve done the same in quarantine, you know how scary it is to do the first cut. And the second. And the third.
It reminded me of something Elizabeth Gilbert famously said:
Fear is boring.
It should be saved for true emergencies only.
We mainly deal with two types of fear.
The first is your primal fear, which takes care of your self-preservation, and which you absolutely need. If you smell smoke, hear the burglar alarm, or see a furious dog running towards you, you should react to your instinctive fear immediately.
Then there are other, indirect fears. Anxiety is one of them. These fears are connected to your anticipations and expectations, rather than a solid, understood threat. They feed on suspicions, possibilities, and imagination. They can be unbearably overwhelming, and sometimes slightly irrational. But they’re none less valid. Because they can feel just as strong. And they are just as real.
