Fear is always about something that has not happened yet. If you are afraid of falling off a cliff, you definitely have not fallen off yet. If you had fallen off the cliff, you would be afraid, briefly, about hitting the bottom. But you would have completely forgotten your fear of falling off the cliff. Miraculously, you catch a tree stump with one hand. Now you are afraid of your strength giving out and the tree stump breaking. But you are no longer worrying about the ground. Falling again, you fear hitting the bottom once more. Somehow surviving the fall, you are afraid of the severity of your injuries affecting the rest of your life. Leaving the hospital, you are afraid of the bills coming your way.
Fear and anxiety have a useful function of helping us avoid danger. However, it is all too easy to be overcome by fear and anxiety. Being overcome by fear and anxiety can ruin your day, to say the least. These really aren’t healthy emotions to experience, especially frequently or continuously.
If you are prone to fear or anxiety, there are several things you can do:
- Immediate Safety Check: Are you in a dangerous situation currently? Is your physical health being threatened by things like cliffs, dangerous people or animals, or warfare? If not, you are basically safe and sound. If there is danger, it’s time for your Kung Fu and Tai Chi!
- Since there is no immediate threat in our immediate physical environment almost all the time, we should be able to relax a little.
- What we are dealing with are mentally perceived or projected thoughts about things that might happen in the future. Ignoring our world and failing to identify future problems is a poor way to manage our affairs, but being overwhelmed or intimidated by the world doesn’t work well either. Beyond providing an alert to danger, fear and anxiety do little to help us solve our problems.
- Once we are alerted to potential danger, it’s time to focus on the immediate present moment and act, rather than continue to worry or feel anxious. Feeling anxious and worrying do not help us solve our problems. Often, fear and anxiety can make our problems worse by magnifying the size or difficulty far beyond its actual hindrance or danger level.
- Becoming centered is one of the best solutions. Centering means concentrating your mind on the center of your body, using your breath to relax deeply and sink your energy or Qi to the center. Becoming centered like a Tai Chi or Kung Fu master means being fearless and very calm. Breathing deep and focusing your mind on the center of your body, you become able to prevent these fears from arising or they arise like a small cloud far in the distance that you barely notice.
- Well-trained warriors are already centered or can become centered in an instant as a threat arises. Staying calm and fearless are the most important skills a warrior possesses. Our practices of centering our mind and Qi with deep breathing and strong concentration allow us to face things that do truly frighten us or challenge us.
- If you make giving yourself the gift of a Tai Chi or Kung Fu training session that is long enough for you to shift gears and center and ground yourself first thing in the morning, your entire day will be better. Problems that might have seemed huge and threatening instead turn to be small wispy puffs of cloud hardly worth noticing that you easily handle.
Being centered and grounded is infectious! One centered and grounded person can help stabilize a whole group of people or an entire situation. Stay calm, be fearless, and lead the way to enjoying the moment and seizing the day!