Ah, fear. It takes most everyone not a minute to recall some instance where he or she felt that horrible, subconscious feeling of dread that all too often manifests itself within our thoughts, words, actions, and impulses. Who doesn’t remember even their earliest fears: the dark, the monsters in the costs and under the bed, the bogeyman, the potential serial killer in the ice cream truck?

Fear, unfortunately, has a place within the human nature, forever embedded there like an ancient tree’s roots in the ground. It comes at young age first (then mainly fears of the unbeknownst, like the dark and “stranger danger”) and gradually “matures” into phobias of death, pain, failure, and rejection, but it’s all the same, really. The fear itself remains.

One great saying regarding fear is “the only thing you have to fear is fear itself.” This is incredibly true, and yet, we let our fear control us still. It has brought forth countless deception, lies, and deaths (in both a figurative and literal sense). Sad is the day when one takes a life, whether it be his/hers or another’s, out of fear, perhaps because he/or she would be otherwise killed or tortured in some way. Why fear death? We all must die anyway, and one clearly cannot achieve peace before accepting this plain and simple truth. Why fear rejection? Billions of people live in today’s world, and not one person has been rejected by every single one of those people – not even Hitler! If one rejects another, that “rejecter” is not worth bothering with. Why fear failure? The potential worst outcome of failure is death, and yet everyone dies all the same; failure just gives on less on earth to lose when he or she dies. Why fear pain? Pain is pain, and pain will come at some point in everyone’s life. Fear will not take away the pain; rather, it will create a sense of over-caution and paranoia that will bring the one fearing it the very pain that person wanted to avoid.

The only thing worthy of our fear is fear itself. Fear is a relentless, monstrous opponent, and we mustn’t let ourselves become slaves to it. Life has its ups and downs, no matter what, and achieving peace and balance of the mind cannot be possible for one gripped with fear. Rather than dreading life’s “downs,” one should take up the capacity of the mind relishing the “ups.” Forget fear – allow life to take its natural course. Fear will remain until we overcome it.