simplerich

In Frank Herbert’s Dune the Litany Against Fear went:

I must not fear
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

When I first encountered that I was at an impressionable age. I thought then, and still believe to a certain extent, that Fear is the great enemy (Yes, I put a capital letter there on purpose.) Fear clouds our minds and makes us act irrationally. People leap from burning buildings out of fear of burning. Drowning people, afraid of drowning will take their rescuer with them to the bottom out of fear. Fear makes us do things we wouldn’t normally do. It takes us beyond ourselves to a primal state where an older, less rational, more reactive part of our brains makes decisions for us, and they’re not always the best decisions.

The examples I gave, burning, drowning, those are extreme examples of acute fear of an acute, extreme nature. What about day to day fear. Not the mind-numbing cold sweat nightmare fear that causes us to sit bolt upright in bed, heart racing.

But the low level, constant chronic rather than acute fears:

• of failure at work
• of loss of job
• of disappointing our loved ones
• of being downsized
• of that pain in our side? Is it a heart attack?
• of violence in our schools? Are our kids safe?

These fears live with us, riding on our backs every day, whispering into our ears during the quiet times in traffic. They can be a steady dialogue that we have with ourselves. The common name for them is stress. But that’s just because stress is a manly name. It’s socially acceptable to be stressed, but who wants to admit to being afraid?

So. When you’re stressed, or when you’re afraid, use some of these tips from Diet Blog for dealing with stress. They’re good for you. You’ll be better for it. Remember how I said in the outset that people acting out of fear don’t make the best decisions? It’s also true of people under constant low level stress.

From: Diet Blog: 17 Simple Ways to Release Stress

Here are some strategies for dealing with stress.

1. Use deep breathing - breathe in through your nose down to your stomach, hold your breath, and breathe out through your mouth.
2. Get aerobic exercise daily.
3. Take a walk, even a very short one when you’’re upset.
4. Practice yoga or tai chi or progressive relaxation.
5. Enjoy the soothing aspects of water -– swim or take a bath or a shower.
6. Make time to talk to friends and family members.
7. Pet and play with an animal.
8. Listen to or play uplifting music.
9. Read an inspiring book, sing a song, recite a poem.
10. Spend time in nature.
    …

There are more obviously… seven more or the title of the article wouldn’t make any sense at all would it? Practice as many of these as you have time for as often as you can. At least two a day. You’ll make better decisions. You’ll be a happier person, and you’re quantity and quality of work will improve. You’re friends/family and employees/employer will be glad you did. (FWIW: The ones in red are the ones I try and do every day. I get a lot of grief about listening to KLOVE but it’s calming.)

Again, with apologies:

I must not fear
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

Such a great book. It’s about time to read it again I think.

The Stress is the mind killer. by Rich Griffith, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.