Welcome to "Run Toward Fear" - the 21st Episode of the Mind of Snaps Positivity Podcast!
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Hello and Happy Monday. It's time for another positivity podcast. Yay. As usual, I'd like to start this podcast by thanking each of you for choosing to support the efforts of this community through the Patreon. Yay, thank you. If you're enjoying these posts, please share them with a friend or two or three or four or all of them, and let them know what types of resources we're working really hard to make available to more people for free. thanks to the generosity of our twitch subscribers and patrons and people who tip I'm really trying to get as much information out there as I can help as many people as we can. My goals definitely include getting more vlogs up and on the YouTube, creating more affirmations recordings. I want to do guided meditations more wake up messages more detailed posts on mental health and mindfulness related topics for the web. sight and more. I have so many plans for the future y'all like you have no idea. All we need is time and money. And I'm working really hard to maximize both. So thanks again for all of the support and keep on sharing all of the messages we promote here. It is so appreciated. So this week, I wanted to talk to you all about fear. Seneca once said, We are more often frightened than hurt, and we suffer more from imagination than reality. The more I consider this quote, the more it screams that's truth right in my face. I talk to people every day online in the Twitch streams through DMS in person. And one of the most common themes that comes up is fear fear of success fear of failure fear of rejection fear of love fear of connection, fear of isolation, fear of physical discomfort, fear of new experiences. is a food that goes on and on and on. Fear is convincing folks on a daily basis that they would be better off living a life of quiet mediocrity than get loud and proud and try and make some dope shit happen in their own lives. Well, I am tired of this shit. I'm tired of seeing it in my own life and I'm tired of watching it scare my friends into living lives they aren't thrilled about. So what is one to do when the desire to succeed and achieve and challenge ourselves is present. But as being drowned out by the aggressive chanting of fear in our minds, the answer is run toward it. Obviously, there are some instances where you don't want to take this concept completely, literally. But I trust y'all to know that if you fear getting hit by Greyhound buses, you shouldn't run towards those. Anyway. In this book I read a while ago there was a quote from a Buddhist monk Who was asked how to address fear when it rears its ugly head. His response was a lovely little story. One day he and a dozen other monks were visiting a monastery together. Outside of the monastery was this big, scary guard dog barking and snarling at the monks As they approached. Suddenly the dog's chain broke and once freed, he began charging toward the group of monks. While some monks brozen terror and others started running away. A single monk chose instead to begin running directly at the dog as fast as he could. He put his head down, stared right at it and ran right at it. The dog notices the man running straight Adam stops yelps and runs the other way tail between its legs. It was so shocked by the charging monk, that it was scared off by his direct approach and retreated. I think about the story often as I feel it perfectly illustrates what happened. When we actually run towards our fears, the more we fight to avoid them or pretend they don't exist, the larger they seem to appear. But when we stare directly at them and start running, man do they shrink? I'm also a big fan of horror movies. And this concept is repeated in those types of films as well. scary monster appears everyone runs and fears scary monster eats everybody. scary monster appears everyone tries to hide scary monster eats everybody. scary monster appears one person or small group suddenly decide it's time to stand up for themselves. They go after the scary monster and fuck his shit up.
Unknown Speaker :
So, on this lovely Monday, it's time for you to decide if you're going to let your fears consume you. Or if you're going to take some deep breaths and run straight Adam. Another great quote I'd like to share with you now is from Nelson Mandela. He said I learned That courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid. This part is important. You can choose to be a person who runs toward all things that scare you. But that does not mean fear will cease to exist in your life. It doesn't mean that running toward those fears will be easy. Sometimes you will fail. You'll run it your fear and attempt to overcome a challenge only to be knocked on your ass. Your fear will try to use those past failures as evidence that there is no use in trying. Don't let it convince you. Fall down 10 times get up 11. When it comes to my own personal relationship with fear, it helped me greatly to finally understand why my brain wanted me to be in this perpetual state of terror. Our brains are just trying to protect us, you know, they're not necessarily trying to sabotage sabotage us. Because they're mean or because life is cruel and doesn't want to see us succeed. Our minds were just simply built for a time and place we no longer exist in. In our early human development, we have to be constantly aware of potential dangers. So our minds state alert, anything that can harm us. At that time, it could have been a fucking bear or a tiger or some kind of predator. So anytime we hesitated, our brains would look for signs of that form of danger so we could help us hide or avoid getting eaten in some way. No, many of us are fortunate enough to live in homes away from any natural dangers, but any perceived threat still sounds the same internal alarm system that tries to convince us to do whatever it takes to avoid that thing that scares us. Our minds are all about self preservation, but they don't realize that a life that's lived hiding away from all And challenges is boring as shit. How can we expect to grow if we don't challenge ourselves? How can we expect to live a life of vitality and excitement? If we shy away from every scary moment? Sure. Some of the things we fear have strong logical foundations. I get that. If you want to open your own business or start doing work on the side, but you fear losing your job, or you fear failing at whatever business venture you try. There's a very understandable reason for that. However, in my life, I'll be honest, I'd rather try and fail and stick with the safe bet. I have failed countless times in business, romance, personal growth, everything. I will continue to fail at things until I succeed at them or until the approach no longer appeals to me in some way. To me, it's the only way to ensure I'm living a life that feels authentic and fulfilling. Another great quote comes to mind here, don't fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions could have might have and should have. In our last positivity podcast, I talked about making the choice of what store you're going to tell yourself. Now's another great chance for that. You have a chance to choose how you or you will react in every situation that you pay close attention to. Will you choose to face your fears? Or will you choose to continue living smaller than you'd like? Because the risks associated with facing your fears are two great you are powerful beyond measure. You are capable of so very much. Whatever kind of life it is that you desire. Now you can have it. I believe this so fully I can feel it in my bones. I think you know it do at least deep down you know just how strong you are. Fear will try to convince you of weakness that does not actually exist within you. It is time to be the person in the scary movie that grabs the baseball bat instead of hiding under the bed. It's time for you to scare fear off by running straight at it. You can do it. You got this.
Unknown Speaker :
So today, I hope you take a moment to say out loud, Buck fear. I am a person who runs toward my fears and challenges. I am a person who overcomes all I am fucking unstoppable. I believe in you. Be kind to yourself and manifest dope shit.