Last weekend I had a mystical experience. I experienced true freedom from fear.
It came upon me during deep meditation. I’ve been plagued by fear and anxiety for all of my adult life. During my meditation I suddenly felt it shatter. And in that moment I was more free and more alive then I’ve ever been. In that moment I realized that true freedom is freedom from fear. True freedom is awakening to your spiritual potential and realizing that you hold within you all of the creative forces of the universe. True freedom is ultimate power. Because without fear – what’s stopping you?
In that moment I gained a slice of nirvana. Freedom from fear is true peace. Not the mind-numbing peace of the drunkard. Not the delusional peace of self-denial. But real, true, profound peace.
Fear is the Greatest Cause of Failure
Fear is our greatest enemy and the most common form that fear manifests itself is the fear of pain. We fear the pain of rejection, the pain of failure, the pain of defeat.
Success demands pain. Success demands failure. Success demands rejection. Yet we have grown up in a society that teaches us to turn away from fear and pain. Every chance for failure is eliminated. Everyone gets a participation ribbon. Grades are curved. We have every luxury and comfort and the simple pain that comes from physical exertion is too much for the majority of our population to endure.
We’ve been taught a losing strategy.
The ability to face and conquer fear is a skill. It gains strength with use and atrophy’s with disuse.
Turn into Fear and Pain
We are not inherently weak. We are not inherently cowards. We have simply learned those behaviors. And we can unlearn them.
Our grandparents are called the greatest generation. They survived the great depression. They survived World War II. They built America into a superpower. The extreme conditions of their youth shaped them into men who weren’t afraid to face adversity or pain. So they came back from the war and went after their dreams.
We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. – Fight Club
Wage war against your weaknesses. Wage war against your fear. Wage war against your inadequacies. You are fighting for your life. To give into fear is to die the slow death of the coward.
Practices to Retrain your Brain
- Cold Showers – Much has been written about the supposed benefits of cold showers. Increased testosterone, better skin, deeper sleep, improved immune system. I’m not sure any of those actually exist but I do know that the thought of stepping into an ice-cold shower will cause you to experience immediate fear and anxiety. It’s monumental. Just try it. Turn your shower on its coldest setting and feel that tangible force in your mind that screams at you to not step in. Then push through and notice how your fear and pain completely dissipates in the face of determined action. Taking daily cold showers is the most effective and simplest strategy to retrain your brain to turn into fear.
- Talk to Strangers – Talk about anything. Ask them where they got their hat. Comment on the bag of chips they’re buying. It doesn’t have to be profound or even interesting. Just force yourself to push through the social anxiety of talking to a stranger. The more you do this the more you’ll realize that all of fear and anxiety is an illusion and that our minds create far more fearsome thoughts than what we find in reality.
- Intense Exercise – This is an area I’ve almost mastered. When I first started to workout I hated the thought of pushing my body to the point of pain. I took jiu-jitsu lessons and felt nervous and anxious before every lesson. Starting Crossfit was the same. Nerves before every workout. But just like with the other practices – the more you push past the fear and just take action the more you learn how much of an illusion fear truly is.
- No-Fap – If you’re not familiar with the concept visit www.reddit.com/r/nofap to learn more. No fap will naturally increase your testosterone and reduce anxiety. It will strengthen your will-power which will help propel you through greater and greater levels of fear.