Fear: The Facts

Today a friend of mine got into my car with me. A rather cautious person, she sorely lacked faith in my driving and that reflected in her repeated warnings as we were on the road. Frazzled by her concern my already questionable driving skills took a dive and we almost met with an accident which I was only able to avoid by the grace of God. Now I am not the best driver in the world and I frequently attempt a lot of dangerous stunts while driving like texting, answering phone calls, searching for things in my handbag(I'm not proud of it) and I've had many close shaves but nothing quite as bad as the one we almost had today. Throughout the day as we drove around I was constantly on the edge, simultaneously affected by her lack of trust in my driving and the close shave we nearly had. Surprisingly though the minute she left my car, I regained my confidence and was able to drive quite normally. That's when I realized something. Fear can affect people. Her fear had affected me.

When another person is fearful and lacks trust in you, those unspoken things still has the power to affect you. For instance when you choose to love someone you take a risk. The risk that your love might be unrequited, the risk that the other person might leave you for someone else. When you're afraid of getting hurt in a relationship, and you lack trust in the other person, these emotions can and will reflect in that relationship. Subconsciously the other person will be aware of your fear and can pick it up in the little things you do to prevent yourself from getting hurt. Your lack of trust in them can wound them and keep them on the edge. They will become afraid of hurting you and question themselves. You become like a porcupine, shrinking into a ball to avoid getting hurt and exposing sharp prickles that can hurt others. Eventually your worst fear will come true. 

In a universe of balance however, if we believe in something the converse must be true. So if negative emotions can affect us negatively we must believe that positive emotions can affect us positively. When a person indicates unswerving trust in you, you are strengthened by their trust in you and spurred to go to great lengths to maintain that trust. Similarly when a person demonstrates great love for you, you are somehow touched by that and inspired to keep it that way. How you approach a relationship will determine the state of that relationship. This applies to everything in life.

Approach everything with a positive attitude. Your negativity can induce it everyone around you but when you're positive and you take a risk in loving others, you will be rewarded for that risk. Hope is a wonderful thing. Keep hoping and never stop. Dance like no one's watching, sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on earth. Try to see that silver lining. It in only on the darkest night that you can see the brightest stars.