Life Lessons - Overcoming Fear

By Corey Haag

Liberty Uncensored Newspaper

Jul 20, 2023

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There is nothing more detrimental to a person’s growth and wellbeing than fear, ignorance, confusion, and doubt.

At the moment I’d like to focus in on that great debilitator, fear.

My Life has been, in many ways, a defiant stance against the presentment of fear. All the places and ways in which fear manifests in humanity is where I have found myself approaching, challenging myself to stand out on the edge, and leaping out into the void in faith.

This, I have done as a personal challenge and spiritual effort. To know something as it is, requires this sort of Courage. I have always, since childhood, and as far back as I can recall, challenged myself and this world to present itself as Truth. I despise fallacy and insincerity. It is an ultimate sin in my world to intentionally lie to oneself. It is another thing altogether to investigate life, speaking truths as they appear to yourself in the moment and always revise ones perspective and undertsanding as greater truths present themselves.

I have experienced fear regarding relationships and social settings and conditions, fear of injury, fear of the unknown, fear of my own power and authority, fear of failure, fear of loss, fear of being despised or even disliked, fear of being encased in worldviews not of my own discernment, and fear of others brutality and apathy.

In every way I know how, I have challenged these fears with direct confrontation. My fear of social settings and conditions has led me to place myself in the center of uncomfortable situations, where I might learn the Truth of its cause. It has led me to intentionally place myself in critical roles where I must be accountable for others and myself.

My fear of physical injury has led me to take on extreme practices like free solo climbing and walkabout in dangerous environments. I have trekked into some of the most dangerous areas of the world, both urban settings and remote jungles and deserts. I challenged my fear by approaching situations with a high likelihood of injury to see what the reality of my fears might amount to.

My fear of the unknown has taken me down many paths, including deep meditations and wanderings on unbeaten paths. I have explored the places that made me break out in cold sweat because I needed to know if my condition was valid. It has never been proven so. My fears of the unknown have all been based on ignorance.

My fear of my own power and authority has led me to take on greater responsibilities and ventures. I have learned to speak and act with confidence and to stand in larger lights. My authority extends only to myself, but I have found that others may grant those who live a self-authorized life a place of respect and deference in their own lives. It requires one to maintain a high degree of accountability, Humility, and compassion to hold this position in the eyes of others. It should never be the cause for the action, I contend, but it is a natural response that is a powerful motivator for maintaining one’s sincerity and dignified life.

My fear of failure has led me to initiate very many projects and ventures, and to set out on walkabouts that were exceedingly challenging. By setting myself against the pressures of overwhelming disadvantage, I have learned to accept life as it is, while being able to conduct myself with extreme effort toward great goals and aspirations.

My fear of loss has led me to initiate a lifestyle that both exalts intimacy and equally accepts solitude. I am ready both to accept the loss of those I love, lifestyles I have developed and things I have collected, and the fact that I was born alone and I will die alone, except for the omnipresent source of all life. The understanding I have now, is that we are never trulya alone, nor are we ever truly unified as long as we are alive in distinct egos. These understandings came only through deep meditation and innumerable relationships that gave me the opportunity to experience loss.

My fear of being despised or disliked comes from a very sensitive, innocent and open place. I want to be Loved. Not only in the sense of romantic Love, which is only one piece of the pie, but Loved in an ultimate sense. I want to experience physical Love, Love of my ego, that is who I am as crafted in this life, Love of my ultimate soul, which is to say Loved as all people ought Love themselves, and Loved for my actions and intentions in this world. I want brotherly and sisterly Love, paternal and maternal Love, Love of my children, Love of my spouse, Love of my neighbor, Love of my friends, and Love of my foe. There are so many ways for Love to shine through, and I am greedy for them all. I have learned that it is most often in sharing these multifarious Love forms with others that I may potentially see it reflected back. I have found it is only in given, being, and feeling this Love that I may know it myself, in the way that satisfies my voracity for Love.

My fear of imprisonment in the worldviews of others has led me through a maze of attempting to defy that very thing. By forming walls and boundaries and denying space for consideration of others perspective to guard my own, unitl I had a realization that consideration and discernment, contemplation amd meditation could be my guide. I realized that Truth needs no army to defend it, nor walls to guard it. I realized that Truth itself rings like a bell when it is heard, shines like the sun when it is seen, and sweeps away all that is false like a cobweb before a broom, or a darkness before a torch. With this knowledge and wisdom, I have can sit with the deranged, the manipulative, the impressionable, the false evangelist, the doubtful, the fearful, the ignorant, and the confused. I can sit and listen, and listen deeply to what is being said beneath the conscious mind. I can listen to causes and motivations, and can see patterns and energies. By changing my mind significantly, I have been able to defer judgement and become understanding and compassionate. I have become a more tempered man, made stronger in will and in my willingness to be in service, seva, and more fortitudinous in a state of being rather than in approval of any particular pattern of lifestyle or thought. I have become open to the possibility that I know nothing, and so I listen much deeper to those who I interact with. I have freed myself from the prison I was afraid others would make for me, but which I found only I was guilty of construction.

My fear of the brutality and apathy of others has been related to a feeling of security and comfort and peace. By diving into this world and its myriad ways, I learned that we cannot alter the course others may take by demand or force. Being fearful that someone may hurt you is an ultimate waste of time. We cannot know how the next moment will unfold itself. All that we have the authority and power to do is to shape our own mind and character. Rather than fearing the nature of others, I learned to accept that people were of infinite variation, that life was not limited to what is safe, secure, or comfortable, and that my life particularly would be an extremely boring and stagnant thing if there were not challenges to overcome, even extending into mortal danger, and all the subtler dangers that we more often face. I have placed myself in the hands of God/Nature/Totality and surrendered my own agenda for life. I do not wish to shape the world to my design, but rather allow the design of the creative source of all that is to unfold itself before my witnessing eye. We are all children of God, cells in Nature’s infinite body, and leaves on the tree of life. Humility and Righteousness by service and sincerity will achieve more for humanity than any amount of action responding to things we wish to affect for our own egoistic aspirations. I choose to recognize these Truths and live within them. I choose also to recognize the choice of all other beings to do what they will. How I treat others is based on my character, not theirs.

Refer a friend

Ultimately, what I have discovered, that which has always existed, is that fear itself is the ultimate mechanism for growth, and also the greatest limiting factor to our short-lived existence.

We either choose to overcome through willful vigilance, or crumble beneath the weight of an invisible, intangible, self-empowered and self-authorized adversary.