“Self-acceptance comes from meeting life’s challenges vigorously. Don’t numb yourself to your trials and difficulties, nor build mental walls to exclude pain from your life. You will find peace not by trying to escape your problems, but by confronting them courageously. You will find peace not in denial, but in victory.”
Swami Sivananda
Beyond the Quote (11/365)
In fact, the more you hide from your life challenges and fears, the more they will grow and the more you will shrink. It’s not a single negative, it’s a double negative. If you’ve ever felt your mind take something fearful or challenging from a level 1 intensity to a level 1000 intensity, just from letting it linger in your mind, then you know what I’m talking about. And if you’ve ever let the muscles of your body go without the challenge and difficulty of exercise, then you know what it feels like to shrink. The muscles of the mind—the mental capacity to show courage and face fear—are muscles that none-the-less need to be exercised to grow.
The moment you step forward to confront your life challenges and fears, is the moment that they begin to shrink and you begin to grow. It’s not a single positive, it’s a double positive. If you’ve ever reflected on the feeling of having confronted a fear, and felt your fears shift from being an anxiety of the future to a memory of the past, then you know what I’m talking about. And if you’ve ever left a workout session feeling the euphoric pump and vitality of your muscles, then you know what it feels like to grow strength.
When it comes to doing nothing, like exercise, doing nothing counts for LESS than nothing—it counts for negative. When you don’t exercise, you don’t MAINTAIN your current level of fitness, you REGRESS (unless you’re actively recovering). The same is true when you do NOTHING about the fears and difficulties in your life. And to be clear, doing nothing includes building mental walls, numbing yourself down, denying their existence, drowning yourself in media, avoiding key people, blaming things outside of your control, etc. And let’s not forget, whenever we’re over here doing nothing, our fears are over there getting fed with time and are growing from our ignorance—they are the weeds of our mind (and if you’ve ever tried to maintain a garden then you KNOW what I’m talking about).
Let’s not make things harder than they have to be, though. Facing fears doesn’t have to be a colossal act that results in complete life transformation. Facing fears is simply that—facing away from the corner that you’re hiding in and FACING them. Facing fears might also involve standing up tall and looking at them dead in the eye. Or maybe taking one step forward and holding your ground. Or maybe bravely speaking what’s on your mind without apology or hesitation. Or maybe writing down what troubles you without censorship or illusion. Facing fears is a series of small, courageous acts taken one act at a time—nothing less and it certainly doesn’t have to be anything more.
This post became the introduction for: 28 Powerful Hero Quotes — For The Everyday Heroes In Your Life and For The Hero Inside You
Don't Let the Motivation Stop There...!
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