Episode 418 – What are you afraid of?

Apr 12, 2021

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What are you afraid of? What is the worst that can happen? What keeps you up at night. Join me today as we take a little look under the hood of our fears.

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May 2nd 10am

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Next week will be replays.

Tales from the Prepper Pantry

GSD Weekend from the pantry and garden: Charcuterie, stew, eggs and bacon, tacos
Honey season will be here soon
Skipped the April resupply – working toward quarterly
Restocking Mullein leaves (Sinus tea: Mullein, mint, ginger)

Operation Independence

$50 drywall
Solar Water Heater is up and running (going to add a timer at some point)

Main topic of the Show: What are you afraid of?

Yesterday, as I watched my neighbor totter on a ladder while fastening roofing metal on the roof of a tools shed, I thought about safety. I really do not like to be on wobbly ladders. So much so that tall tasks do not get done unless I find someone else to do them. So much so that I have been pricing out scaffolding so that I can do more things on my taller properties. I just don’t feel safe up there on a wobbly ladder.

And safety is they key. As I watched Knighthawk on that ladder yesterday I realized that people have a strong need to feel safe. In an idea world, even as we are being raised as children, we learn to feel safe at night under comfy blankets, we swaddle our babies so they feel safe, we are driven by fear of not having shelter or food to find jobs and make money to pay for our safety. We develop the odd fear of crossing roads, going outside, bees, spiders, snakes because we fear what may happen to us if something goes wrong.

As I thought about safety, I realized that many of the decisions we make are driven by this desire for safety – and sometimes that is good and sometimes that is bad. We stop and look before we cross the road for fear of being hurt or killed by a car. Or, we choose the wrong life partner because we are afraid to be alone.

These two fears are a little different though when you take a closer look: The one is not really a fear response, but rather an understanding of consequences and the action that needs to be taken to avoid a negative one. In essence, you have looked at the fear of being hurt or killed, understood how to avoid it, erased the fear, and developed a way of interacting with cars and roads that is healthy.

The second example is a different story: you have not addressed your fear, you have fed it. You have taken the fear of being alone and given it power over your ability to make the best decision for yourself. Yes – I am putting a value judgement here on choosing to be with someone who is not the right someone because you are more afraid of being alone than you are of being enduringly unhappy in your partnership. Can you make lemonade out of lemons? Sure. But what would be different if you addressed your underlying fear and came up to the same decision? Would you do something different? And if so, would it be a better long term outcome?

Let’s look at some examples of fear and what drives them –

Afraid to Fly Story. (So you do not fly) Death/Being Injured – But why? Leaving loved ones unsupported – fix this – Unknown ---harder to address. Find the why and address it.

>Death/Being Injured (things that make it happen vs death itself)

Afraid of Ending Up Alone (So you choose to be with or stay with an unhealthy arrangement) – But why? 1. Discovery in silence of things about yourself you need to fix. 2. No one to take care of you when you are ill (see fear of death).

Afraid of Spiders, etc (So you alter your world when they show up. Bee story). 1. See fear of death.

Failure. I will build this wrong, not be successful in my presentation, etc. workshop example. (So you say no to opportunities). But why are you afraid? (1. Lose income. (See fear of death) 2. Lose respect of loved ones. (see fear of death)

Being Wrong About Something – freezing green beans. What is the worst that can happen? (See failure)

Being awkward around people – acceptance – see fear of being alone.

The house break in/camping alone/ walking at night.

See how most of these fears are the same fear? See how they can grossly alter important decisions? It is really interesting how fear can drive either good or bad depending on how far you have thought it through. Depending on if you have addressed the underlying problem.

You always hear people say things like “Get right with God” so that you can move on. How about we get right with ourselves about mortality and really understand what the consequences are that we fear. Those unnamed things that we do not want to leave undone, unsupported, or unsaid.

We talk about how freedom is a choice here – but so if fear. You choose whether to embrace fear as a positive tool toward deeper understanding or forward momentum. Or we choose to let fear stop us from taking advantage of opportunities, put ourselves in unhealthy situations, and more.

I mean thing about how much easier it is to feed a chocolate addiction that run the risk of failing to take control of your dietary intake? If you never try, you never fail. And yet, if you use the fear of an early death with diabetes and decide to take on your chocolate addiction and live healthier you end up in a better place don’t you?

So we all feel fear and like most emotions, it can be used for good in our lives to empower us to be the best we can, to take care of people and things we love – or we can let it color our decision to just try that one rabbit processing workshop idea we had.

So what are you afraid of and how are you going to handle it?

Make it a great week!

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