This month is one of introductions here, where interviews and posts will paint the broad outlines of a perspective on trust that, with your input, I hope to fill in and expand upon in months and years to come.
With this in mind, I’d like to talk more about Life beyond fear, since this is the North Star by which I navigate my trust tending work, and a concept that blows tremendous wind at my back (a windy star, this Life! :).
So here’s a bit of how I understand the phrase.
Life beyond fear is NOT:
- life without fear.
- painless and easy.
- a destination.
- something accessible to an elite few (who were probably wired for such a thing constitutionally anyway).
Rather, I understand Life beyond fear as:
Life so filled with trust that in it, fear can’t get a solid grip.
It’s life that isn’t free of fear, but life that has established and maintained 1) pathways leading out of fear, and 2) tools for finding and taking those pathways when fear hits.
It’s life when fear is dramatically reduced in size, strength, and staying power from the way it was before trust got consistently tended.
When trust is grown this way, and fear so much diminished, the blocks that keep people from living their boldest, most colorful lives fall away. A power emerges that’s deeper and stronger than rank or force or income or education. Life in its very best sense gets lived.
I’d love to hear your list people who embody this way of living and inspire you to want to live it too. Whether known by many or few, who are your heroes?
Everything Belongs
Seasons are universal. Treat yours uniquely.
One of my heroes lately is a woman named Shannon Elhart. She’s a life coach and dear friend of mine who has taught me so much about TRUST, living in the present, meditation, authenticity, LOVE, and so much more! She has so many layers in her work, but her energy is consistently calm and full of compassion and love…to be in her presence is a magnificent feeling. Her business is called Life Imagined and she is starting a new venture called Green Heart Live Peace that you can find on facebook.
Incidentally, after checking out your website…I’d imagine you as a very similar personality ;) Your work is really awesome…THANK YOU for trusting enough to put it out into the world :)
Comment by rene' — January 11, 2011 @ 11:12 amThank you for the reminder that Life without Fear is not a destination. I am often hit by something big (scary) that sets me back and I catch myself thinking I had conquered fear and now I have to start over again. You remind me it is a process and I will continue to maintain the pathways that bring me home again(to truth).
Comment by janice — January 11, 2011 @ 12:01 pmRene, Shannon sounds like a really healing person to be around! I’m so grateful for coaches and therapists like her!!! I’ll definitely check out her Green Heart Live Peace.
And Janice so true. I continue to be scandalized by the same thing sometimes! (“What?! I thought I was done dealing with this!”) I’m glad for reminders of the process, too…and admittedly wistful sometimes about it not being a destination.
Comment by Kristin — January 11, 2011 @ 3:55 pmThanks for stopping by and visiting me, I am enjoying your new space and this post specifically is one I am glad to read today.. speaks to what I have been struggling with. I do think things come along right when you need to hear them and your words soothe me today.
Karen
Comment by Karen D — January 11, 2011 @ 4:50 pmI’m so glad, Karen.
Comment by Kristin — January 11, 2011 @ 8:57 pmI love love this one!
Comment by bonnierose — January 12, 2011 @ 11:41 amI would like to honor my hero as of late, my partner and dear friend Dan. He lives with such joy and laughter in his heart, is loving and compassionate to all, does not judge, maintains a healthy routine of eating well, drinking lots of water, exercising, maintaining a healthy mind and always honors himself. He lives a life beyond fear and I can see the freedom that that brings him and it brightens the shining light that he is.
Comment by Angela — January 13, 2011 @ 8:59 amTwo people that have inspired me are Jackie Robinson and Thich Nhat Hanh.
Comment by nate — January 13, 2011 @ 9:35 amMy cup is lifted high to Dan, Jackie Robinson and Thich Nhat Hanh!
Comment by Kristin — January 13, 2011 @ 2:16 pmTo me life w/o fear is when you have made friends with death. I do not mean metaphorically but in actual reality. Imagine that in truth once you are friends with death or more directly your own death then trust is very possible. I mean as strange as it may sound you can trust that death will one day come or in the very next moment come and you are gone from this exsistence. Once life (yang) gets totally familiar with death (yin)you then are IT, NOW…in this moment free, completely and utterly free and eternal. What is your ultimate fear? Really ask that and meditate on it….WOW!
Comment by Will Thornton — May 3, 2011 @ 11:20 pmWill, I think you’re so right: there is ENORMOUS freedom in coming to terms with death (I wrote a little bit about it in the 5th point here). I’ve been wondering whether a whole month devoted to that theme may be in order, and weighing how intensely most of us don’t want to think about it at all. One of those ironies, eh? – that the thing we most avoid can actually be one of our greatest freedoms.
Thanks for your good reminder here.
Comment by Kristin — May 4, 2011 @ 6:31 am