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In thanksgiving for life, I pledge to overcome FEAR by seeing in what I might otherwise fear, the opportunity to cultivate courageous TRUST IN LIFE and so to lay the foundation for a peaceful future.
Let these words settle into your whole being. When you feel complete with your meditation on the pledge, deepen your exploration with the following reflections and practice suggestions.
- This commitment may feel like a challenge to many of us. We may ask ourselves, “How can we trust in life when there is so much, it seems, to rightfully fear?” What inner wisdom might help answer this question for you?
- We all know that there are situations and people in the world that/who are not worthy of our trust. How then is having trust in life different from trusting everyone with whom you come in contact?
- Being fearful can lead us to be on the look-out for what might go wrong, reinforcing our sense that the world is a frightening place. To counteract this, make a practice of noting what is going right: sunshine, a job well done, a hug from a friend, the ability to receive email. Notice how this practice can soften fear.
- Can you identify something in your life of which you are fearful that you can venture toward and learn more about? How does understanding help us to be less fearful?
- How could letting go of fear and cultivating more courageous trust bring you, and/or others, more peace?
- Commit to looking for opportunities to trust in life and to explore fear so that we may contribute to a more peaceful future.
Should you be inspired, please leave a reflection below…
Enjoy the full five-day In Thanksgiving for Life practice.
thank you Grateful Living team and Br. David for these five pledges. I find them helpful. Each one had a certain ‘ouch’ factor. That is a good thing I believe. I keep checking situations against these five. Often I recognise fear being present and it makes me want to reframe and have trust and creativity at the root. Just some thoughts. Thank you again.
Courage isn’t magic, some have, some don’t. Jung relates 80 % of all our actions, feelings, thoughts are compensatory to our past. So much more so to our past extreme experiences, especially the negative ones. For many, especially those who can’t afford therapy, those experiences, in all probability, have not been fully integrated into our psyche, not even physically or emotionally. Thus those wounds having left emotonal scar tissue, musculature armoring, diminishing of flow of chi, chakra blocks, etc., which manifest in the form of reocurrnce of a varied amount and form of problems, in them. A recapitulation of self, is an easy way to struggle superficially with these experiences; it’s always advisable to keep one’s own counsel. Remember, courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s one’s ability to think and act while being afraid; not allowing fear the upperhand, freezing one, stopping breathing, thought processing, etc. 🙂 reality
Final version of a twig of poetree elucidates 🙂
Soul
As my breath is the one, prana,
And the life’s pulse, pala,
Reaching angelic source, Sura,
So is this mind, manas,
A flowering unfoldment,
Unendingly reaching
The Eye that would it see,
Unbeckoning unto Thee.
As well, this Bodhi, a temple,
Of the four and fifth, Nur,
So entered by Atma,
A Ray of Thy Sun, thus being
Winged and as such with wind,
Flying only in Dharma’s dance,
Is returning to, Brahma, You.
There yet, by Thy Grace, go i.
Unparalled, words cannot express our gratitude, not even theirs. Thanx- have a great eve’ 🙂
Wayne Powell, ‘Great Love ~ Aloha Nui’, featuring Patti Miller 🙂
https://play.google.com/music/m/Tn7clkxsmh643nrgbifmvbkvtai?t=Great_Love_feat_Patti_Miller_-_Wayne_Powell
reality
Thank you for this insight. For me fear is a patterned thought response due to conditioning and trauma. When I am ill and in pain I regress to a fearful state. It is difficult then to trust and to be compassionate with myself. I like the prospect of “cultivating more courageous trust” and can feel the peace from that. I understand how this practice could help me to be compassionate toward others who may also be experiencing pain and fear.
@Val C: Your comment instantly gave me room to be compassionate toward myself in this moment after days of a flare of chronic illness that has had me focused on what my mind tells me will just be a dismal future 🙂 and 🙁 so has made my NOW dismal. The only thing that helps me with these fears is to bring myself back into the present and be honest (and not judge myself!) about the fears. That brings me to a reminder that fear is always and only about the future, which has nothing to do with now, and that now I’m in tune with the truth of love. You see your last statement has proved itself! Thank you all. I will keep practicing; what else is there to do?!
I trust in fearing God alone for he is divine splendour and he brought us our Saviour Jesus.