Conquering Fear

Fear...it's so debilitating. One thing I have learned about dealing with cancer is that negative energy will not only "get in the way" but may completely reverse progress and cause more damage.

Few people realize how profound were the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he said "there is nothing to fear except fear itself". He was so right. Fear can and will destroy your spirit. It will either paralyze you or at the very least, set you in exactly the wrong direction.

I have feared a lot of things this past year - in doses, big and small. From relatively minor things like the sting of a tiny needle that delivers insulin...to the pain of removing a calcified stent without anesthetic...to holding my husband's hand as a lifeline at night for fear that I may never wake up to see another day. I have looked mortality in the eye.

Do whatever you need to do to talk yourself back in from that ledge of fear. Hold someone's hand, pray, laugh, cry - whatever it takes. Don't hold anything back.

Above all, do NOT take decisions or act based upon fear. This applies to everything, people. I try to use fear as a guide to what I need to allow myself to experience, to learn. I try to go into that tunnel willingly these days. And I found that I do emerge from the other side of that tunnel, and usually the better for it.