"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."  Franklin D Roosevelt - Inauguration, 1933  

(if you want to know more about Roosevelt and this quote, check out this link in "Ask Yahoo")

I don't know if I agree or not.  Fear may not be the ONLY thing I have to fear.  Most of the time, though, it's at the top of the list.

One of the great teachers in our planet's written history taught that "...perfect love casts out all fear..."  He was sharing a message from his teacher whom he'd never met.

Usually, when I'm experiencing fear, I'm afraid that I won't get something I want or I will get something I don't want.  Prolonged fear becomes depression, a real illness.

When I'm fearful, I've already decided that living without what I want, or living with what I don't want would be painful in some way.

I don't know about you, but in me that kind of fear produces suffering.

But we don't just go from wanting to suffering.  A lot happens in our perceptions in a very short amount of time.

When scientists study the phenomenon of physical pain, they describe a process that eventually leads to suffering.

1. The first thing that happens is the injury.

2. Next is the perception of the injury.  When the injury is physical like a cut or a scrape, this is called nosiception.  It just means that the body creates and sends a signal to the brain through the nerves.

3. The third thing that happens is that the brain registers the complaint and sends a signal back.  That signal is called PAIN.

Usually pain lasts for a short time while the body is healing.  It serves a purpose that lets the body know that there is an injury and that the body needs to be careful with the injured site.

Sometimes the pain doesn't go away.  It lasts longer than the healing process.  This is called chronic pain.

Chronic pain is like suffering, but it's not suffering.  This is the point where we develop behaviors around the pain.  Things like hunching over because of a sore back is called a pain behavior.

Our negative beliefs and feelings about the pain is suffering.  We can learn to let that go.  (Finish reading this article and if you still want to know how to let that suffering go, there will be a link at the bottom of the page.  Actually, there will be a link there anyway, but read the rest of the article anyway.)

Fear is also one of those pain behaviors.  It keeps us from doing things we want to do, and makes us do things we don't want to do.

We're not talking about the kind of fear that keeps people from walking out into the middle of a busy freeway.  That's just good sense.  We're talking about the kind of fear that keeps people doing the same things over and over because they think it's safe or they are afraid of the unknown.

You know what?  It's hard for me to even describe some of these things we do because they all depend on what the circumstances are.  If you're an alcoholic and you continue to drink because you're afraid of what would happen if you quit (lose your friends, lose business, not have any more fun, become boring, etc.) then you are engaging in pain behaviors.  The alternative is unthinkable so don't think it.

It's also hard for me to describe them because I have the same problems everyone else does.  I don't always see them as pain behaviors or fear-based behaviors.

But when I'm uncomfortable with something, I should realize that it's probably not really good for me and that I need to find a way to detach from it.

The trouble is that the defective thinking that plays these tricks on me are produced in the same mind I try to use to find the way out.

Let me ask a question.  If you had a car you couldn't use because every time you drove it the gas tank blew up, would you use that car to go to the dealership to shop for a new car?

Every time you say "I can't stop doing..." (whatever destructive behavior you're engaged in) "... because it will feel bad if I do." you're driving that exploding car to the dealership.  Worse yet, you're not even going to the dealership, you're just driving around in an exploding car.

WHAT'S A PERSON TO DO?

There is a solution that millions have found and used to end that kind of suffering.  That solution is found in the 12 Steps that were first put together and published by Alcoholics Anonymous.  Since then there have been other programs developed using the 12 Steps.  There's a version of them in Al-anon, Narcotics Anonymous, Gambler's Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Debtor's Anonymous, Smoker's Anonymous, Marijuana Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, and probably other groups and fellowships that follow the same principles taught in AA's 12 Steps.

The reason they're so widely used is that they work.  And what's even more interesting is that they work even if you don't believe in them.

The only way they won't work is if you don't take them.  If that's what you do (not taking them) it's kind of like going to the store and buying a cake mix and going home and saying "Where's my cake?"  You have to follow the instructions to bake the cake.  

You can't just read the directions and expect a cake either.  You have to DO them.  It takes action.  

You can memorize them, set them to music, chant them alone or with other people, translate them into foreign languages, read them aloud or to yourself. 

But if you don't follow the directions and take the actions they call for, 

you won't get a cake.

What if I told you that you could have anything you wanted as long as you didn't want it.

Or that you could win if you would only admit complete defeat.

Or that, once I give this gift to you, the only way you can keep it is to give it away - 100% for fun and for free.

What would you do?

The truth about the problem of alcoholism, or any other addiction or destructive behavior is that it isn't a problem with alcohol, or drugs, or eating too much, or gambling, or sex, or relationships, or credit/money, or anything else.  The truth is that the problem is spiritual.

We have a spiritual problem that pops out in what the 12 Step programs call Character Defects.

1. Here's an example:  One of my character defects is greed.  Greed causes me to hoard things because I'm afraid I'll never see it again if I let it go.

2. The Spiritual Universe sees me doing that and says "Geeze... he's hoarding things and has so many things he wouldn't have anyplace to put them if he were to get more so We're not going to give him any more."

3. I see me getting less and less and I get more and more greedy.

4. It's a vicious cycle.  My behavior perpetuates the very thing I want NOT to happen.

And that's just one example.  There are millions.  How is your mind going to keep track of millions of possible traps and pitfalls?

It's NOT!

Step One:     "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol (drugs, bills, sex, gambling, etc.) - that our lives had become unmanageable."

All it's asking you to do is consider the possibility that you are NOT the end of the discussion on this thing.  It's got you beat.  You don't have to say that you're an alcoholic or addict or sex addict or gambling addict or anything else.  You just have to admit that you are powerless over it.

If I had "power over something"... I mean ALL POWER OVER SOMETHING... I could see that something on the shelf and say something like "Hey... Come over here to me." and it would.

I could take it or leave it.  If I discovered that hitting my head with a hammer was damaging me in some way I could simply stop doing it and never give it a second thought.

There are some things that I have power over in a limited sort of way.

I have power over what I wear.

I have power over what I eat.

to be continued...

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