How do I get rid of fear? – Peter Ralston Newsletter

Peter,
How does one remove fear from one’s consciousness. I have used 100’s of methods for fifteen years that have a certain level of suppressing it vs. actually removing it altogether or to live in an awareness state that allows it to be expansive fear rather than one’s own.
I know it’s not mine and doesn’t have to be there, and Darwin I believe explained that is not yours, it is the fear of the whole. To move into a state of no inhibition allows one to allow life to happen. I believe I am addicted to resisting life as so many are. It’s our creation, yet we have trained our brains with “concepts” that dictate our lives.
I went into extreme skiing (skied professionally for 10 years to basically go through the fear and do backflips off 100 foot cliffs. At that time I was so present and the risks seemed worth it because I was truly living.

The spark of life that is hidden deep beneath so many of us is 10 times more powerful than it was during my prior life (past skiing life). My life force flows through my skiing ten times beyond what it ever did before! Perhaps that is the question…we do dumb little projects that are not tapping into our infinite potential so than the fear wins, but if we go for the one big dream, then we put the fear aside because the risk is worth it. Somehow by aligning with one’s true nature then the fear has less power.

I would wake up afraid so many days during my ski career, but yet moved right through it with total commitment. My dream with skiing is and always was to compete in the Olympics. Perhaps by aligning everything to go for this, the fear loses power once again. Most of what I do these days is with a medium level of interest. The big one is the Olympics (not for the Olympics, but just to be in the process of knowing and being in my infinite potential). When I am skiing I am in the flow. Time stops.

Thanks for your insight and guidance.

Trevor

Trevor,

The only way to permanently remove fear from your experience is to completely give up self- survival, and that is highly unlikely. But you can actually consciously eliminate fear if you know and experience the activities that create it. As you might have read in The Book of Not Knowing fear is generated by combining the conceptual activities of a future with an imagined unwanted experience. Eliminate either of these, no fear can exist.

When you are completely focused on a present activity no fear can arise because there is no room for you to create any scenarios in the future. Of course, it only takes a split second for you to do so, therefore the focus must be seamless.

You could also go another route and be willing to experience whatever it is that you don’t want to experience. If you are completely willing to have that experience, then you won’t be afraid. But of course, these things have to be experienced for yourself and you need to control your mind enough to do them.

Generating further conceptual activities—like fantasies, or imagined spiritual cosmologies that seem agreeable or give you a sense of dignity or specialness or some such—won’t do it. I suspect at best they’d just distract you, creating a superficial overlay distracting you from where your mind would naturally go and so give you something else to do.

Also, don’t confuse your true nature with any notion of some aspect or state that you can align with. As for your true nature, fear doesn’t have less power, it has no power—there is no fear because there is nothing here to be afraid. Making a shift in your state of mind that works to decrease fear is useful but that is manipulating your mind, not aligning with your true nature.

When you commit to something—like your skiing or any other unfolding activity—this makes a difference because it eliminates the availability of future options. Real commitment means you are focused on only one possible future outcome. Other possibilities that don’t fit this commitment are jettisoned from the mind, and so no “unwanted” scenarios will crop up, thus nudging out fear. Being in the flow is great,

perhaps now that you aren’t participate in extreme physical danger you may want to look into creating your own states and aliveness without depending on outside stimuli.

Good luck with that.

Peter