September 19, 2004
An article in Psychology Today points up the irony in the fear of ageing, and in fear itself as a phenomenon -- fear precipitates the things it fears.
But how to escape fear? Not, certainly, by denial or avoiding what should be done today in preparation for time to come. It may however help to remember, in the face of anxiety about the future, that imagined disasters are imagined and thus neither certain nor complete.
By complete, I mean that when a difficulty arises in reality, certain inner and outer remedies can also be found. In frightened anticipation of disaster, there is only the problem, not the unforeseen means and solutions at hand and on the horizon, awaiting our optimism, creativity, and grit.
These grim rehearsals present themselves in the guise of preparatory gestures, as though we could thereby immunize ourselves from expected trauma. Just to notice that I am indulging a tendency to construct scenarios of suffering before they could possibly arrive, helps.
"Is it true?"
"Does the thought cause stress, or happiness?"
"What else might be equally true?"
Questions inspired by The Work of Byron Katie.
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