I have a friend who is in the early stages of her personal liberation from an oppressive environment, and she's (rightfully) feeling scared. And our dialogue this morning helped me to understand that there are essentially two different types of feeling scared: (Genuine) Fear and Fear Mongering.
How to tell the difference is simple.
When we are speaking in statements of facts (e.g., I do not have enough money to pay my bills, my tires are nearly bald, I have a pain in my stomach that won't go away), we are speaking the truth of what is. And they are situations that can make a person (rightfully) feel scared. But these facts can also be addressed directly with a tangible solution.
Genuine Fear is our hardwired safety protective mechanism that helps to keep us as safe as possible from threats that are real.
But when we are speaking in sentences that start off with, "What if...?," these signify fear mongering, because they're not based on fact, they are based on hypothetical possibilities. And these have no solutions, no way to resolve what makes us feel scared, and so the fear just keeps mulling around, generating even MORE fear.
Fear Mongering are the thoughts that make us feel crazy and stop us from doing what we want to do.
This is important for me to remember as I venture off into this life of travel and adventure, because there will be a great deal of "risk management" involved each and every day
For me, the big fear trigger du jour is the trailer brakes issue. When I line up all of the facts, one picture emerges. But the very long list of "what if?" possibilities of what could happen, well, this list will only serve to drive me crazy to think about, and make me so afraid of what might happen that I won't ever leave my front door!
The bottom line is that I am not ever going to be able to predict every possible scenario and plan the safest preventive measure. And I can't let all of this internal fear mongering make my choices for me, either. I will simply do the best with what I have available to me at the time, and move forward in spite of the risks involved, because no matter what I do, life offers no guarantees.