Fear is an emotion you know. Emotions are sensory devices to give us input about outside things, just like eyes give us input and ears and noses. We take in all this input and use it to gain knowledge and make good decisions. But we don't necessarily make decisions just based on one kind of sensory input. That would be like: oh, it is dark so I cannot see. But if you wait a moment you can see the stars that you would not have seen if you had just gone with your sensory input that it is dark. We use our sensory input along with our thoughts and memories and knowledge gained.
Our senses do not control us. They are just antennas, feelers. Fear should not control us. it is just a sensation. Weigh it out against other input you have, what you know, and use it as the antenna it is, not the final decision maker in your life!
Emotions do have another purpose. They are the gas behind our intentions. Let’s take an example. Let’s say a man wants to get a job that is being offered to manage a restaurant. He knows he is a good manager and has experience and can do this job. But there is another offer to drive a cab that he has been given. He knows he should manage the restaurant as that is his career. But driving the cab seems so easy.
So he goes to the interview for the restaurant job. Then he goes to the interview for the cab driving job. He fails the restaurant interview and passes the cab driver interview and ends up with something that does not really work for him financially or career wise and that in the end was a poor decision on his part. But what happened?
At the restaurant job he was polite and knowledgeable, answered all their questions and was checking out the restaurant for cleanliness and asking about time off and hours. At the cab driver interview he was animated, excited, interested in this new field of endeavor, absorbed in learning how to do this job. If he had shown as much enthusiasm at the restaurant interview he would have gotten that job. See how his emotions played for his intent. He had made up his mind that he wanted the cab job. He displayed emotionally his desire with enthusiasm and gusto at the interview and got the job.
It is OK to look at things like this. It is not about judgment but rather introspection, why did I do what I did. What was my motive, what was I intending, what do I want to intend, how do I feel about that intention, how can I express what I feel about my intention. Questions I ask myself all the time. This practice keeps me in tune with what I am trying to do and keeps me doing it the best way I can. Back to being impeccable: If you can't be impeccable with yourself, who can you be impeccable with.
Shaman Elder Maggie
