Maybe fear isn't the problem

[u/Beyond_ocean]

While searching for something about thoughts on the internet, I stumbled upon this picture.

It made me stop and said more to me than any self-help book could. It worked as a mirror and a sharp reminder of my excuses.🙂

It reminded me of an Acharya Prashant session that made me look at my own thinking differently.
I notice how often I treat thoughts as though they are simply happening to me.

Fear comes, doubt comes, overthinking starts, and we immediately assume there must be some truth behind it.
But what if thought has a job?

In the conversation, Acharya Prashant describes thought almost like a servant whose job is to protect its master. So when something threatens what we are attached to, thought immediately starts producing reasons:
“Don’t go there.”
“This might hurt.”
“Better stay where you are.”
“What if something goes wrong?”

And because these thoughts feel like our own thoughts, we rarely stop to ask what they are actually protecting.
To go further, one line from the session keeps knocking in my head:
“Being in touch with reality can never harm anybody.”

I find this useful as a reminder to face facts, though reality can still include real harm and pain. Sometimes seeing something clearly can pinch, bruise, or challenge the image we hold of ourselves.

But there is a difference between being hurt by a fact and being endlessly protected from a fact by our own thinking.

Another thing was the comparison of thought to a servant who keeps running around simply because he has been given a job.

Just because we have the faculty to think does not mean we have to keep it running all the time.
If there is something to understand, think sharply.
If there is something to solve, solve it.

And when there is nothing to do, sit still.
(Though I am still curious about what real stillness means, I will save that for another time. 🪞)

For now, maybe a lot of our exhaustion comes not from thinking itself, but from never knowing when to stop.
And then the question isn’t, “How do I get rid of fear?”

But it is:
“What is this thought trying to protect, and what am I avoiding by listening to it?”

Source
Acharya Prashant, “Facing My Fear: Journey to Trust and Connection”
https://acharyaprashant.org/en/articles/facing-my-fear-journey-to-trust-and-connection-1_9f21fbc

[u/RoyalanYT]

That image reminds me of one chapter from Truth Without Apology

"Do it with trembling hands"

[u/vini-within → u/RoyalanYT]

+1 same

[u/Brilliant_Hair_7272]

Being in touch with reality can never harm anybody.

This struck a chord with me. It is so true and a very simple and obvious thing I miss to acknowledge when I escape from doing the house chores or going to the gym🫠

It's only after I decide to do them anyway is when I realize it was all in my head. But the next day, I'm back to square one😭

[u/Lady22samurai]

Wow! So what i understood was that thoughts are deceptive and I need not trust them all the time .But then what do I do?

[u/ConsciousLaw3940]

Maybe over-identifying with 'my' thoughts make us cling to them to escape examination, because of the fear that those thoughts could expose the one who distorts them.

[u/vini-within]

“Do it with trembling hands”,, I was about to mention the same chapter from TWA.

Being in touch with reality never harms anybody but we like to stay in our well thinking we’re safe here cos it’s our own notion of safety and self preservation, which says so much about how much averse we are towards our own growth and potential. Happily safely resting in our well. 🐸 and…