Being Fearless
Last weekend, Nancy and I were in NYC for a conference hosted by the Omega Institute, a wellness center up in Rhinebeck, NY. The conference, Being Fearless, started five years ago as more people discovered they suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of 9/11. The truth was, if you lived in New York, you had a real good cause for being fearful.
The conference combined two facets of life: the macro, such as climate change, genocide (Darfur), political truth, and similar topics with the micro, such as personal growth, overcoming personal fears, living life, and that sort of thing.
What an amazing experience. We heard keynote speakers such as Mia Farrow (Darfur), Robert Kennedy Jr. (how the news has been consolidated and hijacked by five corporations), Valerie Plame (her personal story), Zev Kedem (holocaust survivor (talk about fearless)), Carolyn Myss (spiritual recovery), Reverend Michael Beckwith (self actualization), and Anne Lamott (living life).
Andrew Harvey, Noah BenShea, and Seane Corn spoke as well, leading the attendees in meditations.
The workshops (I sat in a sessions with Debbie Ford and Tara Brach) were really good and informative.
Seems I've had this issue with never being "enough". Smart enough, imaginative enough, a good enough musician, a good enough writer. This lead me to compare myself to everyone and (oddly) I always wound up at the bottom of the comparison. Just never enough.
Debbie's Book, Why Good People Do Bad Things has given me great insight into why I do this and how to move passed it. If you're interested in hearing more on that, drop me a line at Worldwhispers@yahoo.com.
I came away from the conference with a need to do something about Darfur (hence my last post), a decision to not let fear and low self-esteem stop me from doing what I dream to do, and a realization that I have a greater purpose here than I've admitted to myself.
Fear of failure, criticism, shame, and embarrassment have all been factors in me living a half-hearted, and hesitant life. But when it comes to endeavors like raising awareness of what's happening in Africa, my fear is an obstacle to helping people in dire need. There's no benefit in living like that.
So, one day at a time, I move forward, keeping vigilant so as to not let my fear stop me from living and soon, I'll be enough.
The truth is we cannot live without fear, but we must learn to keep our fear from running our lives and paralyzing us.
Peace,
Gary . . .
"If you lived in your heart, you'd be home now."
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garyfrank) wrote,
contemplative
