How Do You Handle Fear?

Sometimes life is very frightening, and hard.  This morning I listened to an excellent TED talk, given by a woman who had escaped from North Korea under very frightening situations.  

Here’s the link to that talk:  https://www.google.com/search?q=ted+talks+how+i+escaped+north+korea&oq=Ted+talk+how+I+escaped&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0.6512j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

There can be times of “smaller” fear, too.  

I might be afraid to give a speech.

I might be a little hesitant to start a new business venture.

A year or so ago, my husband was laid off work, and I experienced fear then.  

What would happen if he couldn’t find a job before our savings ran out?

How do we handle the emotion of fear?

Our choice of how to deal with fear will depend on our paradigm.  I speak much of paradigms, because they are so very important.  A paradigm is the way we see the situation.  A paradigm might be based only on how we see one event, or it might be a way we see life in general.  That would be called a world view.

The important thing to note is that we get to choose our own paradigm.  We can see this constantly in the scriptures.  We’re told to “choose this day” whom we will serve.  We’re shown examples of people who have believed in the Lord, and what happens as a result, and we’re shown examples of people who do not choose the Lord, and we see the consequences of that paradigm too.

So - when we feel fear, what paradigm will bring us peace?  

2 Nephi 22: 2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation.

3 Therefore, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.

Remember the scripture that is in D&C 6:36:

Look unto me in every thought:  doubt not, fear not.

So here’s a paradigm that will bring peace:

If we look to God, and see Him as Salvation, our viewpoint will actually help change our feelings.  Instead of feeling fear, because we are looking towards God, we will feel trust, and the fear will leave.  We will know that God is our strength.  That means we will change, for we will actually BE strong, and not weak.  

We will know that God has become our salvation..

Think about it:  when we feel fear, what do we need?  We need, essentially,  salvation.  We need help of some kind.

What will be the “fruit” of that paradigm?

Verse 3, again, tells us, that “with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.”

That’s what peace would feel like, isn’t it?  All we have to do is choose where (to what source)  to look!

Principles:  #1:  Feelings and thoughts are energy.

                    #3:  Emotions lead to action.  (We make decisions & choose our viewpoint.)

    We act, based on that viewpoint.

Trials refine our emotions. Then blessings come.

From the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 103, verse 12:  “For after much tribulation, as I have said unto you in a former commandment, cometh the blessing.”

                                            

                                           
This is an important scripture, and it applies to emotional health in several ways.

First, there is tribulation.  That's a fact.  Life is not easy, and it's not meant to be easy.  In the gospel plan we are taught that it's necessary to have opposites, and that we learn and grow as we experience the opposites.  

It's not wrong to experience tribulation.  It's part of the plan.  It wouldn't be called tribulation if it wasn't hard, and it is natural for us to struggle and to become emotionally involved in that struggle.  Sometimes we think we're bad because we are having a hard time.  NO.

However, this scripture gives us comfort in tribulation.  We know that blessings come after we are tried.  That can give us the strength to look for our source of blessings - the Savior and Heavenly Father, and allow us to continue in faith through the "enduring" process.

This is a very different philosophy than one we are taught in the humanistic Law of Attraction.  The Law of Attraction says that we attract what we want as we focus on  those things.  Yes, to an extent.  But when we forget that blessings come after tribulation, we may not realize that tribulation is part of the law and the process.  The Law of Attraction seems to say that if we can just get in harmony with the  vibration of what we want, we won't experience the pain.  That is false, and leads us away from the understanding that in tribulation, we rely on God, plead for grace, and endure in God's timing.