Do You See What Your Fear Wants You To See?
On knowing when to disagree with yourself.
Our eyes see what they see, but our mind tells us what to make of it.
Sometimes, our mind can even tell us what to see in the first place — often, drawing from our weaknesses, and things it knows we can easily fall for.
But that’s not the worst part;
The worst part is us falling for it, despite knowing that it is not the reality;
But only a twisted version of a reality that our brain wants us to ‘believe’.
Now, the brain does this with well-meaning intentions of course — to protect us from what stands to be uncomfortable, disappointing, heartbreaking, or anything unpleasant really;
And it might even succeed in achieving that for the time being;
But it doesn’t take long until we’re faced with the truth anyway — only by then, we’ve gone too far in internalizing what’s not real, and that means;
We stand to face the same unpleasant feelings we avoided, only with a greater intensity this time — because not only do we need to come to terms with the fact that we believed the wrong thing all this time, but we also need to process the reality at the same time.
It’s double the work at the cost of some extra time bought to avoid feeling it sooner;
Question is — Is it worth it?
Do you think it’s worth seeing what your fears want you to see?
Or would you be better off seeing things you need to anyway?
Your fear will only consider your present, ignoring the future versions of yourself that stand to be affected by what it decides for you today — will you choose to believe it, or deny it?
It’s all about what we habituate our mind to respond to (and what not to);
Every time you see the truth for it is, you train your mind to develop a shield against your fears, and over time that shield becomes strong enough to not let any fear affect your response to reality.
It takes time, and might even involve some slip-ups — but the more we fight our mind to build that shield, the less susceptible we become, to fall for its misguided efforts.
Your heart knows when it follows the mind’s attempt to comfort it;
Even when doing so means doubling the discomfort for future;
It is in moments like these, that we must disagree with what our mind tells us to believe.
Every time your fear asks you to see what is not — learn to show it what is instead.
We must learn to disagree to see what truly is, and not what our fear wants us to see — be it in the most mundane of moments, or in moments that have the power to tip the scales for some of the defining moments of our lives.
