The entitlement of Fear
What if thinking that my fears are my own is a really selfish and entitled way of being? I recently read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck and the author writes a section about this.
“The truth is that there’s no such thing as a personal problem. If you’ve got a problem, chances are millions of other people have had it in the past, have it now, and are going to have it in the future...Often, it’s this realization — that you and your problems are actually not privileged in their severity or pain — that is the first and most important step towards solving them.”
I've discovered that my fear transforms when I recognize that it's not my own. That in fact, most people, if not all, have shared this same emotion at some point in their life.
When I put myself in this shared bundle of feelings and know that I'm just one person in the whole of everyone, it clicks for me. We are different humans, having a similar human experience. It's so simple. When I come to see that our problems are shared, I become so much more aware of the power of compassion and kindness towards others. Knowing that the person across from me could also be experiencing fear, anxiety, or whatever other negative emotions, reminds me that I'm not alone in this. We all experience some forms of fear in our lives.
So why not remember that the people around us are going through their own struggles and that, just maybe, we might be the break they get in a day. I know that this is what I would wish for myself, so why not give it to somebody else? Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing?
These thoughts are reminiscent of a great commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace. Check it out: