Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth
It’s amazing how much we fear fear, when there is no more universal experience. If we can get that little bit of space between it, allow the fear to exist and listen to it, underneath that is something very soft and tender and honest, the core of what it means to be alive.
Fear is a universal experience. Even the smallest insect feels it. We wade in the tidal pools and put our finger near the soft, open bodies of sea anemones and they close up. Everything spontaneously does that. It’s not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share. We react against the possibility of loneliness, of death, of not having anything to hold on to. Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth. —Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart