Our most significant battle right is not with the virus, it is with fear. And fear, when examined proves to be almost entirely about our own beliefs about ourselves.
We are MOST afraid of our own opinion of ourselves.
You are not afraid of the thing...it is the personal implications the thing exposes you to.
You are not afraid of losing your job...it is what losing your job says about you.
You are not afraid of running out of money...it is what running out of money would say about you.
Our jobs, incomes and possessions often serve to create a layer of protection from our fear of being found out as somehow inadequate
You are not afraid of failing...it what you think failing would say about you. You are afraid that you ARE a failure. Failure would show the world that you really are not good enough.
You are not afraid of rejection...it is what you think being rejected says about you. You are afraid that you are not worthy of love
You are not even afraid of dying...if you were to die then it would prove you weren't good enough. There would be no more time to prove others wrong.
You are most afraid of your own opinion of yourself.
This fear is the insecurity of being found out as not being good enough.
Even more precise, therefore, it is your own opinion of yourself that scares you most.
Your
Own
Opinion
Of
You.
There will be a thousand opportunities to shut down this level of awareness and move the problem back up the levels of abstraction, but every time you step away from this level of laser precision you step out of the 7 essential practices framework. You are stuck again.
The word ‘opinion’ changes everything even without you changing anything.
Opinion is never used to describe that which is concrete, true, objectively verifiable, universally accepted. Instead it is used to describe a thought or belief you have about something or someone.
The dictionary defines the word opinion to mean:
a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty.
a personal view, attitude, or appraisal not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.
“that, in my opinion, is right”
The problem you are trying to fix is not you. You are not the problem…It is just your opinion of you. You’re fine!