Fear of the Unknowns

By this I mean, the many things that run in our heads as often as it takes to spell the word OFTEN. Taking a quick stock of the thoughts that run through our head on any given time frame, I recently figured that most of them are either directly or indirectly related to the "Fear of the Unknowns".

 

I caught the phrase from a friend's email and am in complete agreement with it. We are generally assured 90% of the times about things that we know and the remaining 10% uncertainty is there even with the most tried and tested facts, practices, and know-hows. So, we discount that 10 percent as 'Exceptions'.

 

For instance, we know that it takes fifteen minutes to drive from Place A to Place B out of practice or hear say or the map. Almost 90 percent of the times, it should not take us more than fifteen minutes to get to Place B. However, an unforeseen diversion in the route for an unpredicted reason on the road, could cause that unexpected delay of another few minutes. Now this is what I meant when I said, Exceptions and does not happen all the time.

 

Such predictable and known issues are really not issues in our mind, if you think through carefully. We are not really bothered nor do we invest more time than it took to read the previous paragraph on such known facts that we really know we can handle. So there is no fear here. Only clarity that either our situation will take the 90% route or the 10% route.

 

It is a recent discovery for me, as recent as yesterday that you could portray yourself as a completely different person by the various thoughts that govern your mind at any given point in time. People see you as a changed person - on the good or the worse side.. It is totally your mind that shows you to the world and yourself. May be hard to believe, you can become a stranger to your own self if you allow some thoughts to get into your mind at any given point in time.

 

Now, in our minds, as we grow through the thin and thick of life's maze, we think of many many things - facts, problems, solutions, resolutions, figures, people, places, emotions, and pre-conceived notions - that mostly change the person we are.

 

Most of these things that are getting processed in your mind, even as you read this post, may not be exactly what you want, relevant, correct, applicable, practical and sometimes even existent. Most of the things may fall into one of these categories;

• Things that have not occurred; Only you fear they might happen.
• Things that do not attach importance to yourself as a person; Only you fear that they are too important to be ignored.
• Things that are just unproven notions based on a prior happening in the distant past; Only you fear that it might happen again.
• Things that are beyond your control; Only you fear that you will be hopelessly miserable if you cant control it.
• Things that are just not practical; Only you fear that you must be able to make it happen.
• Things that you heard from somewhere; Only you fear that it might happen to you as well.
• Things that you don't know about; Only you fear that it might be!!

Ultimately, the truth is nothing of what you fear or worry about is happening now.. just an expected distant future prediction getting processed in your mind, depriving it of your natural self confidence.

 

It came as a complete surprise to me yesterday that I am into such a mode at times and sometimes forget that what I fear is not Today!!! :) and so when it comes lets deal with it.. The more we think of tomorrow's unknowns, the more the fear factor eats our memory and mind, shaking us of our balance completely, making us a totally different person, not letting us be sane today to deal with Today's time. Negativity clouds us more than we know and people prefer to keep off the negative energy although unknowingly.. I mean, it is natural that positives are boosters and negatives are avoidable.

 

So lets try and shake off the fear of unknowns and dwell in the present in our mind first. There is confidence, there is God, there is Almighty, there is a super power that is unknown, but knows what to do with the unknowns in our lives. This we all know, although it may translate to different names or Gods or beliefs to each of us.

 

Unknowns are beyond comprehension; Its practically useless to think through and resolve the mystery of tomorrow. So, why fear??