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The Daily Buddhist Newsletter

Wednesday Wisdom: The Fear Beneath our Fear

Published 23 days ago • 1 min read

Daily Buddhist [Wednesday Wisdom]

By Brendan Barca & Pema Sherpa

Age-old Buddhist wisdom for modern living. Weekly insight loved by over 18,000 practitioners. 🙏

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The Fear Beneath our Fear

Sometimes what we’re afraid of isn’t the event itself, but what we believe it will mean about us.

We may fear failure, for example, not because of what happens when we fail, but because we worry it will confirm that we’re not good enough.

Fear can turn one uncertain event into a much bigger story about who we are. A mistake becomes evidence of our inadequacy. A difficult moment becomes a judgment about our worth.

Before we know it, we’re no longer responding to what’s happening. We’re responding to the meaning we’ve given it.

The important thing is to notice that these are two different things. There is what happened, and then there is the story we built around what happened.

The first may be painful, disappointing, or difficult. The second is where we often create much of our suffering.

We take something temporary and turn it into something permanent: “I failed” becomes “I am a failure.”

When fear arises, try looking beneath it. Ask yourself: What am I really afraid this will mean about me?

Then ask: Is that actually true, or is this just the story fear is telling me?

Sometimes seeing the story underneath the fear is enough to create a little space between what happened and what you’ve decided it means.

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Brendan & Pema

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Created by Pema Sherpa & Brendan Barca. Join the 13,000+ subscribers getting The Daily Buddhist Newsletter. Every Wednesday morning you'll get 1 quote, 1 reflection, & 1 action to lead a calmer, clearer, & more conscious life.

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