Have you ever noticed that when your worries are stashed away in your brain where no one can see them, they always seem scarier? I know that when I talk about them & state my fears out loud, they often sound silly, a little embarrassing and lose some of their power. For the past year or so, my kids have been obsessed with Harry Potter (an understatement). In the third book, there is a chapter where Professor Lupin teaches the young witches & wizards how to face their boggarts. A boggart is a “shape-shifter that takes on the form of its intended victim's worst fear”, but it is only an illusion – a trick. Once the person looks it in the eye, finds the humor in their fear & uses the spell RIDDIKULUS with courage, the boggart turns into a humorous shape & the fear melts away. Laughter and calling your fear out for what it truly is are essential.
How do you use magic in your everyday run ins with fear? How are you able to distinguish between real danger & what’s simply a boggart hiding in the closet?
2 comments:
I find this to be true for me as well (though I haven't read Harry Potter!). It helps me the most to talk about my fears - usually with my husband. They then seem so much more scary. I have relied on journaling for working through a lot of things, but for me, it doesn't work when dealing with fears. When I keep them to myself, they just get bigger and bigger, and for some reason, journaling makes them grow even faster. You've now got me wondering about the link between my fears and shame, since talking it out is also my biggest shame-buster. Thanks for a great post!
That's so true - I used to write down/journal worries which were usually followed by rhetorical questions like - why can't I just get over this? Keeping it hidden has always made it worse for me. Shame is definitely a big piece of anxiety for a lot of people. In Reid Wilson's book "Don't Panic", he talks about shifting your attitude & the first shift is from "I can't let anyone know" to "I am not ashamed." Check it out if you like: http://www.anxieties.com/panic-step3a.php
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