How can you actually go about how to face your fears through forgiveness of self, you might be asking?

When you are upset for whatever reason, even with, say, a “meaningless world,” and you’re hanging onto a scarcity mindset, it is necessary to correct a major perceptual distortion most of us have.

You believe that dealing with fear about what upsets you is a frightening world, or a sad world, or a violent and insane world.

This is also why I urge that you learn how to do mindfulness meditation, if you have not already, and experiencing the center of who you are.

But if you’re being honest with yourself about how to overcome fear, you can acknowledge that these attributes were given to the world by you, caused by how you “think” of the world.

The thought of a meaningless world engenders dealing with fear; but meaninglessness is impossible, because nothing can exist without meaning.

This would be an illusion, and is why you must face your fears, that illusion, head on.

As you absorb what this article has to offer you keep in the back of your mind this spiritual metaphysical principle from the Course in Miracles text stating, “Every decision you make stems from what you think you are, and represents the value that you put upon yourself.”

If you believe the world is meaningless, then your fears of the world do not exist either, and are another illusion brought on by illusion.

Now we’re seeing insanity of the ego-based mind!

It may seem that you would not perceive something that has no meaning. On the contrary, you will be particularly likely to think you do perceive it.

Why?

Because it reinforces your belief that your own illusions of the past are real, but remember, you assign meaning to the past to fill a void, a black or darkened area in your mind.

• Cloud hovering, we may say, obscuring the light of true Self.

Your own “thinking” body believes it is lacking and feels empty, so it works diligently to make its own ideas of the truth.

This “thinking” is separate from God, but therefore you have also observed His extension to you, which is the real you. Yes, each one of us is His Extended Thought.

As you recognize the meaningless and the false as being merely what they are, your confused and emptiness will face your fears and become doubtful, fearful, judgmental and guilty, because it senses a separation from its Source.

Anything that separates from its source naturally experiences panic.

When our loved one suddenly dies or leaves us, we experience loss and pain and you face your fears as obstacles in life due to the separation.

For now, there is no reason for your confused self to try to understand everything I am writing, but there is every reason to “let go” and make room for what you do understand about how to face your fears.

Look at it this way:

The sun, known as the source and the center of the physical solar system, extends itself with its rays, though it can often be obscured by cloud cover, depending on where you are positioned here on Earth.

Nevertheless, the sun remains forever, as its rays continue to extend, and the clouds eventually dissipate without affecting the sun or its rays.

Just as the rays of the sun extend, regardless of cloud cover, so are you the extended Thought of God, regardless of the clouded thinking your mind dreams up.

To know your destiny and recognize reality, or to know the Light, is to be enlightened.

It’s of the habits of highly effective people who have ever walked among us and is how successful people grow today.

Jesus, one of many enlightened individuals to ever walk the earth, and the one whom much of humanity has been drawn to, was aware of the dreaming mind.

As a man, he had the knowledge from within for destiny help, and was aware of the extended Thought of God as who we all are.

His many messages told us simply to uncover our eyes and see the Light that is already there. There’s no reason to wait for some future event.

It’s with us now.

He also expressed this message more deeply, essentially saying (my interpretation): “You believe you are a body; however, you can choose between loveless or miraculous channels of expression.

You can make of yourself an empty shell, but it can only express ‘nothing.’ You can destroy your body, your medium of communication, but not your potential. You did not create yourself.”

 

 

Next, let’s begin to experience a feeling realization that the idea and question of ‘what’s my destiny’ is already answered.

To Truly Know Your Destiny

A Zen master speaks to his students about a great warrior of ancient Japan who once marched out to meet the enemy with an army one-tenth the number of the opposition.

This general’s name was Nobunaga, and he said to himself, “I will win. I am sure.” But his men had doubt.

En route to the field of battle, Nobunaga paused to offer prayers at a wayside shrine. Then he told his soldiers: “Destiny help is our hearts.”

From his pocket he took out a coin while telling everyone to face your fears, and said, “I will toss it. If heads comes up, we will win. If it be tails, then we must prepare for our death.”

He flung the coin skyward.

It flashed in the sun’s light and then fell heads up. A roar of courage shook the inspired soldiers. Eager to fight, Nobunaga’s men won their battle easily and answered to, “what’s my destiny.”

“No one can change the hand of destiny with the toss of a coin,” the victorious warrior’s aide told Nobunaga after the fighting was over.

“Indeed, one cannot,” Nobunaga replied. Smiling, he held up the coin he had tossed, which was double-headed.

Each of us has a destiny help within that is chartered beyond our own thinking.

But the world we live in sends us in a multitude of directions, so the courses we pursue in life are not always of our own choosing and we often work to achieve objectives and goals that do not reflect what we truly want.

The Course in Miracles teaches that, “Time is your friend, if you leave it to the Holy Spirit to use.”

The individual like you out to face your fears and who believes he is complete master of his own destiny exists solely in the eyes of his own ego.

I began to idolize the Beatles at age seven, when I first saw them perform on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Later, as a determined young boy, to be all that I could be, I wanted to know more about “Lucy in the Sky” and I fantasized about being on the cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

I yearned to be a part of the “revolution” and the “evolution” they sang about. Their free spirit and free will struck me, and I wanted it too.

• Growing Pains

Growing up in 1960s Ohio, I was the oldest of six children in a low-income Catholic family.

My father worked as a welder at a local factory and my mother was a registered nurse at a local hospital.

My dream beyond rock-n-roll was to be a football hero at Notre Dame, but this was also the dream of all the other boys I played parochial league ball with.

My heart’s desire felt to me that it was bigger than the others, so the dream continued for a while.

Speaking of face your fears, I did pretty well and scored many touchdowns as a small halfback, and I was told that the other teams keyed on me each game.

By the time I was a freshman at Central Catholic High School, though, my size had not yet caught up with my desire.

At the team’s official weigh-in, I came up with the idea of placing a few weights into my pockets to portray a heavier me on the roster.

The scale teetered at 96 pounds. I was very concerned about my weight and height, if I were to earn a scholarship to play football for the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.

The idea of face your fears, was a constant pursuit for me.

I tried all the proven stretching gimmicks and sprinkled loads of wheat germ over every meal, but I just could not seem to grow.

After the freshman season I was forced by lack of pounds and inches to awaken from the dream of tearing up the turf at Notre Dame.

I finished high school in a few more years with slightly above-average grades, only because I did not ever prepare for tests, and my physical form finally had matured.

My parents had always been devoted Catholics, and they expected the same from their four daughters and two sons.

My grandparents, too, occupied the same third-row seat every Sunday at 11:30 am at Saint Barbara’s.

It was an old parish with generations of “good Catholic” families, with a cemetery behind the church for the members who had passed along to a “better place.”

At Sunday mass I would sit in confusion, bored with the sermons and readings, and impatient with the kneeling, standing, and sitting.

I was an altar boy and was often seen fidgeting and daydreaming of girls, football, music, and anything else other than my duties on the altar.

Occasionally I would get a nasty look with a signal from Father Daum when I was late ringing the concentration bell (really called consecration) at the most boring part of the mass.

Of course, at that age I didn’t understand it, and is why I thought it was “concentration.”

What I wanted to know about above and beyond how to overcome fear, was the most was the secret conversations Jesus had with the apostles.

I figured there had to be parts left out of the fragments recorded in the Gospels, which I also suspected had to have been touched up a bit after all these years.

I wondered what they really talked about while out for the day on Peter’s fishing boat.

How did they hang out together, and did they help one another with how to face your fears?

What jokes did they tell one another about all the challenges in life? How did they talk about the local women?

I always believed that Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ wife, and I still do. I wanted to know more than the people who wrote the history books were willing to tell us.

(I also suggest this related article on the qualities of successful people who have ever walked among us.)  

Next, let’s you and I think about the destiny help that is already within us to help overcome any obstacles in life.

Receiving Destiny Help

I guess it was during my high school days when I admitted to myself that God was not this old man with a white beard wearing a white robe, sitting on a golden throne somewhere past the sun, who handed out favors to those who prayed the most.

The theology classes seemed to not want to go into that sort of thing, especially when it came to what’s my destiny.

The study was more about making sense of the New and Old Testaments. The Exodus and the travels of Paul following Jesus’ death did interest me, but I always wanted more.

My doubts were not about God ever, but I doubted the experts who interpreted all these teachings. Why was I supposed to trust someone else’s view of things?

The only answer I could ever get was, “Because the Bible says so.” Everyone seemed afraid to put their own interpretation into the “Holy Word.”

Don’t get me wrong; my upbringing did give me a strong foundation, for which I am grateful, and there were many teachers, nuns, and priests whom I admired.

It was also nice to find out that Father Kaylor—fresh out of the seminary when I was a high school senior, sporting shoulder-length hair—was a Beatles fan.

He once said that he felt that even Jesus would have been listening to “Let It Be” and “Hey Jude.”

I now hear it is a plus for the school that he is today the school principal—although I also heard he is minus the hair.

But I still wanted answers about more true gut about how to face fears and challenges in life that they just couldn’t seem to commit to.

Now, as I look back, I believe they must have had the same questions and also would have liked answers.

The Course in Miracles further states, “How long can it take where God would have you?

I started college at Kent State, not knowing at all where I was heading, other than to parties. Quickly I realized I wanted to put the books down for a while and get into the real world.

As uncertain as I was, and impatient for answers and growth, I knew one thing for sure, and that was I needed to earn money.

The answers I was getting for destiny help at the beer parties sounded good while listening to Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, but they weren’t good enough for me.

• I needed to move forward in life.

So this was when I started looking at the sky, and I flew right to it, and by 1975 I was the property of the United States Air Force.

My girlfriend Lori, who months later became my wife, got to tag along, compliments of the Air Force. “How cool is this?” is what I proudly felt.

I found some answers, and the truth about Viet Nam fairly quickly.

Many of my new airmen friends were recently back from tours of duty in Viet Nam, and the war was now over.

I got to hear the war stories firsthand about face your fears over beers at the NCO (non-commissioned officers) club.

They were training me as though I might be sent there, but fortunately for me no additional troops were being sent.

The 1970s were pretty wild but safe for me, even as an airman. The Air Force did take good care of me, and in 1978 Erin was born.

As a young father with inspiration extending through me and into my gorgeous daughter, my responsibilities kept a lid on the wilder times.

I needed to be serious and help make a clear destiny path for Erin’s future. Plus, the oath I had taken to die for my country if necessary held strong in my heart.

I guess you could say I was the “gung ho” type, and this excited me as I would learn from the Air Force how to face your fears.

I remember one night on a training exercise teaching more on face your fears, a few of us under the stars until sunrise.

About a dozen of us were all gazing at the starry sky while we maintained our position at our C-141 aircraft. The exercise called for the arrival and departure of several aircraft throughout the night.

This intensified our discussion about the cosmos and the mystery behind the universe.

I’ve always had a keen connection and a curiosity regarding all that is visible and beyond in the sky.

One of the guys said to me that it appeared as though I knew something they didn’t, as we all spoke and gazed in awe of the beauty of that particular night.

I cannot say that I knew something, but I have always felt connected somehow to ‘Something’ that teaches us how to know your destiny.

(Here’s another related article I recommend on the importance of self-improvement goals in a personal growth plan for the success and happiness you deserve.) 

To happiness and success in life,

James Nussbaumer

PS:  I invite you to face your fears and sign up RIGHT HERE for the EVERYDAY MIRACLES newsletter where we (you the reader, and I, the author) bring our mind together for self-success and for a better life.

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