10 May 2015 - QA 2

How can a person who is plagued by fear in his life, eliminate that fear or at least learn to manage it?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Okay, I will give you three ideas.
1. Look back in your life. This is not the first time that you are afraid. You have been in that state a few months ago, or a few years ago. What happened during those times? You are alive.
All fear is about survival and when you know that you are going to survive these incidences or these moments, fear will vanish. Looking back at your own moments and experiences gives you strength. This is where looking back helps.

2. Observe the sensations happening inside you. See what is happening when you are afraid. Do some pranayama (breathing exercise). That will help.

3. Invoke the valor in you. Just say, “Okay whatever comes, I am going to take it. Let me take it as a challenge.” When you invoke the energy, the challenge in you, fear vanishes.

You know, I was in Iraq last November. I was invited by the parliament there to give a peace conference. There I met the Yazidi girls. They had formed an army of their own because it had come to that extent. They cannot be afraid of things anymore because it’s a matter of life and death. And these very delicate girls have no experience of holding even a gun. They just said, “We are going to now handle these people (the ISIS)”. Delicate housewives and girls who were going to college and are 15 or 20 years old, and also women in their 50’s and 60’s, stood up to fight against the ISIS.
How did this happen to people who are afraid, who sit at home and who run away? The demand of time brought a valor in them. I tell you it is unimaginable valor. They got it.

They said we are going to fight them out and they did. They did chase people. They did save many villages. They are all girls, because men were already beheaded. The women could get over their fear by invoking valor in them. And this is not just one incident. You can see it in your own neighborhood or in your own life at many places.
Whenever you have said, “Okay, I am going to take the challenge. I am going to work on it. I am going to stand up against it because I believe in what I stand up for and I love it”, the commitment in you has woken up and fear has vanished.

I want to add one more thing with this. You can say, “There is a power, there is my higher self that will always give me the best. No matter what happens all around, only the best will come to me or happen to me.”