• home
• about
• shop
• archive
• tumblr
• photos
• contact

Fear Can Stop Your Love, What About Your God-consciousness?

by HijabMan :: posted 16 June 07

“To my surprise, I blocked things constantly — I made excuses not to do things because I was afraid of what might happen if I accepted. I made a resolution. I decided that instead of saying “no” to things because I was afraid of them, I would “just say yes”. That became my working motto: ‘Just say yes.’” – GetRichSlowly .org

One of the first steps one takes when Getting Things Done is the process of capturing/collecting the thoughts floating around in your head, everything that has your attention. After that harder-than-it-sounds task, you file it into your system (whether that consists of folders or electronic means). Now, If you are really good about keeping that system up-to-date and flowing well, a trust with that system naturally develops. Ideally, if you trust that system, you no longer need to actively think about everything you need to do or every thought in your head.*

I’m not even close to completely emptying my head of the multitude of crap that is plaguing my brain, but I’ve definitely gotten better. But the fact that I’ve even emptied my head of just a fraction of that crap has reduced my stress level dramatically.

While thinking (hah!) about this process, a thought occurred to me that connected this idea with spirituality. What about emptying ourselves of the various forms of fear that plague us? Wouldn’t that enable us as believers to be more God-conscious and free us? Imagine your life without insecurity, worry, and even procrastination. They can all be forms of fear.

Procrastination is fear? What?

In fact, it is the most consuming fear I have! Think about it. We tend to avoid those things that we are afraid of. As many personal-productivity gurus explain, one of the reasons (or is it the only reason?) we procrastinate, is because we are afraid of what comes “next.” The future. If we busy ourselves with not-so-productive tasks, we delay impending decisions and new projects.

My current slip-up (one of a few) has to do with delaying a simple phone call, a phone call that would lead to my decision to go back to school. I was afraid of something without a name. It was one of those down-deep fears. On the surface, it may have been fear of failure, debt, and well, just school in general. Am I disciplined enough for it? I delay these big decisions by putting off tasks like paying bills, cleaning, dishes. Do you see where I’m going now?

I let the gravel gather up, so that all that I’m concerned about is sweeping away that gravel. And because I am so consumed by sweeping those little rocks away I don’t have time to think about the big rocks** I have to move. And I’m so worried about the gravel and the big rocks combined that I don’t have any time to reflect and realize that the biggest rocks I need to move are these deep-down-I-don’t-even-know-what-they-are fears. And dealing with those means I have to ask some really hard questions of myself. Those questions I don’t want to ask, if you know what I mean. In my experience, the process of going to those “scary” places leads to one place: If I am aware that God is in control, and that I should just strive, the idea of fearing something so silly, you know, like future, would be laughable. Indeed, I often laugh at my irrational fears (after the fact, of course ;)

What do you think? Does this have merit? That one would be have a clearer path to God-consciousness by doing some kind of mental sweep of [all of the forms] of fear?

*I’m simplifying the GTD process, if you are interested, go buy the book.

**I got the concept of the Big Rocks/Gravel from ZenHabits’ Big Rocks First article.

| share on delicious | digg | reddit | facebook | stumbleupon |

Related Articles
Potty Humor Daw'ah, Part II
Islam, According To My Father
My Approach to Islam
KG: Question Marks
Potty Humor Daw'ah, Part I

1. Will at 19 June 07 :: #

   Ever since you posted about “getting things done”, I’ve made some baby steps in the right direction (particularly the point about “if it takes 2 minutes to do, do it”).

   With this, you’ve pointed out another good area: procrastination is fear, but to what degree I guess depends on the individual.

   For me, it’s the fear of something going wrong in the doing of the task that will then cause me enormous stress, take up loads of my time or just plain make me look stupid (an area I really don’t need help in).

   I just need to work on the big things, now!

2. HijabMan at 19 June 07 :: #

   Will

   Good to hear! Imma reply to your email real soon. Just got a conference coming up, so im running around like a chicken without a head. or even a chicken with a head. cause they just as crazy

3. Will at 19 June 07 :: #

   :)

4. homeinkabul at 19 June 07 :: #

   Salams, I really like this point about fear stopping your ‘God-consciousness’. I am gearing up to write my gtd post. I would like to thank you for brining it up, it really has changed my life for the better. I’ve been using the ‘amish hipster pda’

5. homeinkabul at 21 June 07 :: #

   I’m now avoiding writing (a long over-due) paper because of fear.
   Is obessessing about something an example of losing my God-consciousness? I think the answer is yes.
   But now the question is, how do I get rid of these fears? Is living in the present another way of maintaining God-consciousness? These are all deep thoughts that I am pondering.