There is a story about an old world electrician who for years has used his fingers instead of a digital multimeter to test whether an electric current is live or not. When questioned about how he could tolerate the electricity surging into him, he replied that he did "not let the current dominate" him. Since the man is in his 60's and appears healthy and able to make complete sentences, he seems to be unharmed by his testing methods.
While I would not recommend his practice with electricity, I find this approach and perspective intriguing for other applications. What if we cultivate the mindset of allowing ourselves to interact with the physical world and not give our power away to the experiences? A currently popular example of this is the firewalk, the act of walking barefoot over a bed of hot embers and coals. Long used as a test of faith in many cultures, there are others who believe it is explainable in the basic physics of thermal effusivity. Regardless of which interpretation you give credence to, fear cannot be allowed to fully dominate the experience if we are going to be willing to step onto the coals.
Courage has sometimes been defined as having fear but taking the necessary action anyway. It is not about being fearless, but rather not giving fear the controls. Fear is one of our guiding emotions, certainly not something we would want to be totally without. It tells us to pay attention, take care, be alert. Problems result when fear dominates behavior and then the behavior itself becomes a destructive pattern in our lives. In my therapy practice I saw many people who developed habits of overeating or lying or smoking or gaming or shopping that initially began in an attempt to suppress fear based emotions of anger, sadness, or anxiety. Perhaps the lesson of the electrician is to surrender to the flows of emotional energy and allow them to swirl through us without harm, without attachment, without resistance, like mist in the wind.
While I would not recommend his practice with electricity, I find this approach and perspective intriguing for other applications. What if we cultivate the mindset of allowing ourselves to interact with the physical world and not give our power away to the experiences? A currently popular example of this is the firewalk, the act of walking barefoot over a bed of hot embers and coals. Long used as a test of faith in many cultures, there are others who believe it is explainable in the basic physics of thermal effusivity. Regardless of which interpretation you give credence to, fear cannot be allowed to fully dominate the experience if we are going to be willing to step onto the coals.
Courage has sometimes been defined as having fear but taking the necessary action anyway. It is not about being fearless, but rather not giving fear the controls. Fear is one of our guiding emotions, certainly not something we would want to be totally without. It tells us to pay attention, take care, be alert. Problems result when fear dominates behavior and then the behavior itself becomes a destructive pattern in our lives. In my therapy practice I saw many people who developed habits of overeating or lying or smoking or gaming or shopping that initially began in an attempt to suppress fear based emotions of anger, sadness, or anxiety. Perhaps the lesson of the electrician is to surrender to the flows of emotional energy and allow them to swirl through us without harm, without attachment, without resistance, like mist in the wind.
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