Fear

Our personalities, our experiences, our cultures, and even our genetics help "shape" how we interpret the world in which we live. In this sense, each of us truly does live in "our own little world" because, indeed, no two people can possibly interpret the same thing in precisely the same way; and that itself is a beautiful testament to nature's utter love of variety. Nature doesn't copy. Nature is always original, even if people can choose not to be.

However, despite all of the different ways we interpret our world, there is one thing that underlies the experience of almost everyone: fear.

Forget what some personality tests and theories tell you -- that only some people are "fear based" while others are "anger based" or whatever. The root emotion that drives most people is only one thing: fear.

Why? What are we so afraid of?

We are afraid of being ourselves. We're afraid that if we simply BE ourselves-- not try to be something else in the future, or someone else in the future -- that we will suffer. We will somehow be rejected or punished or something like that. And so we strive, endlessly, exhaustively, to BECOME something else; not because we actually want to become something else, but because WE WANT THE FEAR TO STOP.

However, the fear cannot stop because the root problem is not "out there" in the future, in tomorrow's success or next week's goal or whatever else. The root fear is simply a anxiety and misalignment that erupts when we refuse to accept ourselves as we are.

Until you accept yourself as you are -- without condemnation, without criticism, without commentary, but simply as you are -- fear will follow you like a shadow. Yes, sometimes the shadow seems to go away -- but the shadow is always there; sometimes looming, other times slim and hard to see.

Stop becoming. Start BEING. And see how it transforms your life.