What Fear Is Protecting

“Run from what is comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live.”

Fear is not your enemy. It is a guardian — often overprotective, sometimes misguided, but always trying to keep you safe from something it believes is dangerous.

Before you try to overcome your fear, it is worth asking: what is this fear protecting? What wound does it guard? What loss is it trying to prevent?

Fear of intimacy protects the heart that was broken. Fear of failure protects the self that was shamed. Fear of abandonment protects the child who was left.

When you understand what your fear is protecting, you can begin to have a conversation with it rather than a war. You can say: I see what you are doing. I understand why. And I am going to move forward anyway.

Related Reflections

Themes that often travel alongside fear.