Fear of the Unknown: Free Yourself From Overwhelm
THE UNKNOWN
Do you find yourself afraid of what’s to come?
If things don’t go your way, are you terrified of the unknown outcome?
Is your mind running around in circles panicked about not knowing what the future will bring?
If you answered yes to any or all of these, you are not alone! The human mind is obsessed with the past and has missile lock on the future. Just watch your own mind replay events over and over again trying to reason or justify what happened. Then notice how you create potential scenarios in the future to control what is going to happen. The mind is determined to have a plan in place for everything. This is the conditioned mind at work, and it will be at work 24/7, won’t it?
Let me guess, your mind becomes incredibly anxious, worried, and full of to do list’s right in the middle of the night when you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. You feel incredibly stressed with too many tasks to complete and you are overwhelmed! You wake up suddenly from what was a great night’s sleep, you now witness hour after hour passing on the clock, tossing and turning is now considered nightly exercise, and you are left feeling groggy, angry, and zombie like the next morning. It’s a battle that never seems to end!
You might be asking yourself, does life really have to be this way? Does it have to feel like you’re an absolute wreck over not knowing what a given experience will bring? What is really going on in the mind to create such a chaotic experience? Looking deeper at the structure of the mind will help you see behind this intentional cover up.
DISSECTING THE EGO
The ego mind wears a mask disguising all of its hidden motives. It is a master illusionist. Ever wonder how magicians can fool you into believing something, they are masters of illusion. The ego is no different. It will intentionally distract you with surface level nonsense so that you never get to the bottom of the cover up. When you start asking questions like, what is the ego covering up? Or what is the ego really afraid of? You can eventually trace it down to the ego’s fear of death and the fear of what lies beyond this world. That is the great unknown. None of us really knows what happens after we die.
It’s possible that all of the ego’s fear stems from this fear of the true unknown. Everything else that it distracts you with is simply a story layered upon another story. There are two important traits of the ego mind that will help you understand why your mind is afraid of unknowns.
The Great Knower: The ego must know absolutely everything. It is extremely uncomfortable when it doesn’t have an answer, can’t solve a problem, or isn’t aware of the next outcome. It indulges in self-sabotage trying to convince you you’re unintelligent. The ego likes to act like it knows, even when it doesn’t. If it doesn’t truly know what is to come, the panic button ignites, and all hell breaks loose!
Controller: Control is the name of the game for this aspect of the mind. If the ego cannot control it’s expected outcome, it loses it! For example, if you have planned an event to go accordingly, and at the last minute a part of the plan does not execute properly, the ego will start to freak out. It will do everything in its power to regain control instead of going with the flow of what has happened in reality. Complaining, blaming, projecting, you name it, all the mental commentary will be vented out of your mouth.
Seeing these two components of the mind clearly can help you see them in your own mind. Watch what happens when you can’t control or know a situation. Fear will creep in about the unknown. It’s unchartered territory the ego would rather not be a part of.
APPLYING THE UNKNOWN TO YOUR SPIRITUAL PATH
When you begin to wake up from the ego’s grand illusion you embark on a journey into discovering your spiritual nature. You are leaving the ego’s thought system in search of your spiritual depth. The ego tries to block this entrance at all costs, so expect further distractions by the “Great Knower.”
If your path gets challenging, if darkness sets in, if things start to seem very different, your mind may begin to fear your unknown path. You might get petrified of where life is leading you and you are afraid of losing yourself, the only self you have identified with. This is completely normal, especially when you understand that its’s solely coming from your ego. The ego will forcefully resist you learning about who you really are as a spiritual being.
According to A Course in Miracles, the ego is not only the false self in your mind, but it projected and created this world of duality. Therefore, the ego is attached to things! It loves the material plane.
It looks for satisfaction earning money, earning a promotion, achieving a goal you set your mind to, buying bigger homes, nicer cars, climbing an invisible ladder, all the finer things in life it strives for. While doing this, it forgets its fear of the unknown, which is still deep within you.
As you begin to see the ego’s game and experience the illusions it has made up, you will also begin to see less value in things of the world. You might even wonder about nothing. What if there was nothing? The more you detach the less you need in your life. It doesn’t mean you stop living in the world, it simply means you won’t attach to what your eyes see.
A Course in Miracles says there is no truth or reality in the ego, the only reality is God. If this is true, the ego really is nothing. The ego will fear “no-thing” all day long. What would the ego be without holding onto something in the world? Deep underneath the surface it knows this, which is why it spends every waking second projecting outward, distracting you with fears of the unknown, so you never wake up to your true nature.
HOW YOU CAN TRANSFORM FEAR INTO FLOW
So, what can you do to stop the insanity of the mind and feel more relaxed when you don’t know what the future will bring?
The very first step is to LOOK. Before you do anything else, get comfortable OBSERVING your life. Stop, take a deep breath, and watch the world around you. Watch your behavior, watch your thoughts, watch how quickly you believe your thoughts, watch how you claim to know everything, and watch all of this without judgement. Do this for a while until you get the hang of it. Really look at what’s going on in your mind and see how you have been living. What are you thinking and believing to cause such fear about the unknown?
Next, ACKNOWLEDGE that it is your ego mind that is needing to know, needing to control, needing to dictate, and needing to run you ragged. When you acknowledge that this side of the mind is only out for its own self-gratification, you can begin to detach from its grip. The more you practice this, the easier it gets. You won’t be so willing to follow its orders.
GET IN TOUCH WITH RIGHT NOW. Anytime you are fearful of the unknown, ask yourself, in this very moment, are you okay? Is anything threatening you physically? Or are you caught up in a story in your mind that isn’t happening? If nothing is threatening you, pull yourself into the room you're in, look around you, ground yourself in the moment and away from the chatter in your mind. Repeating this practice keeps the nervous system in check and pulls you out of fearing a future that isn’t happening.
ASK YOUR HIGHER SELF. Hand over your fears to spirit. Why hold on to them any longer? Ask to see through clearer eyes. Admit you don’t know what to do. Empty yourself completely to allow space for awareness to rise within you. When you are not clouded by constant chatter, delusional commentary, and mental word vomit, a whole new world opens to you. The wiser, loving, compassionate side presents itself to you.
Staying observant of yourself begins a process into an entirely new way to live. You stop fearing the unknowns of life, which are always unknown anyway, and you trust the flow of what is actually happening. Arguing with reality no longer interests you. Your happiness and peace of mind are much more desirable than anything the ego can ever offer you. Your rigid mind opens, and you begin to flow effortlessly like the waves of the ocean.