Take a Deep Breath and Blink

Imagine you are driving along a country road at night. You go around a curve and your headlights suddenly are on a lone deer. Transfixed by the light, the deer is frozen, unable to move. Confused, it cannot move forward or go back where it came from. Angry at its inability to move, it senses it is powerless against the light it is caught in, the danger it is facing. It wants to escape, but is held by the light.

These are the five elements of fear—confusion, aversion, a sense of danger, a sense of weakness, and a desire to escape.

We react in much the way the deer does. Not knowing what to do, we are confused when confronted by that which we fear. We feel we are weak, perhaps unable to do what we sense to be the right thing. Or perhaps we have no idea what the right thing to do is. We are repelled by our helplessness and feel aversion for our own ability to move forward or to act wisely. Overwhelmed by the thought that we are in danger, our overpowering urge is to escape, but we cannot, for we are stuck.

What can we do?

Take a deep breath and examine our fear.

The deer acts on instinct. We, however, have the ability to analyze our fear to discover its cause. In doing so, we may realize our fear is based on a misperception. The cause of the fear was more imaginary than real. Realizing we overreacted can provide us with the opportunity to blink. Like a deer that can blink, we break the spell of our self-induced fear.

But what if the fear is real?

Through analysis and calming our minds, we can experience the equivalent of a mental “blink.” Remembering that is our own karmas that brought us to this point will help us grasp that what I broke, I alone have the potential to fix. With this comes the realization that our usual way of reacting often don’t work. Fear, confusion, aversion, and the desire to escape don’t improve a bad situation. We need to take a deep breath, calm down, and blink. We need to have a paradigm shift and be creative in looking for a new solution.

New ways of reacting do not come easily to us so we will need mindfulness and determination. And much practice. But as we get it right, fear will begin to recede and in its place, we’ll be able to blink more often.