We are afraid of the wrong things



What are we afraid of ?


Fear - what is fear? We all have a fear of something in life, be it spiders or the dark.
Our fears stem from our traditions and beliefs to some extent,for intance some traditional systems believe in the tokolosi. The Tokoloshe myth is well known and feared in most southern African countries. Many people place their beds on bricks (some tales state that they are wrapped in paper) in order to lift them higher off the ground so that the Tokoloshe cannot hide underneath and attack them, the tokoloshe  is a dwarf-like water sprite, said to be fond of women and sour milk. He has only one arm and one leg, the face of an old man on a boy's body.He is considered a mischievous and evil spirit. He can become invisible by swallowing a pebble, and comes out of the water to fight men If he loses the fight, he will teach the man magic and the art of healing.
Some fears stem out of upbringing, for instance the fear of failing could be born out of parents that were very strict and only expected the best at al times. Chlden from such homes usually become very competetaive at school, university or work and will stop at nothing in order to get to the top. Other kind of fear is the fear of rejection which is a social fear, teenagers seem to be most affected by this, as they are still finding out who they are and what thety are about - peer pressure is a symptom of this kind of fear and could have devistating and life long effects on the person and their famalies.

Another kind of fear is the fear of "not having enough" sometimes one is brought up in difficukt circumstances that may have scarred you in one or the other way and once you become self sufficient you overcompensate for ehat you had to do with out for one or the other reason when you were younger - this could be in the form of food, money, power, clothes and posessions or even just shelter.

I think fear also drives most of us to work each day - the fear of not providing for yourself and your family, of someone else perfroming better than you do at your job or the fear of not providing sufficiently for your future.

These examples are all good and well but are these really reasons to be fearful? Are we not really afraid of the wrong things?

Should we not rather be afraid of our life after death, our earth, polloution, recycling, destroying forrests, global warming and extinct animals? We need to get back to basics as human beings and realise what is really and truely importnat to us.

This requires alot of introspection and change within, if we all contribute to the good of the earth and our fellow man, life would be so simple.

I hope this blog inspires you to do something good for the earth and your fellow man:)

Love and peace to all

Tanya