Tatiana Khodakova
“You are lost in your imagination — this is the essence of fear. If you were deeply rooted in reality, there would be no fear”.
Imagine yourself in a dark room. You hear a rustle in the corner, and your imagination immediately paints the worst: a robber, a monster, something that could harm you. Your heart pounds, your breath quickens, your body tightens. But suddenly you turn on the light. In the corner, it turns out to be just an old cloak that fell from the chair. In an instant, fear disappears because its cause is gone — you have shifted from imagination to reality.
This is exactly how fear operates in our lives. We fear what does not exist. The foundation of our fear is an unrealistic perception of life. We do not live in the present moment; instead, we constantly dwell in our minds, caught in a never-ending stream of memories about the past and anxious fantasies about the future.
Prisoner of the Mind
The mind is our main tool, but it can also be the source of fear. One part of the mind is imagination, and the other part is memory. But both are unreal because neither exists right now.
Memory forces us to relive past traumas and failures. We fear the repetition of what has already happened. For example, if you were once fired, now every conversation with your boss induces panic. You are not in the present moment; you are in the past, which no longer exists.
Imagination paints pictures of future disasters. You fear public speaking because you imagine forgetting your words, how everyone will laugh. You fear what might happen but hasn’t happened yet. These fears are 100% fabricated.
So, our suffering is always based on something that is not real, simply because we are almost always outside of reality; we often live in our minds. We suffer for things that do not exist: from “yesterday,” which is gone, or “tomorrow,” which is not yet here. Essentially, it is madness to feel pain over nonexistent events.
How to Return to Reality?
So how do you escape this trap? The answer is simple but requires practice: return to the present moment.
Imagine you are walking down the street. Your mind may be anywhere: it might be replaying a recent argument with a friend or worrying about an upcoming report. But during this time, you miss the beauty around you: the sunlight on the leaves, the scent of rain, the singing of birds.
As you walk, feel each step, listen to the sounds around you, and feel the breeze. This is reality. It is always here, always available, and there is no room for fear within it. When you are fully immersed in this moment, fear simply has no space to exist. It cannot latch onto the “now” because the “now” is pure, uncreated being.
Fear is nothing more than a shadow cast by your mind when you turn away from the light of reality. Just turn around.
The Light Has Always Been Here
Translated by Maria Zayats
Photo by Enis Yavuz
Read also:
How Our Feelings Change DNA and the World Around Us
The Art of Letting Go of Control
Татьяна Ходакова
Практический психолог
Интегративный подход
