by Lisa Venable
10-12-08
In these challenging times, it might behoove us to remember Franklin Roosevelt’s words: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, and be conscious of how fear can lead us down the path to nowhere.
America faces a plethora of prob¬lems: a war, people without jobs, homes, health care, or hope. Our economy is blundering and our planet out of balance. Despite these huge challenges, American politics continues to draw us into fear’s grasp. Fear the markets, fear the terrorists, fear taxes, fear each other, fear sex ed, fear the unions, fear the corporations, fear the government.
Einstein held the theory that problems cannot be solved by the same energy that created them. If he is correct, and we continue down the same path, things will not improve; they will simply be perpetuated. Fear is the energy that has created all our problems. Fear is the force that drives us to greed, the need for false power and the overwhelming stress that we will not have or be enough. Fear might benefit many sectors of our society, but for most of us, fear is destroying the American dream.
If we let fear lead, we will not solve what ails us, either person¬ally or collectively. For instance, if we continue to fear a lack of money, our economy will continue to plummet. If we continue to fight terrorism with might and violence, using the same energy that terror has bestowed on us, we will never stop its escalation. What we focus on expands. What goes around comes around. Fear is an energy, plain and simple, and it’s running us around in an endless circle of suffering.
America is ripe for a new energy. This time in history could be our greatest opportunity to raise our collective consciousness about what we are choosing, and try a different energy, a new force that will create unified solutions that last and give us the dreams we all seek: life, liberty, and the pursuit of real happiness. A dream that is based in fear will eventually collapse. One that is based in positive thinking, trust and love will flourish beyond our imaginations.
Fear holds a fascinating obsession with money, giving it tremendous power and prestige. Fear says, There isn’t enough to go around; I must grab all I can get and hold on to it! Money has become dearer to many Americans than their own families. We have let fear of not having enough create empty and stress-filled lives. Capitalism based in fear only creates more fear, and whatever we fear, we cre¬ate. Slowly, America is collapsing because of a fear-based economic system that does not support the well-being of all of us. Consider the implications of a society that uses money as its primary motivation. Could the larger considerations of people and planet get lost?
The truth is, the less at¬tached we are to money, the more money will flow. The wisest intention we can give money is to wish it used for the greater good; to use it for spreading love to others as well as caring for our own needs. When we use money to ensure basic needs and help all people soar, greed and violence will greatly diminish. Spending money with love instead of fear means seeing every dollar that goes out as enriching humanity, not depleting our pocketbooks. This is the invitation that all religious and spiritual paths espouse yet in our dance with fear, we have forgotten.
Rather than focusing on fear of a market collapse, it might better serve us to examine our general relationship to money. What position does money hold in our country and our personal lives and can we serve money and the higher good of mankind? What do we truly want? In our hearts, what matters most? Our beliefs and intentions around money are whatever we choose them to be. Imagine if we believed there was plenty of money to go around? We would not only turn around our economy, we would transform America and the world. Einstein and Roosevelt would be proud.
