5 Minute Book Club: Pema Chodron's When Things Fall Apart, Part 2 - a podcast by Dr. JP Pawliw-Fry, Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence Expert

Are you finding that you are spending too much time on your phone? Surfing news sites and social media to your detriment? Looking for a powerful approach to changing this habit? Enter our 5 Minute Book Club series!

Instead of filling every vacant moment, whether going to  the bathroom first in the morning, or waiting for the kettle to bowl, with useless, mind numbing scrolling,  grab the book we are studying  and engage in our 5 Minute Book Club. 

Today, in the second episode of our series, we explore how to work with fear, examining the work of Pema Chodron and her great book, When Things Fall Apart.

It is a fantastic book that I am getting a lot out of. I hope you are to!

Let’s walk!

“No one ever tells us to stop running away from fear...the advice we usually get is to sweeten it up, smooth it over, take a pill, or distract ourselves, but by all means make it go away. "
Pema Chodron

“Once there was a young warrior. Her teacher told her that she had to do battle with fear. She didn’t want to do that. It seemed too aggressive; it was scary; it seemed unfriendly. But the teacher said she had to do it and gave her the instructions for the battle. The day arrived. The student warrior stood on one side, and fear stood on the other. The warrior was feeling very small, and fear was looking big and wrathful. They both had their weapons. The young warrior roused herself and went toward fear, prostrated three times, and asked, "May I have permission to go into battle with you?" Fear said, "Thank you for showing me so much respect that you ask permission." Then the young warrior said, "How can I defeat you?" Fear replied, "My weapons are that I talk fast, and I get very close to your face. Then you get completely unnerved, and you do whatever I say. If you don’t do what I tell you, I have no power. You can listen to me, and you can have respect for me. You can even be convinced by me. But if you don’t do what I say, I have no power." In that way, the student warrior learned how to defeat fear. ”
Pema Chodron

 “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” 
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt

 

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