How Not to Be Afraid: Seven Ways to Live When Everything Seems Terrifying

The world seems terrifying. Whether your fear is about violence shame illness money meaning or the collapse of certainty you are not alone. Yet the power of the fear we feel depends on the story we tell about fear. Fight flee or freeze are these are only options?As a child in war-torn Belfast Gareth Higgins was schooled in suspicion mistrust and paranoia. Would someone be lurking behind the door? Was there a bomb under that car? Yet fear feeds on the stories we tell ourselves Higgins claims and in the pages of How Not to Be Afraid he delves into the mechanisms of fear as well as the quiet immense strength of individuals and communities that refuse to let it reign.Grounded in personal experience and expert reflection on violence conflict transformation and trauma recovery Higgins traces vulnerability as strength to address seven common fears that plague each of us at some point in our lives. By examining such topics as the fear of being alone of not having enough and of having done something that cant be fixed he invites readers into habits of hope rooted in Celtic spirituality and the mysteries of love.In the rich spiritual and literary tradition of John ODonohue and Kathleen Norris Higgins points us toward tenderness empathy and gentle encounter with each other and with our deepest and most relentless fears. He shows us how we can replace our narratives of fear and cynicism with better stories. Peace is the way to itself he reveals and when we choose this path our lives will never be the same.