Temptations to Panic to Calmly Resist

The mind is a powerful resource; it can mean the making of us or it can break us, all in one moment. Temptations to panic occur within the mind, having sensed something fearful in the heart, and without thought for checking, or perhaps with thought, we bow to the panic or we resist it.

Procrastination

Take procrastination. Sometimes we give into the mood of indecision. Of the few things we could do none gets priority. Nothing gets done. Our sense of inner panic climbs, but often in secret. Maybe we’re used to this emotion and we don’t read it. Perhaps we pretend it will go away. It won’t.

What is, so far as a problem’s concerned, remains, if we do nothing to stop it from remaining.

We’re the ones who have arms and legs, fingers and toes, a capable mind and a heart able to feel. These are capacities that, when tapped into, give us the simple disciplined ability to overcome procrastination. That panic is defeated one action at a time.

Uncertainty

Then there is uncertainty. We all battle with uncertainties, some are common to all and some are unique to just us. The presence of uncertainty won’t change, but our response to it, to face it with an accepting calm hopeful courage, can transform our fear. But we need to make such thinking a habit.

The presence of uncertainty reinforces we’re alive. It makes our lives into a motion picture experience, though sometimes we’d prefer to be in the theatre than on set before the cameras of life.

Uncertainty is meant to be blessing. When we chase it with curiosity instead of fear all of life becomes revealed as an adventure.

When Under Attack

There are three responses we have in responding to an attack. We fight back and, therefore, have panicked. We submit and, again, have panicked. The third option is wise in both its innovation and unpredictability. The third option finds the middle ground between fight and flight, and it finds a way to surprise its attacker—but not in a bad way.

It’s normal, as a human being, to panic when we’re attacked. But so long as we can conceive the ability to transform the attack, removing its sting, disarming its negative power, we’re only one executed step from overcoming our fear. Once we’ve designed our response within our minds we can practice it with our hands.

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There are many forms of panic, but many more forms of calm resistance. Knowing what panics us, understanding how it comes, predicting its presence, and being ready to respond; courage is required, yes, but planning and imagination also. Transforming and re-channelling the energy in panic is simpler, for most of us, than we think.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.