Untrust the Fear

The art of betrayal is a twin to the art of trust. Both begin with an understanding that one already is engaged in them. In that regard, we have no choice. 

We’re already trusting and already betraying something; it’s just a question of what.

So, when someone emails or calls, and the complaint is that the person is afraid to trust, usually I point out that he or she is trusting the fear.

This works wonders. Moving from not-trusting to trusting is huge, an impossible leap across a chasm of contradiction.

Moving from trusting something you don’t want to trust (e.g., fear) to something you do (e.g., that things work out), on the other hand, is only a slight midcourse correction, a matter of a few degrees.

Suddenly, the student has awakened from the reality-dream “I am not trusting” to one in which the desired condition of trust is already being fulfilled, even if less than skillfully (“I am trusting, but trusting fear.”)

The burden of proof has shifted: “Since I’m already trusting, why not trust something better than fear?”

~•*

source: field project dot net