The dictionary may have a word for a lack of fear – unafraid – but I’m challenging the idea that you can be totally fearless without being reckless, or at least very naïve. A certain amount of fear is as necessary as it is unavoidable, so it’s best to think in terms of ‘working through fear’, ‘sitting with fear’ and … Read More
Red faced
Have you ever felt so embarrassed you could die? I’m betting you have, in that pre-teen or teenage OMG melodramatic way, when the worst thing in the world that could possibly happen happened, and mortified, you thought you would die (only here you are, years later, alive and kicking). A ‘heavy period’ accident springs to my mind and I cringe … Read More
Don’t be a scaredy cat
So it’s Friday 13th, and I’m telling fear to fug off! Well I’m trying – I reckon just the act of standing up to fear, looking it in the face and telling it that while you are still afraid you won’t let it scare you, is the first step in banishing it for good. I’ve heard it said that daring … Read More
Reason or excuse (let’s be honest)
The dog ate my homework! Have you ever tried to call an excuse a reason? Reasons are real right? Valid, logical facts that can’t be disputed, right? Excuses are just expressions of fear, lame rationalisations at best, grounded in emotion not logic, right? Or maybe wrong? Well about the reasons anyway. Confused? You see I think that I find reasons … Read More
Hate – that four letter word
Would you be any more shocked if I started this post with FUCK – another four letter word I know I shouldn’t say, but still let slip sometimes? SORRY. I just can’t believe I feel compelled to write about HATE – a word I hardly ever used until it started creeping insidiously into my (mostly silent) vocabulary a few years … Read More
Calm and confident – dive into life!
The other day my Miss Yin told me she felt ‘empty’. She was upset and worried, the day before the school year started, although she didn’t end up making it to that first day, things ending badly in tears and hysterics. Oh God – I’ve felt empty before (too often, too much), but I can’t remember or even imagine what it … Read More
All fired up (too much yang for my own good, God help others)
Lately I’ve been all fired up – not about anything or at anyone in particular – just a futile, yet fierce fury at the world (Ok I’m fuming at Mr Yang today and work frustrations have me almost boiling over, but I truly think there’s some cosmic fireworks going on – the last fiery breathe of the Chinese Year of … Read More
Do you hold onto your fears like a security blanket?
Miss Yin, now a big nine-year-old, has cherished her blankie since she was a baby, or more particularly, since we gave it to her on the day we adopted her, when she was almost 13 months old. She clung onto it for dear life. She snuggled into it for warmth, for softness, a sense of comfort, security – like all … Read More
