Risking

If we are going to conquer/recover from our OCD, we must step out of our “comfort zone” and “take a chance.”

We must risk. Risking is part of the recovery plan. There is an element of vulnerability in risking.

We want security in confronting our fears. But it has been said that security is myth.

Helen Keller once said that “security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

Remember: we are being bluffed my sensations that lie to us.

A poem that I have saved in my scrapbook from an Ann Landers column years ago shows us the problem of risking. Even though it applies to life, it can apply to facing our fears. It’s called “The Dilemma.”

(The Ann Landers column had this poem’s author listed as unknown. However, I used the poem in a previous essay at another website and someone e-mailed me with the author’s name. I have since I deleted that e-mail. If someone knows who the author is, please e-mail me.) 

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental

To reach out for another is to risk involvement

To expose feelings is to risk rejection

To place your dreams before the crowd is to risk ridicule

To love is to risk not being loved in return

To go forward in the face of overwhelming odds is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow but he cannot learn, feel change, grow or love. Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave. He has forfeited his freedom. Only a person who takes risk is free.

Here are other quotes that address risking and taking a chance by confronting our fears.

Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. 

– Marie Curie

To conquer fear is the being of wisdom

– Bertrand Russell

Fear cannot take what you do not give it.

– Christopher Coan

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.

– Joseph Campbell

I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.

 – Rosa Parks

You are the only one giving fear a leg to stand on.

– Dodinsky

He who fears something gives it power over him.

– Moorish proverb

Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death.

– Author unknown

Fear insults courage.

– Terri Guillemets

Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile...initially scared me to death.

                                                                                                            – Betty Bender

Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it.

– Judy Blume

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

– Dale Carnegie

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

                                                                                                – Eleanor Roosevelt

The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid but he who conquers that fear.

                                                                                                                – Nelson Mandela

The key to change....is to let go of fear.

– Roseanne Cash

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret to life.

                                                                                            – Ralph Waldo Emerson