By David Miller

One semester, I had a past student (who became a friend) enroll in a subsequent upper-level class of mine. In the previous class, I saw him make remarkable progress in tackling a new subject and overcoming his fears.

After pondering some of the fear-fighting thoughts we discussed in the next class, he came to my office with a question.

“What do you do if some of your old fears start to come back?”

I was surprised by myself as I was able to give him four suggestions that came as inspiration in the moment. I don’t know if these will apply to everyone, but I think they were applicable to him (and me). I will share these four points as individual posts.

#2 Don’t Feed the Bears!(Give Your Fears NO HEED.)

When I was going through my most challenging battle with depression and anxiety, a dear friend and mentor pointed out something very valuable to me.

He pointed out that although Jesus was faced with temptations, he “gave no heed unto them.”

I will be clear that he wasn’t suggesting that fears and temptations are the same. However, they are both intruders and unwanted.

Just like a bear (this is my twist)…When the bear of fear comes roaring at my side, it wants me to cower. It wants me to hide.

Sometimes, I can’t make the bear go away. But I can give it “no heed.” It eventually gets bored and wanders off to the next campsite. Does this mean it is gone permanently? Nope. It may come roaring back the next day. I have found it a useful trick to acknowledge the presence of the bear, but not to feed it.

We can choose to give our fears NO HEED.

Please share if you think this post can help someone.