Scary Stuff

In my work, I hear a lot of scary stuff…either scary things that have happened to people or scary things that they are currently enduring and passing though. Life takes us into scary territory, frightening places, way more often than we would like. We would all rather hang out in our well furnished comfort zones. The scary place could be a tragedy or a loss that happens to us, or it could be a difficult choice that we know we need to make, but looks terrifying and full of uncertainty.  Horses totally understand being afraid. They are fear based creatures and are happiest when they are in their comfort zone and feel safe.  They don’t generally ask for uncertainty and adventure but often we humans ask them to go into scary places. I mean, why would a prey animal who’s primary defense strategy is running want to go into a horse trailer, a dark confining box with no escape!  But again, life sometimes requires horses to go into these places, and like us, they learn from the experience.

Here is a picture of McCullough confronting her fear of going through a narrow gate under a flapping parachute. She initially bulked at even going near it, but with support and encouragement, she walked into…and through…that scary place. Through this experience she learned that she is braver than she thought, and that the fear was worse than the actual thing.

Whatever scary things you are facing, I invite you to be like McCullough…tap into your inner bravery, round up all the support and encouragement you can find, and walk into it. Hopefully you will find that the fear was worse than the actual scary stuff.