(Q: Are you afraid of your own feelings of pleasure,
particularly in areas of great emotional importance such as love?)
Fear is one of the greatest enemies of joyful living. By blocking
your pleasure and giving you feelings of helplessness, fear can ruin your
health and shorten your life. Think of something pleasurable that fear
has kept you from doing and make a commitment today to push yourself
through the fear and do it. Pick something that is fairly easy, so that
you are certain of success. The feeling of overcoming fear will make you
stronger for attacking more difficult challenges in the future. Just as
you build up a muscle by lifting heavier and heavier weights, you can
become fearless by overcoming more and more difficult challenges. Learn
to think like a mountain climber and “feel the fear and do it anyway.”