Bring Truth to Fear is an effort to address the growing divisiveness, distortion, and isolation that undermines our ability to work together to solve problems and explore possibilities.
Fear restricts our ability to see and think clearly while diminishing our health, well-being and relationships.
Understanding fear and making a commitment to learning the truth of who we are, what we can become, and what’s going on around us can transform fear into caution, care, and concern and lead to more productive and fulfilling lives for ourselves and future generations.
The focus of Bring Truth to Fear is to:
- Help us understand how fear and Fear Based Thinking restrict our ability to see and think clearly and what we can do about it.
- Identify and remove obstacles to a healthy and fulfilling life.
- Integrate the essential human need for belonging into everyday awareness so we can be ourselves while learning to work together to explore possibilities and solve problems.
- Restore respect for and commitment to truth in daily life. This includes a) Discerning what is true, meaningful, and relevant in the messages we receive from culture, media, politics, education, and social media; b) Exploring the truth of who we are, who we can be, and what we have to offer this world; and, c) Discovering the shared values that can guide our interactions, decisions, and actions to create resilient and sustainable communities that serve the common good
Almost all of the problems we face in our world today are man-made – the result of choices based on how we see and understand ourselves, our world and each other – a world view that to a great extent has been formed in the throes of fear.
Fear keeps us in a state of tension. Potential adversaries are everywhere. We never feel we have enough or can be good enough to respond to the needs and pressures that dominate our vision. We put everything and everyone into broad categories – for/against, either/or. Our focus narrows, we become quick to anger and react without thinking or asking questions. We lose track of what is true and meaningful and become vulnerable to propaganda and manipulation.
Fear and misleading information play a major role in our problems while making them harder to solve. They undermine our capacity to understand what’s happening and impede our ability to work together to respond effectively.
Fear has been used for decades to create divisiveness for political gain and we face an increasing avalanche of misinformation. Our capacity to understand what’s needed to adapt to a world that’s changing at an accelerated pace is severely limited. We won’t be able to understand and learn from each other until we recognize how manufactured fear separates us into fixed categories that distort how we see ourselves and one another. We will not be able to work together to solve our problems until we learn to question the information we receive and demand that our leaders commit to telling the truth.
Fear is also a significant component of stress. Our body, mind, and emotions react to stress from pressure, worry, and exhaustion as if we were facing an immediate threat. This undermines our health while it saps our energy and decreases our productivity. When fear becomes a habit, we’re not even aware of how it’s restricting our ability to see and think clearly – we charge forward or turn away without fully realizing what’s really happening. We can learn to live healthy lives when we see the truth of what fear and stress do to us and understand how to restore and maintain balance.
Truth is an antidote to fear. Everything we fear can be dealt with more effectively to the extent we seek to understand what’s really happening and learn to work together to find solutions. Transforming fear into caution, care, and concern opens our minds and hearts so we can see what’s needed and how best to respond.
When we bring truth to fear, we obtain a clearer picture of real and imagined threats. We learn to identify the bias and agenda of those who use fear to promote their own interests. We begin to see how fear-based messages that promote divisiveness are constructed and how they permeate our media driven culture. Passive acceptance of what we’re told and sold can be replaced with a desire to understand. We can learn to ask questions and seek reasonable answers based on verifiable information.
When we bring truth to fear, we can deal with threats with our feet on the ground and our eyes fully open. When our vision is no longer dominated exclusively by what’s wrong in our world, we can begin to put things right. We can begin to recognize the true value and potential of all that surrounds us. We can begin to see who we are and what we can be.
Bringing truth to fear helps us acknowledge and overcome our flaws and limitations, learn from our mistakes, see opportunities, avoid pitfalls, and recognize that there’s a best way to deal with every situation, no matter how dire. Seeking Truth keeps our minds and hearts open. It helps us realize the power and the value of working together. It helps us see that everyone has a contribution to make.
Bring Truth to Fear 