The Fear of Happiness can Cause a Lack of Passion in Your Life!
Passion is usually a pathway to joyful activities. When you engage in joyful activities it is natural to want to continue with those activities. In order to do so you must face certain realities about your life:
You may find yourself coming face to face with obstacles. Those things which are a part of your day-to-day life and work against your ability to follow your passion and preventing your long term happiness.
Resolving those things in your life which block your happiness forces you to confront aspects of your life and yourself which you have been avoiding…or worse, you were not aware of!
You may discover that you have a fear of happiness.
The reason for this is passion often draws your attention to those things in your life which are making you unhappy. Sound like the opposite of what passion is supposed to do? Let me explain:
You may be afraid of facing the reality that your long term happiness is going to require making changes in your life! Here’s the real kicker:
You probably already know exactly what those changes are. You’ve known all along. Because you have known and have chosen not to confront those issues the passion and energy in your life has, over time, drained away.
It’s easier to avoid experiencing passion altogether than to face the truth!
You find yourself avoiding the uncomfortable questions like:
“Will I be able to continue to do what I love and what makes me happy?”
“What in my life works against my being able to do what I love?”
“Am I willing to change those things in my life which prevent my happiness?”
Real happiness may require you to change something in your life.
The thought of making that change or any other changes can seem both overwhelming and terrifying at the same time. This is the underlying cause of the fear of happiness. Denial.
Most people will deny facing the truth about their unhappiness because the thought of having to change is too scary. It is easier to self-medicate with everything from alcohol to drugs and distractions to avoid dealing with change.
Using alcohol and drugs is pretty obvious so I’m not going to dwell on those issues…
What isn’t as obvious is how easy it is to avoid dealing with the truth by using distractions.
Distractions come in many shapes and flavors. Many of them can even come disguised as a fleeting interest we may have for something. It’s a disguise because real passion has a way of always forcing us to eventually deal with the truth of ourselves.
A distraction will never do this that’s why it’s called a distraction. If you have a fear of happiness you will avoid anything which may stimulate real passion.
Few people want to be placed into a situation where they have to honestly assess the quality of their lives.
Following your passion has a way of doing this. It will always make you judge certain aspects of your life. If something brought you joy and fulfillment wouldn’t you want to continue that experience?
Wouldn’t you very quickly find yourself facing any roadblocks in your life which would act to limit that joy and fulfillment? You would be faced with having to consider what the roadblocks were and whether or not the continuation of your joy and happiness was worth confronting those issues.
Being afraid to confront the issues which are the roadblocks to your happiness is often greater than the fear of not being happy.
It is for this very reason most people will choose not to allow themselves to indulge in thoughts or feelings that could possibly lead them to confronting the core issues which are the real barriers to their happiness.
Being afraid to think and feel certain things is often a symptom of the greater fear of facing those things in your life which keep you from your joy and fulfillment. This is why the lack of passion in your life may really be a fear of happiness.
Bob Baran – Fear of Happiness (article)
The day you run out of excuses
is the day your life changes…