Transforming Fear Part Two, Vulnerability

Description

Number two in a two-part series about shifting our perceptions of fear. This video explores how vulnerability can paradoxically lead to more "strength" than stalwart discipline can.

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Tags: Kenton Whitman,ReWild University,Human Rewilding,personal rewilding,mindfulness,how to,bushcraft,survival,wilderness survival skills,how to survive in the woods,fear,Vulnerability

Video Transcription

I'm going to show you a video clip then I took a few days ago and please forgive the quality i had the zoom wrong but it's short and i will explain the relevance right after you see it yeah yeah a little scared all right put your hand right there on top of mine and just let them crawl on you yeah I'm you tear me wanting to stay on you feel it feel it oh yeah pretty neat huh gonna put your hand get them off mine just touches touch the spot a little bit hey mom here you go how was that fine pretty fun okay so here's the thing believe it or not I used to be terrified of spiders and I would have passed that beer on to my daughter if I had retained that into adulthood so in my teens I was really into martial arts and so discipline was everything to me stop drinking soda when I was six and tried to meditate and just really be like disciplined and focused I thought that would get me over my fear of spiders so I'd go out and I'd see a spider and I try to let it crawl on me and well I would have to just resist it with everything I could and I could pull that off but I didn't get me over my fear then one day I had this insight that vulnerability might be stronger than willpower and discipline and what I did is I went out into the woods and I found the biggest scariest spider I could find and I looked through that spider and I said spider I would like you to crawl on to me and to take your fangs put them into my flash and then inject your venom into me and I'm just going to take that intimate into my body and I let down all my walls and tried to move into a perfect feeling of acceptance and I put my hand down in front of that spider and it was a big one and it crawled over my hand and I felt no fear and have not been afraid of spiders since and it took me completely surrendering to the thing that I was afraid of in our culture we've been well taught that discipline willpower being strong and standing up against the things that were afraid of is the way that we best deal with fear but the funny thing is we don't have to be strong and have walls discipline unless we're afraid and if we can embrace this full vulnerability it's actually stronger you see what I'm saying by allowing something into me I acknowledge that I have an inner strength it can fully accept that thing into me I don't have to be afraid I don't have to put up a wall this sense of vulnerability is what I attribute most of my current mindset to its it's how I go through the ice and spend a night out in the winter woods afterwards not by being stalwart and strong but just allowing sensations in when I step out into the rain we all have this choice I can be like ahhh annoyed kind of just put up with the rain or I can turn my face up to it and feel it moving over me and it becomes just like it tickles it's fun it might not look like strength to our cultural eyes because our cultural eyes often see strength is kind of brown face and serious and stern that playful strength I believe will get us through a survival situation in a way that will power never can it will get us through trouble spots in relationships in a way that will power never can it transforms things that seem painful in life into things that are joy filled in life vulnerability got me from a place of being able to put up with spiders to actually loving spiders and having no fear of them whatsoever this is the power it holds to use the power of vulnerability we can look into our lives and see any place we were harboring fear if we look it at a person who has a different color skin and we feel some kind of barrier come up we know that sphere

if we look at somebody who is close to us and we see that they're having strong emotions we start to peel a barrier come up we know that sphere fear as I mentioned in the video before part 1 of this is so pervasive in our lives and finding our way through it it takes some training that we don't get in this culture vulnerability to me that's the key even these mosquitoes that used to drive me crazy and where i apprenticed originally throwing wilderness skills it was so mosquito II it was insane and brushing them away right now but this was a place where you just you couldn't brush them away they were all over you and so my only choice was to be in constant battle or to be fully accepting I'm fully accepting brought me to a place where the mosquitoes just weren't an issue anymore if you've explored the power of vulnerability its strength and had any experience with that I'd love to hear about it share your thoughts your ideas your experiences in the comments below now look forward to hearing them thanks for watching you