The Story of How Fear Motivated

The Story of the Man and his Firewood.

Motivated by Fear. 

A man was preparing for his first winter in his new home. He was not sure of how to prepare. He took time evaluate the situation. He reached out to his neighbors and talked with them about what they did. Planning for winter, he learned, amounted to securing lots of firewood. The thought of a cold winter frightened him. He thought about the potential for freezing. The answer to this dilemma was clear. He needed to secure a large quantity of fire wood. 

He began to collect wood. When his neighbors took breaks, he kept collecting and stacking his wood. Ultimately, he gathered at a much higher rate than his neighbors. He ended up with twice the amount his neighbors collected, and he was relatively content. However, he still deeply feared the impending winter. 

 The temperatures began to drop. The cold nights had arrived, and he was ready. He began to stoke his fire. He was so nervous about freezing that he just kept wood going into the fire. He even slept by the fire. Whenever the temperature seemed to drop a small amount, he was there, he woke up and he put wood on fire. 

The mid point of winter arrived. One morning he went out to get some more wood and he made a startling discovery. He had been burning wood at such an extraordinary rate, he was down to his last cord of wood. His neighbors had been approaching things more balanced, and modterately. They still had plenty of wood to make it through the winter. He had let fear dictate his decision on burning wood. Consequently, his decisions were irrational and unbalanced. Even though he started the winter with twice the wood as his neighbors, halfway through the winter, he needed to get more wood. 

The lesson here is to be aware of our moods and feelings when making decisions.  If we’re feeling anxious, if we’re feeling fearful, then it’s important for us to take some time to pause and collect ourselves. Through breathwork such as 4,7,8 breathing, we can stop and make a more balanced decision.