Fear

"What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it."

--Jiddu Krishnamurti

Our fears are part of who we are. And as much as we would like to be totally disconnected from our fears, it is impossible to do so without losing vital pieces of ourselves in the process. Fear can can hold us back. Fear can prevent us from experiencing pleasure in our lives. Fear can be paralyzing. But if fully appreciated, evaluated, dissected, and accepted, fear can be a potent motivator. Our fears can help teach us things about ourselves that we never knew existed. Fear is powerful. Fear is empowering. 

Experiences

Experience: 

a. the conscious events that make up an individual life

b. something personally encountered, undergone, or lived through

Do experiences define who we are? Do they shape us? 

I'd like to think that it is much more complex than that. It depends on the experiencer. It depends on her perception of the event and it depends on her evaluation and assimilation of the event into her consciousness (perhaps subconscious too). 

We are not passive experiencers. We are living experiments. We actively participate. We observe. We evaluate. We learn. And we apply what we've learned to future experiences. This is how we obtain intellectual and emotional growth.