Humans are literal creatures. Despite many examples of wit, humor and creative metaphors appearing to prove otherwise, there is a literal, logical understanding at the base of all things. This literal, logical understanding comes from thoughts, feelings and the patterns or expectations they create.
Everything starts with a simple idea. Example, a certain shape is a square. A square is made up of these particular characteristics: four sides at 90 degree angles from each other and all sides are the same length. If these characteristics are not present, it is not a square. That is the idea of a square, plain and simple. Once you have a solid understanding of what a square is, you are free to be creative and start connecting it with other ideas. As your database of ideas and feelings grows, wit, humor and metaphors start to develop. These seemingly non-logical pieces are created from your database of ideas and feelings only reconnected or rearranged in a different way than what you originally learned. Previously unknown ideas and the change they bring in the way of new ideas, perspectives and opportunities, creates a playground for your life experiences.
One very interesting creation that has come to exist is the fear of change and the unknown. How can fear of change and fear of the unknown exist when everything is a connection of ideas and feelings? It sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it? They are a creation born from the programs of ideas and feelings. Both the fear of change and fear of the unknown relate to the idea and feeling that letting go of what you are comfortable and familiar with could lead to something worse or the process of change could be scary. Is this really true though?
Somewhere in your life story this pattern got created. The idea was presented and you started seeing more and more examples appearing to confirm these ideas and feelings. Were you really experiencing fear of change and the unknown or was it the expectation created by patterns of ideas and feelings that made you experience certain situations or events from that perspective? Remember, before that particular pattern appeared, you didn’t have the perspective that experiencing change and the unknown was scary. You had different expectations and experiences. You might have even enjoyed changed and looked forward to the unknown bringing something even better and more exciting.
What’s the moral of this story? Fear of change and the unknown is created from a pattern of ideas and feelings just like anything else. The repetition of a thought, a feeling and the expectation of an experience appearing to turn out a certain way creates a pattern. Changing the pattern is exactly the same process. This time you are just choosing a different idea and different feelings leading to a different result.