Don’t feed your own fears

Sir — I turned off the radio just now because I can’t listen to it any more. All it’s doing is making me anxious and the more I listen the more anxious I feel and then the worry sets in... and then the inner voice starts.

We all have that voice. Go on, admit it. That’s the little voice that, if we allow, gets out of control and, boy, does it roar — especially if we feed it with too much fear and worry.

You see it loves that. In fact it thrives and gets bigger and bigger by the day. It gets so bloody big we can’t control it, so it ripples out to those around us and on and on it goes and then they worry and then panic sets in. Bit like a virus really. The more we feed anything, the more it grows.

Don’t think I’m being flippant about what’s currently happening in our world. Of course it’s scary and worrying and frightening but we have to live. It’s bloody awful on so many levels but the reality is

An old Cherokee was teaching his grandson about life.

“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil — he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.”

He continued: “The other is good — he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. The same fight is going on inside you — and inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied: “The one you feed.” we have no choice but to deal with it head-on as best we know how.

We owe it to ourselves to get up every day and live our best possible life and if we allow too much fear to take hold we will create a worse inner disease for ourselves.

So instead of feeling helpless I am going to live. Whatever happens we can only take our own personal responsibility for it.

Yes, be sensible about personal hygiene, etc but choose what wolf you are going to feed.

With the time ahead, instead of sitting worrying about “what if ?” I am going to return to my bucket list of hobbies. I’m going to use the time as best I can to read, walk, write, bake, declutter... sure the fear won’t have a chance to get a look in.

And, on a final note, I won’t hug or kiss or shake hands — but there are so many other ways of showing people we care.

Bernie Kirwan,

Gorey, Co Wexford