Paper Tigers and Invisible Fences

I've been thinking about something for the last couple days.  A while back someone was telling me that their dog had figured out that, if he gets a running start and jumps at the last minute, the invisible fence hurts for a moment, but then he's free to roam where ever he wants.  What an awesome metaphor for dealing with our fears!  I've been kind of edging up to some of my fears lately, which is why I was thinking of this, and what I keep asking myself is, "Do I want to be the person that lives on this side of the invisible fence, hemmed in by boundaries that don't really exist?  Or do I want to be the person that challenges those boundaries, maybe go through some temporary pain, then live on the other side of those boundaries where the world is expansive and I'm free to go where I want?" 

So much of the time, speaking from my own experience, we live within these invisible barriers of pain, and when we hit those barriers, and start to feel pain we back away, and thus our world remains small, unchanging, and ungrowing.  From a recent Soul Retrieval I performed, and this didn't really strike me until I heard the words coming out of my mouth, I realized that many times when I start to feel those painful fears and doubts, I find myself thinking I'm going backwards.  "What am I doing here again with these feelings?" The truth of the matter is, when I'm feeling those things, I am not regressing, but am moving forward because I am encountering the invisible fence of fears that up to this point has defined the size of my world, as well as my identity, and the dimensions of expression I have in said world.

On the rare occasion that it occurs to me that this is what's happening, I can actually shift my perspective by seeing the purpose in the discomfort and/or pain, and see it more as the heat a piece of metal must go through to become a sword.  It's literally growing pains.  If I want to live in a more expansive world, I'm going to have to go through this experience sooner or later.  If I don't do it now, I will have to do it again sometime.  So, while I'm in the neighborhood...

Along with that, another metaphor (What's a metaphor? It's just a little smaller than a metaphive.) that works for me around dealing with fears is the 'Paper Tiger.'  Here's a couple pages, from my Putar and the Preserver comic I drew, that illustrates that idea --

...there really is nothing to fear," my younger counterpart goes on to say. 

When I start to go into fear mode, if I can muster the presence of mind to be aware of what's going on, I can see whatever it is I am fearing standing in front of me, and it can look extremely ferocious and scary, but the key word is "Look."  No matter how it appears, it is only made of paper.  It is like a cardboard stand-up.  Though it appears frightening or terrifying from some angles, it is really two-dimensional and has no depth.  Knowing this I can then see myself pushing it over, hear it crash to the ground, and see the open path ahead that this fear blocked.  I can move beyond that fear to become the person who lives on the other side of that invisible fence.

"Beloved one, when you first and finally come to that realization that there is nothing to fear, there is such a feeling of peace, such a feeling of empowerment, a feeling that, “I can do all things through him who strengtheneth me.” Well, who is this “him” that strengthens you? It is yourSelf, your own—capital “S”—Self, the divinity of you that you are now beginning to take hold of and remember, the divinity of you that allows you to live the drama, the divinity of you that has been from before time began, that gives you the strength and the power to do all things." 

~Jeshua