A first step [in remaining open] is to understand that a feeling of dread or psychological discomfort might just be a sign that old habits are getting liberated, that we are moving closer to the natural open state. Trungpa Rinpoche said that awakening warriors would find themselves in a constant state of anxiety. Personally, I’ve found this to be true. After a while I realized that since the shakiness wasn’t going away, I might as well get to know it. When our attitude toward fear becomes more welcoming and inquisitive, there’s a fundamental shift that occurs. Instead of spending our lives tensing up, as if we were in the dentist’s chair, we learn that we can connect with the freshness of the moment and relax.

Pema Chödron

from the book The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times

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Further quotes from the book The Places That Scare You:

• The root of happiness
• Awakening our unlimited potential
• Dissolving our self-importance
• Dissolving our fear
• At least until you die
• The first mark of existence
• Being in the middle of nowhere
• A flexible identity
• Our Shared Humanity
• Idiot Compassion
• Cultivating equanimity
• Compassion takes courage
• Abiding in openness
• The essence of generosity
• Doing all with one intention
• Threefold purity
• Stay!
• Forgive into freshness
• Our true nature and condition
• Nothing and no one is fixed