Best Self Magazine

How to Make Friends with Our Fears

overcoming fear, photograph of empty microphone by Oscar Keys

Photograph by Oscar Keys

The secret to overcoming your fear is to consider it your ally, not your enemy

If you don’t know the nature of fear, you can never feel fearless.

— Pema Chodron

When I was six, my father bought me a life-changing gift: a violin. I wouldn’t say I had mind-blowing talent, but I was good with music, and I enjoyed spending time studying it. At the age of ten I started to give small concerts for my family and our circle of friends. Months later, I was playing at the School of Fine Arts in my

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Best Self Magazine

Best Self Magazine7 min read
How Cancer Helped Me Let Go of Fear and Make Deep Connections
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes — I am a two-time breast cancer survivor, but my story is not really about cancer and its trials. It’s about how cancer taught me that humor, nature, exercise and relationships with both family and “found family” h
Best Self Magazine3 min read
How I Overcame Test Anxiety and Actionable Strategies High School Students Can Use to Ace Standardized Exams
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes My journey from an average SAT scorer to achieving a perfect score and eventually founding Prep Expert has been both challenging and enlightening. Along this path, one of the most significant hurdles I faced was tes
Best Self Magazine4 min read
How Connecting with Ancestors Can Help Heal Intergenerational Trauma
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes — Many people think of trauma solely as an incident that happened to us or someone else that is intense, violent, or life-threatening; however, trauma can also be a suffering from emotional or psychological pain tha

Related Books & Audiobooks