{"id":651232,"date":"2013-09-06T18:04:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T18:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/?p=651232"},"modified":"2013-09-06T18:04:00","modified_gmt":"2013-09-06T18:04:00","slug":"fear-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/fear-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear Not"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>It\u2019s kind of weird how I am able to step on stage in front of a thousand people, and tell my testimony \u2013 but it\u2019s hard and a near impossibility for me to sit in front of three people and share my story\u2026<\/p>\n<p>I think the difference is intimacy.<\/p>\n<p>I, like many others, fear intimacy. We fear intimacy because\u2026<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u2026 intimacy means opening up, risking the danger of getting hurt. Usually those of us who are overwhelmed by fear of intimacy have been hurt by intimacy. So we have two conflicting biological reactions and needs:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The need to defend oneself from, and the need to open up oneself to others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I\u2019ve learned how to cope with hurt by using emotional dissociation as a defense mechanism to protect myself. Which isn\u2019t a skill at all \u2013 it becomes a difficulty, it becomes a means of shutting people out and isolating myself, but most dangerously it allows me to ignore and suppress my feelings, hence the term emotional dissociation, maybe emotional repression\/suppression would better fit\u2026<\/p>\n<p>What I\u2019ve come to learn is that by simply acknowledging my feelings, taking a step back <strong>from<\/strong> them before reacting <strong>to<\/strong> them, allows me to then evaluate my circumstances, context, and situation. Then to decide, if dissociating is the best decision.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes it is, but most of the time, I\u2019ve found it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Living in reality, living through action versus living through dissociation, is far better than simply \u201csleep-walking\u201d through life\u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When we get out of our own way, we become more connected with and to others, and in result we\u2019re happier, more compassionate, and loving, we come to find that the stress in the end was just a feeling, an emotion, this fear was not reality, so don\u2019t allow it coerce you into avoiding reality.<\/p>\n<p>I think as I dig deeper into this a question, and gain control over my emotions, that helped me and hopefully will help you too is \u2013 \u201cWhat is the root cause of my emotional dissociation, in specific instances\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What about you guys? What\u2019re your thoughts? What\u2019re you struggles? Do you have anything you might add?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s kind of weird how I am able to step on stage in front of a thousand people, and tell my testimony \u2013 but it\u2019s hard and a near impossibility for me to sit in front of three people and share my story\u2026 I think the difference is intimacy. I, like many others, fear intimacy. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2493,"featured_media":652469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[25,151,152],"class_list":["post-651232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian","category-life","tag-andy-gill","tag-fear","tag-fear-not"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fear Not<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It&#039;s kind of weird how I am able to step on stage in front of a thousand people, and tell my testimony - but it&#039;s hard and a near impossibility for me to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/fear-not\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fear Not\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#039;s kind of weird how I am able to step on stage in front of a thousand people, and tell my testimony - but it&#039;s hard and a near impossibility for me to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/fear-not\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Andy Gill\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-06T18:04:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andy Gill\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andy Gill\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/fear-not\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/fear-not\/\",\"name\":\"Fear Not\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-06T18:04:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-09-06T18:04:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/#\/schema\/person\/4db132075291b01585ac509973439e59\"},\"description\":\"It's kind of weird how I am able to step on stage in front of a thousand people, and tell my testimony - but it's hard and a near impossibility for me to\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/fear-not\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/fear-not\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/fear-not\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fear Not\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/\",\"name\":\"Andy Gill\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/#\/schema\/person\/4db132075291b01585ac509973439e59\",\"name\":\"Andy Gill\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fd242f2de7cb0eb5e7189ccb783e0b63?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fd242f2de7cb0eb5e7189ccb783e0b63?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Andy Gill\"},\"description\":\"Andy Gill has studied theology for two years in Princeton and graduating from Eastern University stepped into pastoral ministry in southern California. 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