Mindfulness captures the essence of being aware of one's thoughts and emotions, it points to the skepticism and humility towards one's own mind, and the openness to change and growth.

Would we worry less if we learn to trust in the process that brought us to life?

What happens when we burn out?

Also available as a podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/32cOMnt66DbXu8qhh1zj7S?si=MrLhlVTOQ72EhIQJ0SX-tw

This informal event happened on Monday 17 of October.

The participant guests are some of the pre-order customers for my coming book Fear Enough!

Interested in pre-ordering?

https://initiatives.lincolnisland.com/products/pre-order-deconstructing-fears

The following is one of the final book chapters. It is a wrap-up summary.

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If I am defensive, I am afraid.

If I fear, I limit my actions to defend myself from possible risks. When I keep the defenses up, I get used to them and identify with them; in other words, I add them to my personality. As more time passes, I keep adding defenses for different circumstances I experience until I arrive at a moment when I feel stuck. My defenses limit my options, and it gets difficult to find joy.

Removing my fears feels like losing identity: "I can't stop being a perfectionist because I don't know how else to be."

Ideally, we learn to see that the pattern of building defenses might work in some circumstances but not permanently. Therefore we realize we must remove the old defenses that aren't constructive or protective anymore and let space for new experiences.

When we talk about freedom, we refer to being free from outdated and dysfunctional fear patterns that limit our expression and actions. Freedom is not about doing whatever we wish; it is about being free from ideas that restrict us from doing what we can, considering our responsibility to others and our environment.

As it happens individually happens collectively.

If I defend myself from you, you defend yourself from me. If we protect ourselves from others, they will also get prepared to be attacked. If I hold on to something we both need, you will want to get what I have, and I will have to protect it from you.

We are in a vicious cycle of Fear. Can we all stop it and break the cycle? Realistically it is impossible to coordinate for all humans to agree on something, but what is possible is to facilitate change by example. If you and I decide to Deconstruct Fears, we might inspire others to do the same. With time, our collective awareness will break the dam of resistance, letting the flow of change run free.

The truth is that positive and negative experiences are relative in time. Positive experiences can bring bad ones and the other way around.

This article is part of the Lincoln Island newsletter, you can subscribe and review past issues here: https://initiatives.lincolnisland.com/posts

Transcript:

"I think I have been trying to prove that being myself is okay since I can remember. I have been resisting being what others want me to be for a long time.

The paradox is that one starts assuming to know who one is just to discover a bit later that oneself, beyond the surface, is always different.

Being okay with myself is a lifelong process, and it is not a recipe for happiness. It is a decision.

I decided not to comply with what others tell me to be, to accept my weaknesses, and encourage my strengths. Like every other decision in life, that decision has a cost and a benefit.

Are you willing to pay the price of being yourself?

If you decided to follow your own path, to live with freedom, you have chosen a way of purpose and courage.

It is okay to be who you are becoming, even more, when the world seems against you.

If entrepreneurship is a synonym for resourcefulness in the face of change or adversity, then I am an entrepreneur. In other words, entrepreneurship is helping me to become more purposeful, more courageous, more adventurous, and more connected with others. I want my legacy to be a story about learning to become a freer person."

- Jose Antonio Morales

Subscribe to Lincoln Island's newsletter: https://www.lincolnisland.com

Christoph Soukup, an expert in the Circular Economy shares his story with you

In business and entrepreneurship, we see different movements and trends coming in and out. From startups to social entrepreneurship, from lean methodologies to holacracy. Each of them contributes something to a collective solution to our current problems, but in most cases, they keep the connection with the old systems that they want to replace.

When we think about solving the challenge of climate change, a model called the Circular Economy proposes a new way to produce and consume. Currently, there is market resistance precisely because of the ambiguity that precedes the adoption of new business models. Can an incremental approach be the solution?

Some weeks ago, I had a very stimulating call with Christoph Soukup, an expert in Circular Economy and a good friend to many changemakers. The following podcast shares his career changes and how they magically kept him aligned with his purpose. I think Christoph managed to balance ambiguity and uncertainty bravely, which might be the source of his rich experience.

Learn more about Christoph:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophsoukup-materialkreislauf/

Follow his Podcast: https://www.muellistmist.org/

Subscribe to Lincoln Island Newsletter: https://initiatives.lincolnisland.com/posts/circular-economy-and-you-lincoln-island-s-journey-newsletter-06

This interview is part of the Lincoln Island newsletter: www.lincolnisland.com

In my view, Niko Klanšek is the perfect example of entrepreneurship: cares about people, personal development, business development, plus manages to be generous and reachable. He has a natural and consistent tendency for achieving mastery at the topics that capture his attention, and that's why this recorded call is a great opportunity.

Get to know a deeper perspective on the technologies that are building the foundation for our next step as civilization: decentralized organizations. We talk about the Blockchain, the Metaverse, NFTs, and their effects on society.

If you don't know much about those technologies, this interview will give you a good base to start learning. This subject will be as important as the WWW once was. Enjoy!

Find Niko's profile on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nklansek/

Visit his company's web site: https://hashmark.io

I will be reading and publishing more poems and book quotes related to the theme of Deconstructing Fear, feel free to subscribe to this channel.

Full article for this video:

https://deconstructingfear.substack.com/p/antidotes-to-fear-of-death

For more content, articles and interviews you can register to my email newsletter: https://deconstructingfear.substack.com/

ANTIDOTES TO FEAR OF DEATH

by Rebecca Elson

Sometimes as an antidote

To fear of death,

I eat the stars.

Those nights, lying on my back,

I suck them from the quenching dark

Til they are all, all inside me,

Pepper hot and sharp.

Sometimes, instead, I stir myself

Into a universe still young,

Still warm as blood:

No outer space, just space,

The light of all the not yet stars

Drifting like a bright mist,

And all of us, and everything

Already there

But unconstrained by form.

And sometime it’s enough

To lie down here on earth

Beside our long ancestral bones:

To walk across the cobble fields

Of our discarded skulls,

Each like a treasure, like a chrysalis,

Thinking: whatever left these husks

Flew off on bright wings.

More about Rebecca Elson:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Elson