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When we talk about freedom, we refer to being free from outdated and dysfunctional fear patterns that limit our expression and actions.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.