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any number of things that grab my attention. This turning away may give me the necessary pause to organize my thoughts so that I may come back to the keyboard and continue writing. But whether or not my temporary turning away and avoiding is useful, it is a subtle form of fear nonetheless. In this case, the fear of not knowing exactly what to do next. |
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We are not in the habit of labeling these kind of avoidances fear. But after working with people for over two decades in psychotherapy, it is pretty clear to me that behind much of our turning off and turning away we discover a basic fear of facing something we're unsure about. |
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Moments of aversion and avoidance are popping up for us on a daily basis. They may be experienced as momentarily blanking out, anxiety, confusion, or feeling ''spaced out." But the ground of these reactions is a subtle fear. |
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In the same way, desires big and small are continually popping up during the day, some just teasing us and others begging for immediate satisfaction. When we watch the mental process of desire arising during the day, we notice how much of our existence is made up of one desire after another arising and falling away. They may be physical, mental, emotional, or material. They may be attended to, like eating when hungry or sleeping when tired. Or they may be ignored, like not following the impulse to buy something we see and like in the store window. But the point here is that desire comes in many shades, as does fear. |
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When we begin to see how we deal with fear and desire in the larger context of our lives, we may then apply what we notice and learn about our reactions to them when they arise while trading. Conversely, when we present methods of thinking and practical tools, these ideas may be extended to any sphere of life that involves the same emotions. |
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The Bipolarity of Fear and Greed |
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What do we mean by a bipolarity? When we think of a polarity, a simple example is a pair of two apparent opposites, like love and hate. In what is called "either/or" thinking, where the mind thinks things must be either one way or the other, black or white, all or nothing, we think of love and hate as having nothing to do with each other, as being total opposites. |
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