Fear and Pressure

Somebody told me the other day that he was feeling a lot of pressure to do something. When we talked about it, we looked at what it meant--what does pressure really mean, and where does it come from?

Sometimes the pressure we feel comes from within ourselves. Sometimes pressure is about fear-- we are afraid of not doing something, afraid of saying no, afraid of standing up for ourselves. What are we afraid of? Often, it is of losing something, or someone. A close relationship. Money. A job.

Often, when we look at it, we find that the consequences are not as fearful as we thought, we had just never thought it through.