fearlessness beats fear
From Visa's reply tweet, I found Matt's tweet:
a lot of people who have changed their reality by changing their attitude love talking about how changing their attitude changed their reality, always to be met with a resounding chorus of "that could never work" "impossible" "downright outlandish"
I then found Asa's reply tweet. He shared a book excerpt apparently attributed to Theodore Roosevelt with words he found complementary to Matt's:
Having been a rather sickly and awkward boy, I was, as a young man, at first both nervous and distrustful of my own prowess. I had to train myself painfully and laboriously not merely as regards my body but as regards my soul and spirit. ... When a boy, I read a passage in one of Marryat's books which always impressed me. He says that at the outset almost every man is frightened when he goes into action but that the course to follow is for the man to keep such a grip on himself that he can act just as if he were not frightened. After this is kept up long enough, it changes from pretense to reality, and the man does in very fact become fearless by sheer dint of practicing fearlessness when he does not feel it.
This was the theory upon which I went. There were all kinds of things of which I was afraid at first, ranging from grizzly bears to "mean" horses and gun-fighters; but by acting as if I was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid. Most men can have the same experience if they choose.
Riffing on that, can practicing fearlessness toward more mental states like depression, loneliness, and social anxiety triumph over them?
How much can acting fearless against being disliked root out social anxiety's avoidance of it (which avoids being liked too)?
How much can acting fearless against feeling steeped in unsafe situations root out depression's avoidance of it (which avoids situations feeling safe too)?
How much can acting fearless against feeling socially or emotionally disconnected root out loneliness' avoidance of it (which avoids social or emotional connection too)?