November reading: The Fear Cure: Cultivating Courage as Medicine for the Body, Mind, and Soul by Dr. Lissa Rankin

COVID-19 has brought a great deal of fear into our lives. We are afraid of getting sick and because we might lose our jobs. The world, as we used to know it, doesn’t seem to be coming back any time soon, so we have to learn to live by the rules of general instability. Nowadays, the ultimate goal of a good life seems to be acknowledging that it is useless to program everything and just enjoy every single day. Such a simple statement to say, but such a big struggle to make it become reality!

I have no idea how The Fear Cure: Cultivating Courage as Medicine for the Body, Mind, and Soul by Dr. Lissa Rankin got onto my Kindle list. I compulsively buy books when I see them quoted in other books, so it is a sure thing that I have read about it somewhere else.

I did take it as a sign that it caught my eye at the exact moment I needed a way to help me face my fears and somehow it answered some of the questions I had been having for months.

Especially the question of all questions, that for me is: how can I wake up every day and not be afraid of it? I am a control freak, and most of the time this is caused by the anxiety of failing. Stress comes from that, bad days comes from that, negativity grows from that.

For Lissa Rankin, MD, the answer is complex, but the essence is everyone can make his/her own prescription of defeating fear. This book collects evidence about how disease and fear are linked and how the latter limits our ability to fully enjoy the beauty that surrounds us.

Dr. Lisa invites us to:

1). See uncertainty as a gateway to possibility.

2). Understand loss as natural and be aware that this is a way of growing.

3). Trust universe, as it is purposeful and the only way of coping with it is to give it trust.

4) Believe we are never alone, as we are part of a bigger scenario – we are one.

I am truly grateful I had the opportunity to read this book right now. I would recommend it to whom struggles accepting that the only certainty that we have is there are not certainties. This doesn’t mean we have to live limiting ourselves by fear of the unknown. Lissa Rankin gives us important tools to accept that and appreciate every single day.

Photo – courtesy of HayHouse

You can also buy it to a more affordable price (especially the ebook) from here .