Welcome to the Buddhist boot camp podcast.

Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life.

Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye.

When you try to figure out why people do what they do, whether it's why they choose to live or work

where they do, the way they vote, spend their money, who they marry, and even why they have kids.

Instead of trying to make sense of people's logic, good luck with that.

Your precious energy is better invested in understanding how powerful fear can be and influencing our decisions.

As long as we are sufficiently scared of one option, fear is usually more than enough reason and motivation

for most of us to decide on something else.

People choose dysfunctional relationships because they are scared to be alone, for example.

My online survey asking why people had kids got almost 10,000 responses, with over 65%

of parents saying they had kids because they are scared of

having nobody to care for them when they are old.

Some even went as far as to admit they had multiple kids in case one bails on them.

Fear is even driving one of my best friends to choose a career path that makes the most money

rather than the one that would bring him the most joy. Fear can divide and separate us as it has since the beginning of time.

And although fear is a natural and healthy response to true danger,

it quickly turns destructive or paralyzing if it is either excessive,

or when fear becomes the default reaction to every perceived threat, including those that don't pose any real risk.

Fear is a lot like my smoke detector at home.

I am glad it's there, but it usually beeps when I cook or take a hot shower, not because the house is actually in flames.

While it's important not to ignore the beeping, it is also imperative not to hysterically

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