Dive Down Into The Whole

I haven taken this from a Tara Brach post on her web page. I personally had never heard of the 'keeper  hole' and I'll try to remember this next time I am overwhelmed by fear. Hope it is helpful to you too

The key to being with fear is in contacting what is here now, rather than trying to push it away. Here’s a story from the river that helps us understand that. In kayaking, you learn about what is called a keeper hole. It’s a swirl in the river that catches a boat or a body and pulls it down under the water. You can drown because you get stuck in that swirling current and you can’t get out of it.  If you get caught in a keeper hole, the only way out is actually to dive right into the center, down as far and deep as you can, toward the bottom, because if you get to the bottom you can swim out the side of the swirl.

So you do the opposite of what your instincts tell you to do. Your instinct, of course, is to fight your way to the surface. But it won’t work; you’ll keep getting pulled into the hole. No, you have to dive down into the hole.