Intuition is here to keep us safe. Gut instinct-that feeling that something is wrong. I have found that I should listen to that nagging or sometimes immediate feeling that something is wrong. Fear is something else. Fear could mean someone coming towards you in a dark alley with a knife in his/her hand-that’s fear and again, it’s hardwired in us to keep us safe.

Then there is another kind of fear. The fear that can take over as we age if you’re not careful. I can give you a personal example from my hike yesterday. I was on a seventeen mile hike and I knew that no one was on that mountain but me and my dogs. It was a part of the trail that was darker with foliage dipping into the trail. My mind went to mountain lions, and the person who spray-painted Private Property except the spelling was Pravite. I had visions of the old movie Deliverance. Anyway, at that moment I was trying to decide if this feeling I had was intuition or legitimate fear, and perhaps I should turn around. I chose to move past it and continued to hike, and I’m glad I did. It was a gorgeous day, my fear was unfounded as I thought it probably was.

This isn’t easy to figure out, but I hope you can. I made a vow to myself years ago to not to fearful as I age-not stupid-but not fearful. Yesterday was my example of fear that was all in my head.