Fear vs. Red Flags

My best friend and I have deep intellectual conversations, usually over a glass or two of wine ~ perhaps once a month. As we unwind we begin to share openly and comfortably on those things that have been clawing at us for however long. One day she asked me, “What is the difference between fear and red flags?” To be perfectly honest, from the initial question, I answered that they are one of the same.  But a few days later I decided to research that statement. One morning, after several cups of coffee and lots of Google search, I came to realize it is much different.  Although if you actually put this question on the search engine what comes up is fear and red flags as being synonyms for each other.Here’s my take on it:  Fear is that which we can’t see but because of traumas, experiences, or mistakes we have learned we don’t want or like.  (This is my version not Webster’s).  When we fear, our survival mechanism gets jolted.  We run in a paralyzing emotion of “no-way-no-how.”  We feel panic.  Red flags are the warning signs of this fear.  Red flags, I believe, are the building blocks that force us to stop and analyze before proceeding into something that will harm us. These may come from God or our guides.  When I think of red flags, in my own silly ignorance, I think of when I was a kid playing flag football.  Instead of tackling the opponent you had to remove one of their flags that hung on both their sides. So just like football, it is a way of the universe to tell you something is coming ahead.  Something is making its way into your end zone, whether it is good or bad.  Those instinctive red flags come up as a prelude, introduction, or warning of what’s to come. It is an opportunity to explore our spiritual growth and see how our humanness is evolving. The more in tune we are with our higher self, the easier life's decisions seem to get.I’ve seen a few red flags in the past few months.  We have these red flags, not out of fear, but out of our spirit eliminating further hurt.  If we want to learn a lesson, just take the red flags (just like in football) and collect them.  If you don’t want to get hurt, stop and make sure you can keep that opponent off your goal.  The goal, of course being, NOT GETTING HURT or having some catastrophic event that changes the way you live life right now. Sit in silence detaching from the egocentric mind. Allow Spirit to guide you through the moments. I call it the “gut feeling” that causes me to detach from the world and internalize that which I can't explain.  Whenever I ignore these signals my body starts to suffer.  Mind, body and spirit are the three bodies that make us whole.  When one or two are imbalance the entire body can and will go on shut down.Fear is inevitable.  Impossible!  It is there for us to push and learn from it.  I think the flags are there like yellow lights, set up as warning signs.  Now, if you ignore the fear, the yellow lights, the stop signs, the freaking red flags and you still insist on moving forward at your own risk – well, that’s your ego basically trying to get you to fail.  Right?  Or perhaps you planned this all along before you were even born and the red flags are crumbs on the ground letting you know you are close to a major life lesson. It's unfortunate but many of us seem to grow through pain. We don't learn from others' experiences. We must journey through our own path and evolve on our own terms.Red flags are aware indicators and signals.  How we relate to them is our own perception and life experience.  They cannot be the same for everyone because they come up as indicators to emotional stress in our lives.  But, whatever the reason they come to you, please don’t ignore your intuition.  They are there for a reason. You have the answers, pay attention and allow synchronicity to lead the way. If we become more aware of how our bodies react we would avoid so much hurt.