Fear Is the Shadow of the Unknown
When I wrote my book Fall in Love with Karma,
I shared something deeply personal —
that I was born as a fearful personality.
I’ve often wondered:
Was this fear carried from a past life?
Or was it simply the shock of entering
a brand-new, unknown world at birth?
Whatever the reason,
fear became my silent companion from the start.
And as life unfolded,
each new challenge seemed to add more layers —
fear of failure,
fear of judgment,
fear of losing people I love,
fear of the unknown future itself.
And then, life gave me
my biggest encounter with the unknown —
moving from India to Los Angeles.
Suddenly, everything familiar was gone.
The sounds, the food, the language,
the festivals, the closeness of family…
all of it was replaced by silence, distance, and doubt.
There were hardly any Indians nearby.
Only two Indian grocery stores in the entire city.
Our friends were twenty years older than us.
I felt invisible, misplaced, and painfully alone.
And my old companion — fear —
was louder than ever.
It whispered:
“You don’t belong here. You can’t do this.”
But slowly, something shifted.
I realized that fear was not trying to stop me —
it was just warning me of the unknown.
And the unknown only feels dark until you walk through it.
With every small step —
learning new ways of living,
building new friendships,
trusting myself in a foreign world —
the fear began to dissolve.
The darkness became familiar.
The unknown became known.
And with each step,
I discovered more of who I truly was.
Fear does not protect our potential — it buries it.
But every time we walk through fear,
we reclaim a piece of our hidden strength.
Today, I no longer see fear as my enemy.
I see it as a doorway.
A signpost pointing to where my soul is ready to grow.
So when fear appears,
I whisper back:
“Thank you for showing me where I am meant to expand.”
Because real growth begins
the moment you walk through the darkness
and light up your own path.