There is a common parable told in meditation circles of a person who is walking and sees a snake in the grass, jumps back, and immediately runs to the other side of the street—only to realize later that the snake is a hose. The story's purpose is to demonstrate how our minds can distort what we see once fear takes hold.

As a new season is upon us for the summer, I have found myself reflecting on how we perceive the world around us and behave in specific ways when driven by fear. As this season is often associated with new beginnings, we can only get to where we need to be for a fresh start if we can relinquish our fear and step forward with abandon.

Fear can make us irrational, it can undermine our hold on reality, making benign situations or people appear to pose a threat to us, when in fact they don’t. Fear can make us mistake a hose for a snake.

A family friend who has a history of cancer in her family, for instance, recently disclosed to me that she hasn’t been able to schedule her mammogram because of fear. As she was telling me the story, I marveled at how illogical she sounded—the optimal action to take when there is a history of cancer in a family is to stay on top........

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