His Holiness Rob Brydon

Rob Brydon is the kind of celebrity that might not slip into your consciousness too often. You might watch his television show, you may be a fan of some other things he's been in - but apart from thinking he's quite funny, he might not have had much of an impact on your life.

I've always thought he seems like a lovely little Welsh man, but now I'm starting to wonder whether he might actually be the next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. A few weeks ago, I came across a  Guardian 'Q&A' with him. Aside from the usual funny answers that comedians use to avoid questions, when asked what he is scared of, Brydon replied:

"Fear itself. On the plus side, other than that, I hear I've nothing to fear"

I believe he was paraphrasing Franklin D Roosevelt here, but for some reason, (perhaps because I heard it in my head in his lovely little Welsh accent), it resonated with me. 

For those avid followers of my life (I'm sure there are many), I'm moving to a lovely little flat in London in a few day's time. For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted to move to London, so when the plan became concrete I was surprised to discover that the first thing I felt was fear. I've tried to figure out exactly why I'm so scared - but the most concise conclusion I can come to is that I'm scared of the 'what if'. 

Brydon's humble answer immediately popped into my head when I tried to pinpoint my anxieties, and I realised that it's so, so true. Fear only exists because we interpret things to be scary - we really do only have fear to be scared of. I'm not scared of anything that could potentially happen by moving to London, I'm scared of my reaction to it: fear. 

Now, this may not be a ground-breaking discovery on my part, but I've found that if you really try to see fear in such narrow terms - the thought of being scared of a mere emotion really can help to abate anxiety. No event or experience is scary, unpleasant or anything else - it is defined by how we perceive it. And fear really is something to be scared of - I know it's stopped me from doing a lot of things. But now, with a little help from Rob, London will be my oyster. Well, once I learn how to correctly pronounce 'oyster', it will.