Knowing, not knowing. All at the same time.

A client was poised on his bike. Ready to move and frozen.

His accident 3 years earlier had been horrific.

Here he was getting back on his bike.

He was able to voice his dilemma. He knew after all our work together, that he could do this, he was safe. Yet he felt intense fear at the same time.

I was reminded of an experiment Charles Darwin set himself. He went to London Zoo. He stood in front of a lethal snake's enclosure. Darwin knew he was safe. He bent forward placing his nose to to the glass, knowing he was safe.

Inevitably (they had made the snake hungrier than usual) the snake went to strike with lightening speed. Darwin jumped with all the terror that our 200 million year old threat mind could muster.

He knew he was safe and in that moment he leapt with fear.

This wonderfully complex mind. How it can know and not know in the same moment.