I have been reading your postings every day now as part of my morning routine. I finally have a question for you. I have done Enlightenment Intensives, yoga, meditation, martial arts, as well as psychotherapy to lessen my fear but nothing seems to make a dent in it. You have to be ready and willing to face anything and everything life offers you, in its entirety. If you do martial arts or yoga, for instance, if you cling to the idea that it be without pain, without difficulty, without challenge, you won't be able to do it.
Life is like that.
There is no such thing as fear of the unknown. On a very subtle, perhaps unconscious level, we think we already know, in advance, what terrible thing is going to happen. Maybe that person is very big or extremely aggressive. At some point, however, you get sick of living in a state of worry and shame, and so you accept the risk, you accept the worst case scenario, and you confront them, full force and dignity, in the most intelligent way possible. The results are always different from what you expected.