Confront the fear and the fear evaporates
In 1965, U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy, became the first to climb newly-named Mount Kennedy, a 14,000-foot (4,267-meter) peak named in honor of the senator's brother, President John F. Kennedy.
Senator Kennedy came to this expedition with some doubts and misgivings. Having never climbed a mountain before, he openly confronted his fears on the eve of the climb, "I hate heights. But I'm getting braver now. I've been up Everest three times in my mind." Asked by the New York Times why he wanted to participate, Senator Kennedy replied that it was simply "because the mountain had been named after President Kennedy."
The senator's wife, Ethel, quipped playfully: "I think he wants to take his mind off the fact that he's not an astronaut."
Poetry as Stress-Antidote
Senator Kennedy strove to distract himself from the work ahead. "I did this by seeing how far we would be in 100 steps," the senator later wrote in Life magazine, "or by reciting a poem and then determining how much progress we had made by the end of it."
At one point, Senator Kennedy fell into a crevasse to his shoulders, perhaps bringing to mind the advice his mother had given him before the trip: "Don't slip, dear." He carefully pulled himself out. Looking down into the hole, he was unable to see the bottom.
(See here how RFK recites Aeschylus to assuage Pain at MLK's death) :
“Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart
until, in our own despair, against our will,
comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
Gratitude as precursor to Happiness
"I planted President Kennedy's family flag on the summit. It was done with mixed emotion. It was a feeling of pain that the events of 16 months and two days before had made it necessary. It was a feeling of relief and exhilaration that we had accomplished what we set out to do. It was a feeling of gratitude toward Canada and the elements because the mountain and the views from it in all directions would I'm sure have greatly pleased the man after whom the mountain was named”.
Happiness means being able to consciously express of gratitude with recognition that pain and suffering play a central contribution. “Whatever may be the situation, if it is acceptable, it is pleasant. If it not acceptable, it is painful. What makes it acceptable is not important; the cause may be physical, or psychological, or untraceable; acceptance is the decisive factor. Obversely, suffering is due to non-acceptance. Why [shouldn't pain be acceptable]? Did you ever try? Do try and you will find in pain a joy which pleasure cannot yield, for the simple reason that acceptance of pain takes you much deeper than pleasure does. The more we are conscious, the deeper the joy. Acceptance of pain, non-resistance, courage and endurance - these open deep and perennial sources of real happiness, true bliss". (Nisargardatta Maharaj, I AM THAT, p. 277-8)
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Thank you, RFK. We are grateful!