From Egosystems of Fear to Ecosystems of Trust
POWER guides NAVI in discovering how gratitude, forgiveness, and embracing transform fear into trust.
Any transformation starts with widening our perspective.
At the Airport
“This is the final boarding call for Swiss flight LX 38 to San Francisco. Please proceed to gate number one.”
NAVI slips her bag into the overhead bin and exhales. “Here I am.”
“Cutting it a bit close, aren’t you?” POWER grins. “Not eager to spend twelve hours sealed in this cocoon?”
“No need for a buffer if you go with the flow,” NAVI says, clicking her seatbelt. The engines thrum awake.
The Sky Is the Limit
The plane rises through the clouds, breaking into warm, golden light. NAVI watches the world drop away beneath them like an old thought losing its weight.
“You mentioned three strategies the other day—gratitude, forgiveness, embracing,” she says. “Ways to turn fear into trust. Can we walk through them?”
POWER closes his copy of Antifragile and motions to the flight attendant. “Two Virgin Marys, please.” Then to NAVI: “I can’t speak for everyone. I can only share how I use them. But yes—Any transformation starts with widening our perspective.”
Widening Perspectives
“Picture this,” POWER begins. “We are this plane. One flight. One path. Maybe it’s smooth, maybe rough, maybe disastrous. When our whole identity hangs on a single route, we’re fragile—and fears show up fast.”
He pauses to let the idea settle.
“Now imagine we’re not the airplane—we’re the airline. One flight doesn’t define us. Even a crash becomes data that improves the next journey. Every experience, good or bad, adds to our evolution. That’s antifragile.”
NAVI narrows her eyes, amused. “So… do you believe in reincarnation?”
The Unknown
“I don’t believe,” POWER says. “I either know, or I don’t. And I’m perfectly fine with not knowing. Filling blanks with blind faith never felt right to me. The unknown doesn’t scare me—it fuels my curiosity. So no, I don’t believe in reincarnation. But I won’t rule it out until it’s falsified. What matters to me is that the idea of reincarnation widens our perspective. Like the airplane-airline analogy.”
“Fair enough.” NAVI nods. “What’s the first strategy?”
“Gratitude,” POWER answers, stretching out his long legs—exit row luxury.
Gratitude
“Gratitude is underestimated,” he says. “We use ‘thanks’ like small talk. But real, heartfelt gratitude shifts us—from scarcity to abundance, from fear to trust.”
He gestures around them. “Look at right now. We’re in a metal tube, seven miles above the ocean, safe and sound. Breathing filtered air, eating decent food, having a meaningful conversation. Noticing these things disarms fear.”
He sips his Virgin Mary. “Whenever I feel afraid, I name three things working in my favor. Could be as simple as: my warm heart, my still mind, my working hands.”
NAVI tries silently: Warm sunlight on my face. The scent of my shampoo. POWER’s calming presence.
She feels her chest loosen.
POWER sets down his drink. “Next is forgiveness.”
Forgiveness
“That one’s tough,” he admits. “But it’s liberating. Forgiveness doesn’t mean what happened was okay. It means you’re done carrying the weight.”
He glances at the sea of clouds. “Think about turbulence. The autopilot doesn’t cling to each bump. It adjusts and adapts. Humans… not so much. We replay old scenes, star in the same drama triangle again and again, don’t we?”
“So how do you let go?” NAVI asks quietly.
“I imagine giving the baggage back. ‘Here. This belongs to you. I’m done carrying it.’ And when the mistake is mine, I add: ‘I’m learning.’ It shifts guilt into growth.”
A man nearby sneezes twice, startling NAVI. POWER smiles gently.
“And that leads to embracing.”
Embracing
“Embracing what?” NAVI frowns.
“Everything and nothing,” POWER says with a small laugh. “Volatility. Uncertainty. Complexity. Ambiguity. Diversity. Duality. And above all: the uniqueness of each of us.”
Their meals arrive. They lift the foil lids at the same time and exchange a playful glance.
“Embracing means leaning toward what scares you rather than away from it,” he says. “Resistance feeds fear. Acceptance drops it.”
He taps the armrest lightly. “We’re not controlling the engines or the weather. Yet we sit here, trusting. That’s embracing. For me it’s: ‘Okay, fear, you can sit next to me. But you don’t drive.’”
NAVI smiles. “So, feelings like envy, resentment, greed—they can speak, but only compassion responds.”
“Exactly.”
“Gratitude widens the view,” she recaps. “Forgiveness lightens the load. And embracing… moves you forward.”
“Well put.”
Something inside her softens, as if a knot in her stomach unties itself.
In Action
NAVI drifts inward. Gratitude… forgiveness… embracing… echo through her mind. Then a face emerges—one she’s been avoiding.
POWER senses it. “Something came to mind?”
NAVI lowers the window shade. “Yeah. It’s… it’s blinding.”
“Want to go through it?” he asks gently.
Part of her tightens. Another part nods.
“It’s a colleague,” she says. “There was this awkward conversation. She had an emotional outburst and walked away. I haven’t spoken to her since. And now I don’t know how to handle it.”
POWER nods, quietly holding space.
“Let’s start with gratitude,” NAVI says, surprising herself.
“Toward yourself,” POWER suggests. “What can you appreciate?”
She thinks. “My courage to face it. The chance to reflect. And… the safe space you’re offering.”
“Good,” he says. “That opens the door.”
“For forgiveness…” She hesitates.
“Start with yourself. One small step.”
She takes a breath. “I can forgive myself for provoking her a bit, for triggering. And I can forgive her for the outburst, even if it hurt.”
A tremor leaves her shoulders.
“And embracing,” POWER says softly, “is letting what happened exist without fighting it. Just one more deep breath.”
She inhales. Exhales. For a moment, her world seems to stand still. “Okay… and then what?”
“Then life shows the next step. Maybe it inspires you to reach out someday. Maybe it brings peace even if you never reconnect. Embracing is about presence, not outcome.”
Enlightening
The pilot’s voice fills the cabin. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We’re flying over Greenland. To your right, you’ll see the ice-covered mountains.”
NAVI lifts the shade. The glaciers below glow in sharp, brilliant light. Her wet eyes sting.
“For the first time,” she murmurs, “I don’t feel trapped in that story. I feel… above it.”
Just the Beginning
“That’s how these transformative strategies work—single, combined, or as an integrated whole,” POWER says softly. “Fear can’t survive where awareness grows. Same way darkness disappears when light comes in.”
Minutes stretch and then pass in a blink.
The Choice Is Yours
When NAVI returns from the lavatory and settles in, relief softens her face. “You’re right. Gratitude, forgiveness, embracing—they are transformative. They turn fear into trust. They recalibrate our inner compass, making navigating life easy—and hoping and worrying feel obsolete…”
She buckles in. “Why didn’t they teach us in school how to choose trust over fear?”
POWER smiles. “Another Virgin Mary?”
It's yours. Do with it what you will. [...] But don't say in the years to come that you would have lived your life differently if only you had heard this story. You've heard it now.
Thomas King
Further transformative Stories: https://powernavi.ch/storytelling/