how was Douglas finally able to brush aside his fear
Answers
Greatest challenge for everyone is to overcome one’s fears. Each and every human being has some fear. Some people fear the dark; some fear heights; some fear crowded places; some fear water; some fear wild animals; and so on. Fear is the antithesis of FAITH. Having a little amount of fear is normal; but having inordinate fear of anything is abnormal.
In order to be successful one has to overcome one’s fears. The secret of overcoming fears lies in our courage to face them. The moment we face our fears, they lose power. One of the best examples of people who overcame their fears is the life of William Douglas. In the chapter Deep Water he narrates an incident form his life showing us how he overcame his fear of water.
He had to work very hard to overcome his deeply ingrained fear of water that he had got infected with at the YMCA pool after the tragic incident. The fear spoilt all his excursions with his friends. Whenever he accompanied his friends to Cascades, Tieton, Warm lake, the fear of water seized him, his legs paralysed and icy horror grabbled his heart.
Finally one October he hired an instructor to learn swimming. The instructor put a belt around him. He attached the belt around him. He attached the belt to a cable that ran overhead. He held on the rope and the author tried to swim back and forth across the pool, hour after hour, day after day, week after week. The author took three months to learn the basics. Then the instructor taught him how to exhale underwater and how to raise his nose and inhale. Then he taught him how to kick the water with his legs.
After teaching and perfecting the basics, he asked the author to swim the length of the pool. From the next day onwards, the author swam the length of the pool all by himself. After that there was no turning back. He swam across Lake Wentworth and Warmlake. That is how the author overcame his fear.