“Every moment of one’s existence one is growing into more or retreating into less.”
~Norman Mailer
Are you human? Then you are familiar with fear. But what you absolutely need to know is that you have a choice over how fear affects you.
You can listen to the voice of fear, letting opportunities pass you by. You can live an “if only” life that is small and safe. You can pretend you aren’t magnificent, creative, and capable.
Or you can thrive, with your light shining in all directions. The choice is yours.
The Courageous Choice
And it is a courageous choice that is asking to be made. Because fear can be powerful. It convinces you that you are unworthy and paralyzes you from moving forward. Yet it feels like an old, familiar friend – one who has overstayed her welcome and needs to go.
Are you ready to tell yourself the truth about fear? Are you prepared to take the sacred step to let the essence of your being be expressed in the world? (We’re all waiting for you.)
Then take on board this two-step guide. Open up to receive its guidance, and find within yourself the courage to roar.
Step 1: Get to Know All the Faces of Fear
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
~Joseph Campbell
Fear can be a wily character. You might be shaking in your boots. But just as likely, you will find yourself procrastinating, rationalizing, getting distracted, or losing yourself in judgmental and limiting thoughts.
I recently revealed to a friend a story that runs through my mind that keeps me from finishing projects I am passionate about. Rather than empathize with me, she said, “You’re comparing. It’s a sign that you need to return to your center.” She didn’t give the story itself a second thought – and she was right. I had momentarily lost my way – in fear.
Any mind activity that interferes with your brilliant self-expression is, at its source, fear. If it reeks of “No,” makes you doubt yourself, or persuades you to stop what you’re doing, it deserves investigation.
Approach it with tough love. Be kind, not harsh, but commit to seeing the truth about these thoughts. When it comes to fear, you can be sure that the mind will not support you. No fear-based thoughts are true.
Get to know intimately how fear arises in your experience. The subtle tightness in your chest, the mental fog that keeps you from carrying out your passions, the spinning mind that concludes, “I can’t.”
See procrastination, excuses, and getting lost in busyness as gifts handed to you on a silver platter. They are signals that fear has taken over. Recognize it. Acknowledge it. Then go on to Step 2.
Step 2: Choose Life
“Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition.”
~Alan Alda
It is impossible to be aligned with life if fear is controlling your behavior. Fear will make you choose what is safe and known. It won’t stretch you or take you out of your comfort zone.
Once you recognize that fear has taken over, you are awake! Now you have a choice. Do you let fear drive you – or do you choose life? Do you hang out in what you already know, or do you venture out into the garden of unknowing?
You will never know what is on the other side of fear until you take the leap.
And leap you will – over and over. Fear may be a constant companion, offering you the opportunity to choose life time after time after time.
In choosing life, you say, ‘Yes!” to creativity, to intelligence, to the inner whisper of truth, to passion and wonder and delight. Who knows where it will take you? You can’t even begin to imagine. Nourish the glowing ember of You, and enjoy yourself endlessly.
Any comments, questions, or reports about fear? I’d love to hear…
