Reach Beyond Fear
Fear, it consumes you, takes over, fills every part of you. This crushing weight makes it so hard to breathe. It restricts not only your breath, but also your thoughts. You can’t imagine what it feels like to be normal. Will I ever feel normal again? Will I get past this feeling? Is this my new normal? How did I get here?
For me, fear has become a lesson in becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable. It’s not just letting it go and moving past it. There are many wonderful lessons and opportunities in allowing fear to greet you face to face.
As someone who is not perceived as a fearful person, it is challenging for me to actually be fearful. To most people who meet me I appear to be very confident, some may say intimidating. This has always surprised me because I know how nervous and uncertain I am at times. I am well aware of every mistake I have ever made and how it has affected me and others. These mistakes seem to hang out with me and haunt me.
My heart yearns to be kind and share kindness, love and compassion. I speak it into existance everyday. It is my manifesto. Then where does this soul crushing fear come from?
I proclaim my desire to be in service to others, to expand my compassion, and to affect the world in a positive way.
A lot of this fear comes from Ego, the whisper in our ear that says “who are you to be successful?” Wow, would you talk to your friends like that? Most likely not, so why do we allow this voice to resonate the loudest?
I allow the fear response to become a place for me to stop, check in and ask myself some questions. Is this feeling of fear valid? Am I entering a situation that is harmful, or one that is challenging me to grow? Where does this fear response come from? Is it coming from a pattern of negative statements I have heard about myself or my situation? Lastly, is this feeling of fear helping or hurting me?
Mostly, when I answer these questions truthfully, my resounding response is that I am not feeling that I am good enough. My fear of failure, embarrassment, making a mistake, and shame will overtake my moving
towards growth.
When I have stayed in the feeling of getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, I have gained so much insight about myself. I have learned that I can actually accept help and enjoy being helped. I also learned that a scary situation is so much easier to face when someone was there to cheer me on.
Now I am motivated to be that cheerleader for others.
Only you can dissect where your feeling of fear is coming from. Try getting comfortable with being uncomfortable Stay with the feeling. Slow down, take some deep breaths and let the fear bubble up. You can learn something new about yourself in the process. Like how strong and resilient you can be. Even if you do fail or fall flat on your face there are many wonderful lessons and opportunities in that.
Fear can serve a purpose to keep us safe. When you are in a dangerous situation fear will step in so that you will change direction and move towards something safer. This is important when your life is in peril. But what about our day to day circumstances? What purpose does fear serve?
It is not just about overcoming fear, or just letting it go and moving past it. Fear will serve you in many ways. It can help you push past your comfort zone into new and wonderful experiences!
