Fear comes in so many guises!
For Ellen, an accomplished young dancer, it was a hovering presence that threatened to destroy her fledgling career on the stage with physical symptoms of nausea and shaking. For Diana, it was an insidious feeling that crept up on her whenever she got quiet, resting from her go-go-go life, whenever there was a possibility of gentle contentment. A sense of foreboding would come over her and take her breath away. For Gloria, a health coach and foodie, it was a powerful voice that squashed her own and continuously reminded her that she didn’t know all there is to know in her field, so she shouldn’t present herself as any kind of expert, even if she did, technically, earn her title. For Colleen, it was waking in the middle of the night in a sweat, every night, seeing her bank balance hanging over her in red.
Fears I have faced
I know fear pretty intimately, myself. I’ve grappled with such a powerful fear of failure that I felt unable to try anything even moderately new or different. And I have found myself holding in my gifts and moving with timidity because of the paralyzing possibility that I could succeed beyond my imagination.
And that’s just touching on fear, we haven’t even gotten to that ubiquitous sense of unease called low-level anxiety!
The effects of fear and anxiety
What I do know is that both fear and anxiety, as well as self-doubt, drain us of our vital energy and keep us from truly expressing all of who we are.
We all came to this life “knowing” how to grow and develop physically into who we now are. We also came with a blueprint of possibility about what we can become, what gifts we can develop, what talents we can nourish. But fear, anxiety, self-doubt make us avoid, second-guess, hold back, even self-sabotage.
And sometimes we can talk ourselves out of it. But many times we just can’t.
Now you
What do you think would make the difference for you? What would help you recognize when fear steps in? How can you find strength and courage to look it in the face? What reminds you of the wisdom within you?
These are not rhetorical questions, please, share your answers with me!
An Answer
My answer to those questions lies in a process and a community, that I am founding and calling FLOWERing in Freedom:
F: Finding the patterns as well as the gifts of fear and anxiety
L: Lifting up the buried stories that feed fear and anxiety
O: Overcoming and replacing old, destructive and limiting beliefs
W: Waking up to the inner contradictions that keep you stuck
E: Eliminating habits of Self-doubt
R: Reimagining a free Self
If you are yearning to become fully your Self, who you are capable of being, with your thoughts and beliefs in alignment with your Soul, join me in FLOWERing in Freedom.
Image : Walking on the Bridge by Isabelle Bart
