The only way I know to conquer a fear is to, quite unfortunately, face it head on.
Yes, I know you know that. And I know it's so much easier said than done. But I have been kind of terrified of many things in my life, many of which I have faced head-on and have seen how that takes the power right out of those fears.
And we all know that feeling after facing the things that scare us- it's invigorating! We feel surprised by ourselves! Proud! Grateful! Energized!
Yet the how part is incredibly hard. Just how are we supposed to muster the get-up-and-gusto to look our fears right in the face?
That's the opposite of what our minds want- they're saying, "What will they think of me? What if I fail? What if I can't handle it? Nooo, it's scary!"
But somewhere below our always havin' some sort of excuse, over-analyzing brains, lies our intuition.
You may feel it in your heart, you may feel it in the pit of your stomach, who knows, you may feel it in your feet! But the more we listen to the what-ifs in our heads, the further away we get from the heart-throbbing, belly-tingling intuition that KNOWS, you got this. You can do this. The place that knows what you're capable of, and what you really want for your life.
So the HOW part of facing your fears, for me, becomes:
STEP 1: Prepare. Do the research, do the practice, get organized, have all your ducks in a row. Know it, own it, be prepared to rock it because, there's a high likelihood that you will.
STEP 2: Envision it. Imagine yourself doing it, speaking it, creating it, facing that fear! Play the whole thing in your head how you hope it will go, from start to finish- just like an track athlete runs laps in his head before the race- envision yourself doing the thing that scares you and being a-ok.
STEP 3: Reconnect with your intuition. Once you're prepared, it's time to take a breath, get out of your head and back into your body where your intuition lies. Because if you can better connect with your intuition, you'll be your own encouragement, your own source of motivation, you'll be able to do the things that scare you because you trust yourself, you know you're going to be okay and you know you want this for your life, scary or not.
So when the fear starts to kick in and anxiety is rising- find your breath. Find some stillness. Connect with your deep down self. Find movement. Create! Dance! Sing out loud! Go outside!
The what-ifs are always going to be there, but if you can free yourself from them just for a moment to connect back to that place of knowing, of inner trust, of faith in yourself, you'll realize that no what-if is strong enough to hold you back from pursuing your dreams and facing whatever fears come up along the way.
"Ultimately, we know deeply that the other side of every fear is freedom."
- Marilyn Ferguson
Trust yourself. You're braver than you think.
PS: if you'd like more support in facing your fears and other mean ol' mind gremlins, there's one week left in our special deal for The Catalyst course, before we open up registration to all- join our inner circle today & receive our special discount tomorrow!
