Hello everyone! I hope that you are all having a wonderful week and start to the new year. Today I wanted to talk about fear and how we can work with it as well as use it to transform ourselves. So lets dive in to the murky waters that surround fear…
Fear is something that we all feel. Most of us feel it everyday; whether it be the thought of having to give a presentation in front of a group of people or our partner leaving us. You may feel fear when someone else may not, and that is ok. Everyone is different in how they feel and perceive their realities. The important thing to remember is that you are not alone. We all experience it and it is nothing to be ashamed of. I could say a lot about how our society has made us feel about this; that being fearful is a bad thing, but I will leave that for another post haha. If you’re a human, I guarantee you that you will feel fear at some point in your life, it is just part of the experience of being a human. How exciting!
How can fear possibly be a good thing?
Fear can be used to tell us exactly what we need to move into/towards. I like to think about my fears as something that I need to face head on. Like a big wave is coming at me and I am experiencing fear from the thought of it crushing my with its great force! Instead of running away, I dive in head first! In this instance the wave is not actually a wave, but what scares me. I have found out so far through my experiences that when I finally decided to face my fears and lean into them instead of avoiding them, I came out on the other side changed. I realized that there was really nothing to fear in the first place. I learned that I could use my fear to help me grow into the person I wanted to be.
Whenever I feel afraid/anxious/nervous/ I first try to recognize that I am feeling this way without judgement (something that is very hard for me to do!) and then I try to breathe through my experience. It is happening and there is really nothing I can do about it but face it or suppress it. And suppression only leads to more fear…a never ending cycle. I try to ask myself why I am so afraid and I try to use my breathe to put some space between myself and my emotions so I do not get so entangled in them (this is also tricky for me).
Using the breathe can help soothe a fast heartbeat and an anxious mind. It can help us to move more consciously into our fears instead of blindly trying to blunder into them. Using our breathe can help us realize that perhaps our fears were not so big at all.
Thanks as always for reading and being a part of this community. I always love comments and feedback, so feel free to share any insights about this topic. You can also email me to with anything you would like to say:) There is much more I could say on this, and I am sure I will at some point. Much love to you all.
Peace,
Rylee
