Image Artwork by Daniel B. Holeman
While fear can be responsible for holding us back and stopping us from living the life of our dreams, the problem is more in our relationship with fear, rather than fear itself.
Most of us have a unhealthy relationship with fear. Most of us allow fear to control way to much of our lives and dictate far too much.
Fear is always going to exist. It is an instinct that we were all given in order to help us navigate through this world, but problems occur when we give too much power to fear.
When we hand over our power to fear, it debilitates us and causes us to live a life of worries, regrets and scarcity.
When we live in fear, we may find ourselves-
- Struggling to take action
- Feeling unworthy or unsupported by the Universe
- Thinking negative or self-limiting thoughts
- Believing things are impossible
- Hiding from the truth
- Blaming others
- Being narrow minded
- Wanting things to be perfect
- Putting our power in someone or something else’s hands
When we surrender to our fear however, it allows us to live a life that feels fulfilling, joyful and abundant.
If you are in the process of reworking the relationship that you have with fear, here are 4 powerful tips that can help you to get started-
1. Learn to Recognize Fear
The first step to creating a healthy relationship with fear is to recognize fear in action. If you have been operating from a place of fear for sometime, you may not even notice fear when it arises.
Start by becoming conscious of when you fear emerges, listen to how your fear operates. Try to be an observer of your fearful thoughts.
Fearful thoughts often sound like-
- “No, I can’t do that”
- “I better not, people will laugh at me”
- “That’s impossible”
- “Someone else will take care of it”
- “I don’t have enough/ I am not good enough”
When you can identify fear, you are half way there to making peace with it.
2. Reprogram Fearful Thoughts
When you start to identify fear creeping in, acknowledge that it is fear and then reprogram the thought.
So for example, if a fearful thought comes in like- “no, I can’t do that” – identify it, and then replace with with a new thought like- “Of course I can do it, I will figure it out, I will be ok.”
Essentially, by reprogramming your fearful thoughts, you are learning to operate from and strengthen the connection you have to your heart.
3. Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway
When you feel the fear creep in, sometimes the best way to silence your fear is to act. Fear can sometimes leave you feeling debilitated but when you take action, fear naturally steps out of the way.
It can be difficult to take action when fear is in the mix because it can cloud your judgement, but even the smallest action can help to shift things and allow you to see things from a different perspective.
When you start taking a step in the direction that feels like the best choice to you in the moment, fear is no longer able to have a grip on you. This then allows you to see things with more clarity and it also opens up your intuition.
4. Believe in Something Bigger Than You
If you really want to release fear from your life, you have to believe in something outside of yourself.
Whether its god, the universe, love, your higher self, it doesn’t matter which word you use; when you believe in something bigger than yourself, it allows you to feel supported, loved and protected. It also allows you to trust in the higher purpose of your life.
When you believe in something bigger than you it is easy to switch your limited, fear based thinking into something more loving and supportive.
When you believe in something bigger than you, it is also a sign that you acknowledge who you really are and your unlimited potential.
When you shift out of fear based thinking and into abundant, loving thinking, your whole life will shift to a new level and it will feel easier and more natural to live a life of your highest purpose.
