FEAR

Be fearless.

Be bold.

Follow your path.

How often do we see this in the self-help books we buy and the positive quote we see as we scroll through our instagram feed. The "Be fearless" tag line makes us feel inspired and ready to act, but the fear returns, just hearing you should "be brave" rarely works. No one is fearless. The people we admire the most are not fearless, they are good at is moving through their fear.

We've all experienced fear in our lives, it's part of being human. The fear residing in our head is often the result of the ego running riot and it loves to fuel our fearful thoughts. Most of what we fear hasn't actually happened yet, it comes from anticipating outcomes a head of time.

I have been living on procrastination island this past month, in fact I am not only procrastinating I am playing the avoidance game. I had all these grand plans for my life as a qualified yoga teacher and so far I have made zero progress towards achieving anything, instead I have spent my free time glued to Netflix, with the odd productive moment here and there. I am ready and willing to do the work, avoiding getting started doesn't come from being lazy. it comes from fear, I am too afraid to fail so I am not starting.

Fear is the thing that makes our most awful and painful moments stand out. When we define ourselves on the basis of our wounds we are limiting ourselves. We often act from our unconscious fear of the same thing happening again reliving the trauma in some way. We continue to get caught up in our own victim hood and give too much power to that fear.

How often have you allowed fear to govern your decisions?

How often have you denied doing what you really wanted because of fear of failure, of getting hurt, of disapproval, of embarrassment, or of making the wrong choice?

All too often I have let fear govern many of my decisions. So for those of you wondering why I'm not teaching yoga yet it's because I am afraid.

I am afraid of the commitment to making something work

I am afraid of turning out to be the worst yoga teacher that ever walked this Earth

I'm afraid of it all going horribly wrong

Than I get frustrated with myself for not "being fearless" for seeing another week pass and the only thing I've done is finish another season of American Horror Story and a jar of peanut butter. I tell myself that I am biding my time, waiting for the right moment. There is, and never will be the "right" moment, there are only ever moments and they come and go, time waits for no one.

Anytime we think of doing something that moves us out of our familiar world into the unknown, we get scared, and that's totally understandable. Change can leave us feeling threatened, fear loves the unknown.

Many dreams are buried because we are too scared to voice them. When we say them out loud they become real and that's terrifying because it means we know what we need to do.

But the fear keeps us small and stuck in self-limiting beliefs that don’t serve us. Like most behaviors we want to change, the first step in overcoming your fear is acknowledging it.

Although I might currently be plagued by fear I am not going to bury my dreams.