What You Want is What you Fear
The quickest path to what you want is embracing what you’re scared to do
Fear is…
Well, fear.just. is.
It’s present with us, whether we fully acknowledge it or not.
That’s the dilemma right there, avoiding our fear.
Now, it’s appropriate to draw a few distinctions here.
There is avoiding fear through trying to prevent an outcome that is undesirable.
Then there is avoiding fear by never inquiring into those default reactions and patterns that arise - like a door in your house that you must keep shut at all times simply because you just absolutely keep it shut.
I would assert that the first doesn’t exist without the second, but the first is where most of our attention goes.
I invite you to draw your attention that dusty old door in the back of the second closet within your mind.
That’s all…
Kidding.
Our potential is inextricably linked to our relationship with fear.
We access deeper textures of our potential as we embrace the nuances of our fears.
It’s a sort of continual unlocking of the fullness of our own humanity.
Contrastingly, to not embrace fear is stagnancy.
Without embracing fear, you are only ever working with the feelings and ideas that you have now.
Yes they’re are plenty, but without a gentle flow of curiosity and change, the seemingly infinite resources available to your creativity, joy, and potential begin to feel finite.
The inevitable happens- you begin to feel stuck or perhaps push too hard and burn-out.
Embracing fear is what keeps our system healthy in many ways.
For many however, there is fine line between what you have the capacity for and for what will blow out your nervous system to Valhalla.
All fears are actually fears of feeling.
We don’t actually fear things, we fear the feelings that those things might reveal in us.
There’s no new fear out there that you learn about and adopt.
You already have the fear, and I believe by design.
In a crude sense, it’s a type of game.
The ‘who can get beyond the constraints of their own fears the quickest’ game.
I’ll be the first to say that I’m awfully slow at embracing my fears, but I’m learning to integrate the practice of acceptance and embrace into my everyday life.
It’s a huge aspect of what keeps me connected to myself and my creativity- which is deeply important for me as a human being.
Maybe it is for you too, I invite you to lean into those pesky feelings you might be avoiding and discover what lives at their core, and on the other side.
There is no freedom until there is clarity.
You have to venture through fear to embody deeper clarity.
Then the next steps naturally unfold, and fast.
