Should You Listen to Your Fear?
Does fear ever control your life?
We have this great emotion built in to keep us safe from harm; however, sometimes it keeps us from living at all.
I have learned to think of fear as glasses or feelings. {I’ll explain.}
We will all experience this differently, but here’s my perspective:
What can we do to manage fear?
Anytime you go against your rules or outside of your comfort zone, fear will get really loud.
You have options when this happens. You can “Forget Everything And Run” or you can Punch Fear in the Face! {a Jon Acuff term}
Here’s what I do:
- Recognize that I could be wearing my fear glasses.
What!?
Imagine you have on sunglasses with pink lenses – everything you see will have a pink tint to it. The things you see are not ACTUALLY pink – they just appear pink through that lens.
Your “fear glasses” work the same way. You might not even realize you have them on – but you can start to become more self aware and mindful.
Usually you have them on when everything looks scary or doubtful. It seems like everywhere you look there’s another reason to be concerned or afraid. Someone tells you information that never occurred to you, and you go down a rabbit hole of what ifs.
When you’re doing something new and your feeling fearful, is it because you’re wearing your fear glasses? Is it logical? Is it Real?
- Pay attention to where in my body I feel the fear.
Do you feel the fear in your chest or your stomach? Is it a nagging fear or a passing fear?
How can you know the difference between fear glasses and actual concerns?
Self awareness is KEY here, people!
I know the difference based on physical feelings in my body. Usually a stomach feeling is actually bad fear while a chest feeling is mental drama or fear glasses.
What’s it like for you?
When is a time that you pushed through your fear and something amazing happened?
This is Part 1 in a series called FEAR.
