Fear and the Creative Power of Your Mind
Fear affects all of us. People talk about the fight or flight response, but there’s another reaction that is even more common and detrimental: becoming paralyzed, unable to move. Thoughts about what may happen race through our minds coming up with elaborate possibilities… possibilities that will likely never occur.
Often when fear begins racing in our minds, waves of emotion follow like a raging stream carrying us away. Those emotions can be extremely powerful. We begin to feel that the fears are in fact truth, and that our visceral physical and emotional reactions solidify our beliefs that we can’t move from where we are.
The emotions and physical reactions are very real. The basis for those reactions — the fear — usually is not. Those fear come from illusions within our mind.
Isn’t the mind wonderfully creative?
It can concoct elaborate schemes of what could happen, and think through all of the ways you can protect yourself like a chess game without an opponent.
Let’s see if there are some ways we can use that brilliant creative power of your mind to move you forward, instead of erecting defense systems against something that doesn’t exist.
How is fear keeping you stuck?
* Do you want to ask for a raise, but you’re afraid of being denied?
* Do you want to apply for a more exciting job, but you fear that you’re not qualified?
* Do you want to ask a pretty girl out for a date, but the thought of her saying no makes your stomach turn?
* Do you want to lose weight, but inside there’s a quiet fear of the attention you might receive if you do?
Fear blocks your manifestation
No matter how much attention you might place on achieving your goals, how much you want them, hidden, unconscious fears often get in the way. Then we end up feeling frustrated and angry that our manifestation efforts aren’t going the way we planned or hoped.
Tips for overcoming fear
Explore your emotions. If you find yourself within that raging stream of emotion, allow those emotions to flow. But separate yourself from them. Instead of following the current, pull your conscious mind to the riverbank and watch the emotions flow. You don’t have to be carried away by the river, you are not the river. But you will learn a lot about yourself and your patterns by watching your emotions flow through you. Perhaps your intuition will show you where the basis for those emotions exists within you, and you can release the cause of your fears.
Separate your fear from the object of your fear. If you fear being rejected, that may stop you from asking for what you want or need from life. The key is to not avoid the action that might cause rejection, but to re-identify the problem as the fear itself. Fear is the obstacle, the rejection is not an obstacle. It’s only feedback that will guide you on the path to getting what you want.
Re-address the consequences. What if your mind, running off with possibilities, is completely right? What is the absolute worst thing that can happen from your worst fears coming true? If you can find a place within yourself where the worst possible scenario is somehow okay to you, then the fear will dissipate. What if you are told point blank that you’re not qualified for the job of your dreams? What happens next? Use your mind’s creative power to find ways where you can be okay with the worst possible scenario. Perhaps it means you take another course, or study at home in the evenings, or manifest a job that’s more suited to your needs. The rejection is only a problem if you don’t have a plan of finding a way to be okay no matter what happens.
Take action. There are some instances of fear-inducing situations where you just can’t find a logical way out. Your gripped by fear, but you know that being stuck and paralyzed is not an option. You have to move one way or another. The only thing you can do is… take action. You might be taking the “wrong” action, but all you can do is move from the place you were. When you can move, just a little bit, you begin to develop momentum and the fear will no longer be the primary driving force in your life. You’ll have moved from a place of inertia into a place of movement, and you’ll no longer be blocked. That first step doesn’t have to be a huge step, it just needs to be A step.
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