** This was the topic on Soul Talk September 17, 2015 **

This month I wanted to talk about fear because it’s something I have been more aware of lately, in terms of myself. And then I started noticing it with others. What’s interesting to me is how fear seems to creep in, in different ways. I’m not taking about the fight or flight kind of fear. I’m talking about the fear that holds you back, keeps you from creating and manifesting your heart’s desires. I don’t know how many times I have realized it is affecting me in some way, taken steps to let it go or rise above it and feel good, thinking I have a handle on it. Then somewhere down the line I realize it’s crept back in and affecting me again! Why does fear keep creeping back in? How do you get past fear? Why don’t I let my light shine more? Am I afraid to let my light shine more? These are some of the questions I wanted to discuss.

We started out with the various ways fear can manifest:

• Ego – oh it’s a tricky little bugger based in fear! It talks you out of things by finding every reason not to do it or why you can’t do it!
• Physically – have you ever sat down, ready to work on something and suddenly feel sleepy or find it hard to focus? Your physical body is talking to you! It likes to keep things the same, likes a routine, even if it isn’t comfortable or enjoyable. So when you go to do something that is new or would somehow create change in your life, your body may start finding ways to keep you from doing it. Fear can also manifest as a certain feeling in your body that you can come to recognize, so when it comes up you can deal with it.
• Distractions – so many times I have turned on my computer to do some work and somehow end up looking at something random on the internet that I’m not even interested in! Or the phone rings and even though I’m in the middle of something I want to finish, I pick up the phone and never get back to what I was doing. It’s those things that pull our focus away from creating, manifesting and moving forward in our lives.
• Procrastination – the “oh I’ll do it later” syndrome. Seems to pair up nicely with distractions!
• Denial – instead of trying, you tell yourself you didn’t want (fill in the blank). Also known as sour grapes.
• Limits – are you limiting yourself in any way in terms of how much you can be, have or do? Do you think in some way you’re not deserving or worthy of all that you are divinely entitled to? It can even start when you are simply thinking of an idea. Do you allow yourself to think big?

Do any of these sound familiar to you? Can you think of any others? A question was also asked about whether people gravitate to fear because of the excitement of it. We love to scare ourselves with ghost stories, scary movies, etc. It may get the heart pumping or give you a thrill to watch a scary movie, but what about when you go home and the ego (or imagination) kicks in and you find yourself jumping at every sound or sleeping with a light on? Now fear is keeping you from getting a good night’s sleep too!

How do you overcome fear? By being fully aware of and embracing who you really are – a powerful, creative spiritual being that has the divine potential to do anything your mind can conceive. By seeing fear for what it really is – an illusion. And you are certainly more powerful than an illusion! If you’re not quite at that point (that’s ok, no judgment, we’re here to learn!) then I think it’s important to understand how fear manifests for you so you can recognize it and overcome it. This is not about judging or criticizing yourself, it’s simply about being aware. What also happens is that we tend to run away from the fear and not deal with it. That doesn’t help at all because it’s still there; it can get stuck in your body and start causing problems; sooner or later it will resurface; and it can continue to grow, interfering more in your life. Here are some ways to help you overcome fear:

• Be aware of what space you are in – at any given moment you are either in a space of love or a space of fear, but never both at the same time. When you are in a space of love you are aligned with God and fear is not possible.
• Meditate on it
• Turn within and ask/talk to your higher self
• On an energetic level, release any fear (you don’t even need to know the specifics, just release fear). Also look at other possible energetic causes such as limiting, false or old beliefs, programming, stuck emotions, resistance or something from a past life (ex. you took a vow of poverty).
• Ask Spirit for help
  • Archangel Michael is all about getting rid of fear. You can ask him or Spirit (whoever resonates with you) to help you rise above fear, to clear out any fear so you can make room for new energy or release anything that gets in the way of you moving forward fearlessly in this lifetime.
  • God has a plan in motion for you. Things happen for a reason and usually turn out much better than you could have imagined. When you try to control things and don’t “let go and let God”, you can get in your own way. Ask for help to let go of control so the energy of that plan can flow.
• Listen to, read or watch something that resonates with you that is inspirational or addresses fear. See if you have an a-ha moment or something clicks!
• Don’t run away from the fear, lean into it (as Pema Chödrön says), understand why you are feeling it.
• Dare yourself! This is something I just started doing. I have a joke with a friend about daring each other to do little, out of our norm things. I noticed that for me there’s a little adrenaline rush and a bit of “oh you don’t think I would?” that drives me to do the dare. So why not use that same concept where fear is getting in your way? Get your friends to help you with this in a positive/healthy way. Dare greatly to see how far you can take something!
• If you share a thought or idea with others, there are people who start chiming in from a space of fear, telling you how you can’t do that. Instead of letting them talk you out of it, flip what the naysayers say and use it to empower and/or inspire you. An example of this is something one of the callers does. If someone tells them they can’t or shouldn’t do something, this person thinks “don’t tell me what to do” and uses that emotion to light the proverbial fire in her to do it! Something to think about also is using discretion when sharing your ideas with others. It’s good to have people who are realistic and honest with you to use as a sounding board, but if someone is always shooting down your ideas from a space of fear, you may not want to share your ideas with them.
• If you have a fear of failure, redefine failure as not having tried, that way you can never fail if you at least try!
• Change the “what if” talk from negative to positive. There’s a difference between realistically looking at a situation to make sure you are prepared versus talking yourself out of something simply based on fear. Change the ‘what if I don’t do well’ to ‘what if I succeed beyond my wildest dreams’!
• I don’t know if this happens to anyone else, but sometimes if I’ve been in a rut or have held back from fear on something long enough, something inside of me says “that’s enough!” and I find a way to overcome or blow right past the fear. The funny thing is that afterwards I usually end up asking myself why I waited for so long, it wasn’t such a big deal! Yes, I’m still learning too!
• Ask yourself what you know to be true that day or at that moment. Sometimes we give fear power so it seems like a big shadow over us. By reviewing what is true for you at that moment, it can put things in perspective and that shadow gets way smaller or disappears! One of the callers focuses on their five senses – I hear birds outside, I smell flowers, I taste my morning cup of coffee. It’s a way to shift your thoughts and get back into a flow of thought that is for your highest good.
• If your body is feeling fear and giving you signs (feeling sleepy, can’t focus, etc. when you try to do something), then it’s time to have some spirit-body communication. You as spirit can talk to your body and let it know that it is safe and what you want to do.

Why is it important to overcome fear? God gave each one of us unique gifts to share with others. When we own those gifts and share them with others, we are in alignment with God (in a space of love!).We feel happiness, joy, fulfillment – our soul sings! We allow our light to shine, which benefits others and ourselves. It keeps us moving forward – learning, creating, living this lifetime to our fullest potential. And that ties in to mind-body-spirit. You feel better mentally, physically, emotionally, on all levels! I encourage you to start paying attention to where there is fear in your life. Do you feel like your light is shining brightly out into the world? Or is fear enveloping you like a fog so the world can’t see the bright, sparkly you? Know that you have the power to make the fog disappear and then do it!