Yeah, I said it! Screw Fear. Fear sucks. Aren’t you fed up already? Don’t you wish you could meet fear in a dark corner and just beat the effing crap out of it?? I’m from Brooklyn — that’s how we used to handle things we couldn’t stand back in the day. Fear saps your energy, keeps you endlessly cycling through all of your doubts and worries, keeps you paralyzed and immobile, stuck and alone. Screw that crap.
I say that intentionally, because before you can demolish and overcome your fears, sometimes, you gotta just get FED UP WITH THE BULLS**T. You have to say “That’s enough!” before you can move forward into any kind of plan or action. You have a life to live, dreams to fulfill, destinies to claim. So do I. We can’t spend another week in bed behind this. So, ready?
Step 1 – Speak your fear aloud. “I’m afraid of ___”
Step 2 – Say, screw you, fear (insert your fear — and your middle finger if you feel like it — here). I’m done with this. This ends now. You will not run my life anymore. I release you of your control and I’m taking my life back now.
Step 3 – Breath. Now, I know that all your fear isn’t gone just yet. By the way, our fears never fully leave us, so give that up as a goal. However, we can all MANAGE our fears. We can dance with these devils in the pale moonlight (yes, that’s a film reference for all you geeks like me), and we can take our control back.
But first. First, you have to have a burning, hungering DESIRE to not be tangled up in the drama that fear creates anymore. Because you’re going to need your strength to face down what you need to. I don’t know how your soundtrack sounds, but my fear thoughts are most usually painful thoughts of “What if?”
What if? I’m not good enough, smart enough, accomplished enough?
What if? I look like an idiot, or just flat out stupid, or people laugh and mock me (because they’re all waiting for me to fail anyway, right?)
What if? I fail. Miserably? Publicly? And everyone gives me that sad, someone just died look on their face that says “Thank God it wasn’t ME.”
For all of us creative people, these thoughts are death. Our power is our true voice, our unique self. It requires a courage and vulnerability that people in other professions may not be required to give, but we are. We HAVE to find that place. Dig deep. BREATHE. Summon the part of ourselves that’s not human, but Holy. My courage is not of my own making. Trust me, I get afraid of most things I haven’t perfected (and that’s a long list). I too much reach out into my soul, ask the Ancestors for the courage they used to do things in conditions I couldn’t even imagine, ask the Creator to bless me as I walk across the tightrope. Knowing that I can’t do it alone sometimes makes it easier, not harder.
BREATHE. Know that these are just thoughts. And thoughts can be changed, adjusted, re-arranged. You’re in control still. You don’t need it all to go away before you can leap. You just need a moment, a pause long enough to ACT. Just a breath.
Tomorrow, we act! Tomorrow we move into action, into plans, into steps.
Right now. Right now just know that you have the POWER to act. No weapon formed against you shall prosper — even if that weapon is in your own head. You came to this planet and to this life to be SEEN and ACKNOWLEDGED. Yet being seen and acknowledged is scary shit. But that’s OK. Into the light we move.
Oh, and give that fear one more flip off before you move, just because it feels SO GOOD. Now. Put the stick down. Unfortunately, you can’t kill this particular beast. (OK, maybe that was just for me, but…)
Take fear by the hand. Yes, you’re going to have to take it with you. Thank it — because when you STILL do what you need to do, you’ll know the mountain you had to climb and you’re going to LOVE that you did it anyway. Your fear will remind you of HOW MUCH YOU WANTED IT ANYWAY. So yes, it’s your dance partner. But you’re in the lead now. You choose the music, the tempo, the style.
Now. Time to Dance.
In service of your visionary legacy,
Kisha
