How Is “Fear” Affecting Your Life?

Fear that four letter word that keeps many of us from accomplishing our goals and living fully. It has been and continues to be there for me at times. However, I’ve learned how to not let it stop me. I wanted to talk about fear this week because it has been on my mind as I’m making personal and professional choices, speaking to people and hearing them say fear of the unknown, failure or other types of fears are keeping them from doing what they love, pursuing and exploring things they’re drawn to.

A few weeks ago I had an EFT Tapping session and in case you’re not familiar with EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) Tapping, it is used to release emotions that don’t serve us like fear, guilt, traumas from the past, anger, resentment, etc. It’s a powerful tool to use in a forgiveness process as well; I’ll be sharing about this later in a different post. Please see the link at the end of this post for detailed info on EFT Tapping if you’re interested in learning more.

During the session I was asked what emotions I was feeling, I had some fear about a business matter that would affect me personally. I needed to gain clarity and make a choice. At the beginning of a tapping session, you are asked to rate the intensity level of the emotion (s) on a scale of 1-10. That day I started at a 7 and ended at a 2. I told the person I was working with I was fine with a 2 instead of 0 as I know many times the fear won’t fully go away and I won’t let it stop me as I know what is best for me and needs to be done. While it was scary, I took action after the session.

Here are 5 tips/questions that I’ve found helpful when dealing with fear:

1. Have some quiet and alone time, pray by asking for guidance, meditate and rest. When we’re quiet and still, we can hear that inner soft voice that guides us. Aside from the EFT session, I had a lot of alone, rest and quiet time that allowed me to face my fear, gain clarity, choose and take action.
2.  Take some time and really assess the situation and ask yourself the following questions: What is the fear and is it real? Is there any real harm and physical threat? Remember many times fear is False Evidence Appearing Real.
3. Ask yourself, what’s the worst outcome that can happen if I face the fear and move forward or not? Getting clear about the different outcomes brings clarity.
4. Ask yourself, what am I committed to and how will allowing or not allowing fear to stop me affect my ultimate goal/vision? Look at the bigger picture; many times in life you take chances because your vision is bigger than your fears. I’ve had to face my fears many times and take actions that scared me in my journey as I know my purpose is bigger than my fears.
5. Ask yourself, how will I feel if I don’t take this step that will bring me closer to and/or accomplishing my goal? Will I have any regrets, will I always wonder, live in what ifs and is that what I want for me?

It takes being honest with yourself to answer these questions. Regarding not wanting to always wonder, I lived in Miami for over 18 years. I wanted to move to Washington, DC and I did over 2 years ago even though it was a scary move. Leaving everyone and everything I knew to move to a new place with no job and knowing very few people was scary. I’ve had many blessings and lessons and realized that it isn’t where I want to stay and I’m currently considering relocating somewhere else. If I didn’t move to DC, I would have always wondered about it.

I’ve experienced fear in every huge leap I’ve taken to get to where I am today. While it’s scary, it’s about having the courage to face your fears and knowing that everything you want is indeed on the other side of fear. Recently, I watched a video of an interview with Deepak Chopra and when asked about fear he said he doesn’t know what fear is and doesn’t experience it. I thought wow, I hope to get there one day; yet I’m happy where I am now as I’ve chosen to face my fears by having the courage to take actions towards my vision and trust that I’m being guided.

I would love to hear your thoughts and fear experiences in the comments section. If you found this helpful and enjoyed it, please share it on social media and with anyone you know may benefit from it, thank you.

Love and light!

EFT Tapping info: http://www.thetappingsolution.com/#what-is-eft-tapping