The definition of fear: “a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil and pain. Whether the threat is real or imagined; it is the feeling or condition of being afraid.”  

We all have dealt with fear a few times.  Some of us more than others. The more attention you give it, the more it integrates your everyday life and than you have a real takeover before you ever realize it.

Have you ever had that panic in the middle of the night that comes to you about 3:00 AM. You wake up and your mind can’t quite racing.  You are thinking about that next business client you are meeting with or the proposal you just sent out. Maybe it is over your mortgage payment and whether the bank will get it to where it needs to go without you checking your bill pay the next day.

What ever it is, you are awake and you can’t go back to sleep.  It is annoying, but as it builds, now your heart is racing, you may break out in a sweat and this fear thing wants to totally take over your thinking. It owns you!

If you are lucky you go back to sleep, if you are like me, you are up the rest of the night pacing. Trying desperately to push it out. In his book The Power Of You, Chris Michaels explains, it sneaks in and builds and like an ordinary thief, it robs you of your grounding. It robs you of your better judgement. And now it goes after your joy and your passion. It starts making its own plans and it totally destroys your peaceful existence in a blink of an eye. It can turn you around 180 degrees and totally sabotage you.

Fear is one of the hardest and most painful emotions to overcome. It effects everything about us. In our logical minds we realize that eventually things work out for the best, yet we fear our successful nature, we fear the known and the unknown and we also can experience the fear of pain and loss.

What can you do to stop this thing called fear? Don’t own into it! Don’t feed it with your thought process. The minute fear enters the room, sit down and make a list of all the things that give you joy and make you happy and peaceful. Start to meditate on these things regularly.  Choose your thoughts carefully and breath deeply.

Say a few mantras, what ever it takes to calm you down to get your mind from not doing the racing dance of fear. Always remember what you have faith in instead of what your fear.

Facing fear dead on will be the real deal breaker. If you lean in to your fears they will dissipate. After all, the only thing standing between you and the life you really want to live is FEAR.

As President John Kennedy stated: “The only thing we need to fear is fear itself.” Or one of my favorite authors, Brené Brown in her book Gifts of Imperfection, “Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.”

Oh and one more thing, remember to be your awesome self!