Through this process, I was pointed to a book, “Feel the Fear... Go There Anyway”. After all, I have been dealing with fear.
The fear I had surrounded a lot of things. Fear of losing my license, or my clients, and that I would not be able to continue the healing work I do, to help people. Fear of being a failure. Fear of going back to a stress filled programming environment that I have been out of for nine years now, knowing that I would be rusty and would not earn as much as I used to. Fear, fear, fear.
So, yes, this book was something I needed to read (and am still reading). Right near the front, it pointed out a lot of things I knew, and some I didn’t. We make our own reality based on how we perceive things. One can look at a cloud and say that’s good, and one can look at one and say it’s bad. When we are in unfamiliar situations, we have fear. If you promised to do something and that something meant you needed to learn something, then you would be afraid. You would be afraid of screwing up, and not being able to learn it. But you push back fear, and learn what you needed to learn, and then the fear is gone.
Here are the basic laws of fear that the book lists…
- The fear will never go away as long as I continue to grow.
- The only way to get rid of the fear of doing something is to go out and do it.
- The only way to feel better about myself is to go out... and do it.
- Not only am I going to experience fear whenever I’m on unfamiliar territory, so is everyone else.
- Pushing through fear is less frightening than living with the underlying fear that comes from a feeling of helplessness.
These are all very, very true. And recognizing them helps a lot.