Breaking Up With Fear
Have you ever realized that there is an over-abundance of fear out in the world today? Ok naturally fear will always be a thing, but it just seems like it is part of an agenda.
For instance, there are still great things happening in the world today, but where is that with the news stations? They are just reporting about the bad in this nation and world that it becomes paralyzing. Why do they just want us to be stuck in fear for all our lives? I grew up in a fear-based mentality. Our decisions were often fear-based. I grew up thinking my identity was fear. I was afraid of everything. It was torture. I couldn’t join a sports team at school because I was afraid how I would play or how would people look at me while on the field. I was afraid to try anything new because I was afraid of failure. It even took me so long to start this business because I was afraid of people and what would people really think about this? How could I ever share my story? People wouldn’t look at me the same again and I would probably be even more rejected than I already was. Fear gripped my life so much.
Fear is beyond torture. Fear is a reckoning. Fear is torment.
The news and media doesn’t help with it. News and media make it worse by adding more fear to the fear. If they can keep us in fear, they win. They know that fear sells. There are still plenty of good news happening, but you don’t see that ever being reported.
I didn’t realize just how much fear controlled my life. I was afraid of trying my best because of being afraid of what people would think of me. I was afraid of having my own likes and dislikes because I was afraid of people. I wanted the acceptance of people so much that I couldn’t be myself but rather I would mold myself into who I thought I was or needed to be in order to be liked by the world. My entire life was dictated by fear.
How did I stop it?
That’s a good question. It hasn’t been easy. It was a rough road. Hey, I spent nearly 30 years in fear, it wasn’t going to be an overnight experience. That was a challenge since as a modern American, we typically like our ways microwavable instead of a crockpot. But just one day at a time and discovering who I really am, it helped changed perspectives. The more I learned about myself and the more I loved myself, the easier it was to break up with fear. The truth was that I didn’t love myself. If I didn’t love me, it was easier to pretend to be someone else instead. I pretended to be myself in relationships and that made me miserable. I broke hearts because I wasn’t myself. Fear endangers so much and can cause so much damage, not just us, but anyone around us.
The opposite of fear is love. The more we love ourselves and are confident in ourselves, the more we can have the attitude of “take it or leave it.” But of course if we mess up, and we all will at times since that’s what humans do, we have to own up to it. None of us are perfect. No one likes arrogancy anyway so there has to be a balance of standing up for yourself and the ability to shut up and listen.
The older I get, the more I realize that I’m not alone with this. I didn’t realize just how many more people struggle with fear too, including people who we could look up too.