Is fear your gas pedal or your break?

I’ll Take Those Keys Back

Fear is normal. It is our constant companion, wired into us during a time in our evolution where it literally kept us alive. Yet, fear didn’t get the latest update from our nervous system that we have locks on our doors and an app to lock it.

While fear can still keep you safe, it should never ever be given the keys to drive your car down the road of life. Unless you meet a real life predator or your intuition is speaking to you, then toss back your keys as fast as you can.

But seriously, you already know that fear will not take you on a road trip that goes anywhere you want to go. So let’s kick fear into the back seat of your ride, turn the music up, roll the windows down and starting singing your favourite playlist, out loud.

Fears aren’t facts.

Our lens shapes our reality and it’s powerful to remember that our individual life story informs every thought, decision and action we make. As this is true for each of us, you can start holding space for the fears you face and try something radical.

Check in with your body

When fear triggers a rise in you, pause. Take a few breaths and even place your hands on your chest and abdomen and scan yourself for where you are experiencing the fear. Common areas include, tightness in your throat, chest, or temples, butterflies in the stomach or dry mouth. Breath into that area and ask it to tell you what is causing this reaction?

You can’t fix a problem if you can’t name it. When you’re courageous enough to sit with fear and hear what it has to say, you will become a warrior in your own life.

React, respond, initiate

A great quote that I use in my planners for my private and group coaching by Seth Godin,

The easiest thing is to react.

The second easiest thing is to respond.

But the hardest thing is to initiate.

Joyful body movement

In recent studies on the flight response, new information shows that you can transform how you respond to the fear triggers in your life. Your body speaks a different language, movement.

The stress of paying a minimum payment on an overdue credit card doesn’t dissipate by sending an electronic payment. Being sedentary is your enemy.

Rather, when you see a threat, then flee and find safety, you don’t move beyond fear because you are now in safety, but rather because you fled.

Your greatest weapon to fend off fear is joyful body movement. Each one of my high performance business coaching clients experience break throughs when they incorporate this into their routine. They really know it’s working when they slide back into older fear-based patterns when “life” happens.

This could be a huge project deadline, illness or a best case scenario where revenues are increasing yet reducing time for rest and self-care. What do you enjoy? Start small and you can learn more about creating successful change and habits here.

Onwards & upwards,