“What do you fear, lady?” Aragorn asked.
“A cage,” Éowyn said. “To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.”
~ J.R.R. Tolkein, The Return of the King
What do you fear, my dear friend? What shadows lurk in the corners of your mind, shadows that bind your actions, pull apart your dreams and lay to waste your hopes and joy?
Fear of Rejection?
Fear of Failure?
Fear of Ridicule?
Fear of Being Judged?
Fear of Being in Pain?
Fear of Being Discovered a Fraud?
Fear of being Unworthy?
Fear of being Overworked?
Fear if Being Undiscovered?
Fear of Wasting your Life’s Purpose?
Fear of Not Being Loved?
What if I had a Magic Wand, ( and let’s say I do- because in truth I do. And so do all of you.) and I could wave that wand, and for one glorious twenty-four hours today, I could obliterate your fear. Simply wipe it away and leave you fearless, polished down to your very core essence of being.
Do you know what would be left?
Love.
Nothing more, nothing less, and everything that love is.
All of it’s infinite possibilities. Which means, that being rendered fearless, you could do anything. Choose to be, feel and do anything.
What would you do? Who would you be? How would you feel?
This morning in my quiet time, a question came to me in a whisper, if you had no fear, what would you do?
The answer surprised me, because I had no idea I would give that answer until it fell from my mind.
If I had no fear… I’d be dancing.
It didn’t take long to understand it. I have lived with chronic back pain for several decades and have had to live above that pain on a daily basis. Apparently, I have been living with a hidden fear of pain. Makes sense. But it has also created a great deal of avoidance behavior when it comes to movement , exercise and freedom. Something that I have become more awake to and am working on.
Now that I am awakened to my fear of pain, I can work to rise above it. I can choose healing over pain. I can choose love over fear. I can choose to believe that I can do more than I think and that I am not limited by old belief systems. They were put in my mind to protect me from an injury that I am now stronger and healthier and more able to manage now. Perhaps my fear has served its time and is no longer necessary. Perhaps I can be open to the idea of thanking it for its service and allowing it to retire now.
Perhaps I can choose to be healthy and pain-free. Perhaps I can go dancing.
THE LIVING FEARLESSLY EXERCISE.
Answer these questions without thinking too hard about the answers.
If you weren’t afraid, what would you do differently today?
Would you make a big change? A small little shift? Would you speak up? Tell the truth? Take a chance? Be brave? Step up, step out?
Ask for what you want?
If you were fearless today, how would you feel?
Would you feel bold? Peaceful? Calm? Content? Wide-awake and alive? Energetic, vibrant, inspired?
If for today, you made it a point to choose Love over Fear… what would your day look like?
If you do… will you come back and share with us what it was like to have a fearless, loving day? Even if it was ten minutes, an hour, or awhile. Please share.
Be Fearless.
I use to have a phobia of public speaking and basically all around having others stare or even look at me. I wanted to be a flight attendant so I thought I’d have a shoe in if I studied communications so that’s what I did. I mastered it well at least I became stronger then I ever thought I would at it. In doing it I learned and realized so much more then I ever planned to. I was able to see that my phobia was actually more of an internal thing that actually had nothing to do with being in front of others given that I am an extrovert. So yes anyway now I am transferring to chico state to finish my degree in communication studies with organization involved. I feel good about it I did at least until I thought to myself so I’m going to be talking I mean yes totally love it but if I was really doing what I absolutely loved and if I felt like I could get there with no restrictions would it be talking? I don’t know because once I realized that the whole talking thing and really doing what I want in life was internal it became clear to me even though I did always kind of know this, was that DANCiNG is what I really love!! But now what I have this all set up for myself to relocate and talk talk talk but I just want to dance!! Can I do both? Why not am going to join a club at school called day dreamers dance club. I have never done choreographed dancing and talking well communication has taught me so much that I would have never learned by simply just dancing or getting a degree in performing arts. So am going to keep following my degree in communications and work dancing in there. I can do both and that will make me happiest. Which ever one makes me completely famous first am going with! Just kidding but secretly serious. If famous means well known in my work talk or dance groups then that’s good for me but what I’ve been doing ha taught me so much that I know it was worth it and definitely not for nothing in the end who cares what I get a degree in I know I love to learn and I’m sure a degree in anything will allow me to dance somewhere if I simply hate talking some day!!! So I’ll do both until then 🙂