10-Minute Fear Mastery: Unlock Your Inner Bravery

This week on Live Awake,

Fear unmasked.

Rest a while here and let me tell you a story about a girl who finally chose to face the fear that was haunting her.

Fear came again to the girl's door.

She woke with it there,

Tightly wrapped around her chest cavity,

Heavy as boulders,

Suffocating the space within her.

Like fingers clasped around her rib cage,

It slowly squeezed the air from her lungs from time to time.

Each time it seized,

The girl threw hateful thoughts onto it,

Wished it away,

Silently muttering to herself,

Great,

It's back.

Will this cycle ever end?

Will this fear never leave me?

She swirmed and struggled under its force.

She piled resentment and judgment against it,

Tried to ignore it,

Distracting herself with everything she could,

Until she wished it away so hard.

A voice came in as gentle opposition and offered her resolution.

The voice from inside the girl said,

Have you ever wondered if this fear haunting you serves more of a purpose than to be something you wish away?

Have you ever asked this force living in the spaces around your heart from where it came and what it wishes so desperately for you to hear?

The girl stopped for a moment in quiet reflection,

Bewildered that she had never considered this before.

She decided to put down her resistance and breathed deeply into the tight fist clenched around her chest.

She breathed into the heat,

The pressure,

The force cocooning the cavity around her heart,

And she softened to it.

She,

For the first time in her life,

Let her fear speak.

She said,

Dear tension living in my chest,

What do you wish me to hear?

Why do you come with such presence and force and hold me so tightly in your grasp?

What do you wish to say to me?

And as she released into the heat throbbing within her to her amazement,

It answered,

I wish to tell you,

You are alive.

I wish to remind you of the life inside of you,

Longing to be lived more fully.

I hold so tightly to you because I am a constant reminder that there is good work for you to do,

Work for you to do in the name of your freedom and joy.

The more you lose yourself in doing all you must do to bring your soul life and sweet pools of light,

The more I shall release my grasp.

Know that me being here is my way of loving you into remembrance of your heart's desire.

The more you work at finding,

Spreading,

Teaching,

Love,

The less I will need to hold you so tight.

Don't be afraid to feel me when I arrive here in your chest.

I am but a fierce and loyal reminder that life,

Your life,

Is in your hands.

Face me with courage.

I am here to serve your greater good.

Fear my love,

It said to her,

Does not have to be so dark.

It never has to be something you fear to breathe into.

My message for you,

Dear one,

Is of coming to more peace and wholeness.

And then it lifted.

It vanished from the girl's center and left shards of light in open fields where it was once closed inside her.

She sat in wonder and gratitude and realized nothing was worth wishing away,

That even her fear existed to serve her life,

To love her into remembrance,

That she needs to realign with all that brings her greater love and purpose.

Fear is not the only face of our soul's messengers.

Others experience different emotions or tensions.

Some feel waves of anxiety,

Sadness,

Sleeplessness,

Worry,

Panic.

The list is long.

Take a moment to consider all of these energies humming in your world.

Take a moment to ask yourself if you have faced these feelings arising within you or if you continually ignore or reject their presence.

Take a moment to consider the wisdom and insight you are not opening to because of your fear to face these strong forces bubbling purposefully below your surface.

When anxiety or tension swell in our bodies,

We often resist,

Fight,

Or avoid them.

We rarely question what it came to reveal and even more rarely consider these emotions as messengers of love.

Nothing in our lives is meant to be feared or forced away.

Acceptance and exploration of these places is our way to find peace in our lives.

Each emotion,

Sensation of panic or fear can be relieved by loving,

Softening to it,

And asking just as the girl did in the story from where it came and what it wishes so strongly,

So fiercely for us to hear.

Nothing appears or manifests in our life for the purpose of being avoided or condemned.

All holds value,

Purpose,

And keys to doors we've been wanting to open.

Go inside your body and breathe yourself open until all the space within you feels fluid and soft.

Release tensions and closures that are constricting the healthy flow of life pulsing through you.

Take a moment to befriend the spaces within you that feel hard and closed.

Let them soften and expand.

Allow them to speak if they need to.

See their presence as one of love.

Shift from a perspective of resentment into acceptance.

Repeat silently or aloud after me.

I will try to honor life in all of its great mysterious waves of peace and fear.

To come to a place of acceptance of all things.

To release judgment and criticism of the process and the visitors that appear in all their forms.

I will try to come to a place where I see the beauty in both what I consider dark and light.

To see the only way into more light is by courageously asking my fears to speak and allowing them room to deliver what they keep attempting to.

I will try to come into communion with the reality that there is both wondrous darkness and overwhelming light.

Both are of equal importance.

One is not the same without the other.

This is how I will try to choose to live.

How I will choose to love my life no matter the circumstance.

This is how I will find greater peace.

This is how I will live in all the love I am intended to.

Try your best to face the dark,

Dear one.

Peel back the fingers of the clenched fist around your heart and bring it from its place in the dark.

Allow it to transform into sweet pools of light and receive the messages intended to bring you into alignment with more love.