March 8 - This Week's Quote:

“Let fear be a counselor and not a jailer.” – Anthony Robbins

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I’ve never really been a “fearful” type person. And things that felt “scary” I usually took on as a direct challenge.

However, when I first learned to ride a motorcycle, I got a BIG lesson in fear. And discovered what it was like to be – basically, paralyzed by fear.

My husband has been riding since he was 14 and for the past year I’d been riding with him as passenger. So, when we brought home my new Honda Rebel 250 motorcycle, I thought we’d just spend a few hours riding around the yard of our 3 acre property, then I’d be off riding on the street and going places.

Well...... THAT was not the case.

I got all geared up, sat on the seat, he explained how all the gismos worked and then said, “okay, now slowly let out the clutch and turn the throttle and take off.”

Well, first of all, I’d been driving gear-shift cars nearly all my life. I knew the concept, but translating those movements from my feet to my hands….. well my brain got it, but my hands were a bit clueless!

So I practiced just letting out the clutch a little to let myself start rolling…… with my feet still close to the ground. After I had several successes with that, then the next step was to actually put both feet on the foot pedals and do the gas/clutch thing.

Well THAT brought up a concept that I hadn’t really thought through all the way….. in order to put my feet on the foot pedals of the motorcycle, I was actually going to have to take my feet OFF the ground!

THAT was when the real, paralyzing FEAR came up. It meant I had to let go of the Known/ my security – my feet on the ground and TRUST in the physics of the forward moving motorcycle staying in an upright position.

Again, I understood the concept in theory – in my mind – but my pounding heart was saying, I’m not so sure about this! So, I made my husband ride on the back and be my “training wheels” so that I could get used to the clutch/gear mechanics without having to worry about the balance (and trust) issue!

So, needless to say, after that “practice” session, I spend some time delving into this unexpected Fear that surfaced.

What I discovered in this self-exploration, was that I had a reoccurring pattern of not Trusting the flow – not trusting the flow of life – not wanting to let things take the course they needed to take. The fear came from ego, really, thinking it could do a better job orchestrating my life than God could. But, I knew that if I was going to be able to learn how to ride the motorcycle, I was going to have to face this fear and work through it. The next practice sessions gave me chances to do that and also helped me realize that you can intellectually understand where the fear’s coming from and understand all about it, but the only way to really break through it is to just feel the fear and DO it anyway!

The point of this illustration is that we can learn a great deal from our fears if we allow ourselves to look at them instead of run from them or try to bury them. In essence, fear is the energy to do your best. If you’re giving a presentation at work and you’re feeling nervous or fearful about it, look underneath those feelings to see what’s there. Maybe it’s nudging you to check your facts and make sure you’re fully prepared in some way. Maybe it’s reminding you that you do better when you’ve practiced your presentation several times…… But you won’t know what’s behind it if you don’t look.

And you’ll never grow into the full potential of who you are if you let your fears hold you back.

And even when you’ve looked underneath the fear, behind it, beside it, and every which ways around it, there still comes the point when you just have to FEEL the fear and DO it anyway. Even if you have to break it down in to tiny steps like I did in my motorcycle experience. That’s Okay. Because the more times you feel it and do it anyway, the more evidence you collect on the “yes, I can do this” side. And the more “yes I can’s” that you have under your belt, the more the fear subsides.

Next time you are feeling fearful about something, stop and take a look underneath. What is it saying to you? Can you remember other times you felt this same fear? Is it possible for you to FEEL this fear and just DO it anyway? If not, what small step can you take now to begin to chip away at this fear and collect more evidences that “Yes, you can do this”?

Blessings!

-Becky

March 1 - Today's quote:

"We cannot change our memories, but we can change their meaning and the power they have over us."  - David Seamands, Pastoral Theologian

(Begining in March, the Happy Seeds podcast will go to a weekly format, with each episode published on Sunday morning. Also, the monthly journal has been canceled. However, in exchange for the journal, I will be posting more of the podcast content here on the blog. Let me know what you think about the new format.)
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