when fear speaks

I subscribe to daily "Notes from the Universe", a short email containing an uplifting message in it.

I remember one message in particular. It read: "When fear speaks, it's always wrong." Such a short message and yet such a powerful meaning behind it. And it hit me good.

Think about when you speak or act from a place of fear. Are you being true to who you really are at soul level? No, never. Because when fear is in your life, you end up compromising your beliefs and values, your ethics and principles, who you are at your very core, and, as a result, you simply can't be true to who you are at soul and core level.

Think about something you did recently, that you did because you acted out of fear. Follow the journey of choices and decisions you made from beginning to end, breaking each part of the journey down. When you really dig deep and understand each step of that journey, each choice and decision that you made and how it was a direct result from fear, can you see how your path twisted and turned away from your truth, who you are at soul level? And, looking back, honestly, from your heart, the final choice, decision, outcome, was it the right one?

When we act, speak, do, live from a place of fear, we often compromise our values and who we are on a deeper more spiritual level. And because of that, every time we listen to fear, everytime we act from a place of fear, every choice and decision we make through fear, will be wrong.

The only way to be honest and true to yourself is to come from a place of love. Because love sticks to your values like glue, love always honours and respects who you are at soul level, love is always true.

It's always good practice to stop before making a choice or decision and ask yourself "am I choosing from a place of love?", "is this in alignment with my core values?", "is this right for me?" All to often we make rash choices or choose to walk a path or choose not to do something becuase fear has been our dominant emotion. And as a result, fear's right hand man, regret, shows up and runs the show after our decision has been made, after we've taken that action, after the outcome has been delivered.

How many times have you let fear step in and play a role? Sadly, as we've all been brought up shrouded in fear since our very childhood, acting and deciding based on fear is natural. It's hard to un-learn everything you learned, especially as a child. However, if you want your life to be better, if you want to stop living with regret, then it's time to stop and ask whether it's fear or love that's running the show. And that takes conscious effort, that takes time and patience, that takes being in the present moment and being in control. It's certainly not the easier option nor is it the more comfortable option, in that moment. However, it will lead to a better life with fewer regrets.

So next time you need to make a choice or decision, stop and ask yourself, "is fear playing the lead role here?" And if it is move your heart to a place of love and invite love in to make that decision.

Fear can hugely and negatively impact our ability to move forward. Let's take it to the extreme for a second. Suppose you're walking along a forest path, you raise your head only to see a bear standing in front of you, staring at you. The experts would tell us that the best thing to do would be to stay calm, speak softly and slowly back away. In reality, if this isn't something you encounter on a daily basis (and I suspect it isn't), you'll probably do one of two things - you'll freeze or you'll flee (with, no doubt, the bear in hot pursuit... good luck out-running that one).  Either way, moving forward is not something that's going to happen, at least until the bear gets bored with you and chooses to move on itself.

Imagine that bear isn't in your reality, rather it's in your mind. The same thing will happen, fear will kick in and you'll freeze or flee. However, thanks to fear you simply will not be able to face that fear and move forward.

Fear is one the biggest contributors in each and every one of our lives, that stops us moving forward. Until we overcome fear, until we come from a place of love, we'll struggle to move forward and we'll struggle to live the life we're truly worthy of.