ImaraSpeaks™

Dear Ones:

As we consider contemplating and celebrating the choices that have or will create freedom in our lives, I share with you this column for your consideration. As you consider the volatility of our present societal and economic state, I share this column with you for your consideration. If I can be of service to help YOU move through your fears, please call me from wherever you are.

In Truth, Wisdom and Light, Imara

Fear: The Other Side of Courage

Many people look longingly at those who exhibit courage in their careers, businesses, lives, and think, “I wish I were more like that, but I'm not that brave. I'm nervous, I'm afraid.” News flash: Don't think for a minute that those who live their lives with courage are NOT afraid. In fact, they may actually have more reason to be fearful than you: they are taking more risks.

Courage becomes courage by its very definition because one is facing a risky or challenging situation. Everybody faces risky or challenging situations at some point(s) in their lives. However, the difference between those who live the richness of a courageous life and those who do not, is that the courageous move through their fears, rather than being paralyzed by them.

Often people come to me for advice about a stuck career, a languishing business, a lackluster marriage, and I discover that the sole reason for their predicament is that they are locked in fear. The emotion of fear has become the determining factor in all their decisions. They may not be sweating beads of perspiration on the outside, but deep down inside they are secretly living in fear of every 'worst possible outcome', of every judgement from an outside source, of not being in control of every step along the way. Murphy (as in Murphy's law) reigns supreme in their minds. It matters not of what they are afraid, just that they are.

There is a basic Universal Principle that operates here on earth: What you fear, you are destined to face. We are here to move through our personal fears that we may achieve our full and brightest potential, individually and collectively. Anytime one makes a decision based on fear, it is probably the wrong decision. War, greed, theft, simple rudeness are all fear-based decisions. A fear driven choice will always be one which ultimately leads to confronting the very thing that was feared at the outset. Of course, if fear has been a motivating pattern in your life, you've probably been creating self-fulfilling prophecies that cause you to now falsely believe Murphy deserves to be on a pedestal. Now you're in a 'chicken and egg' scenario or what I like to call 'running the hamster wheel'.

For example, we've all heard people say, "Bad things come in threes." I've known those who actually are not happy until the third disaster, tragedy or loss actually occurs! They just cannot be happy with only two problems or disasters! They just know if two things bad happened, the third has to follow. Until it does, they seem live in anxious expectation of the worst. With all that energy of intensity and intention toward the negative, with all that paralysis until the third bad thing happens, we should not be surprised that the prophecy is fulfilled. Hence, imprisonment on an endless hamster wheel (you are the hamster, of course), of exhaustion without accomplishment.

When given the opportunity to make a bold or courageous decision, remember that if you do not take the opportunity when it presents itself, you are simply postponing the inevitable. One way or another, whether it takes a year or a decade, (hopefully in this lifetime), the lesson will be learned. You will be plagued by your fear until you move through it. You might as well choose to learn it sooner than later.

So, take a risk and jump off the wheel; all that energy invested in fear is not getting you anywhere. A tip for jumping off the wheel: Do your homework, keep your emotions in check, find your center, and you will see clearly the light beyond the fear. Another way to look at how to overcome fear with courage is to understand the latin root or etymology of the word courage. In French, the word for heart is coeur. The word courage originates from one which means to 'be of or with heart'. In other words, you can't be courageous without heart! Open your heart. Open the link between your heart and your mind, and follow that heart-mind as one. You will be surprised at how easily you will be en-cour-aged.

In Truth, Wisdom and Light,

Rev. Imara