Why are we not doing the things we want to do?
Why don’t we just quit our jobs and go out there, follow our passion? Of course, it’s the money. But it’s not as easy as that. Many people actually have jobs which they don’t enjoy but which are highly paid. And yes, these people do have the savings, they do have the cushion, the bolster, that would allow them to get started. Why don’t they?
The answer: FEAR.
All our fears are different, but they have one thing in common: They prevent us from living this precious life to our fullest potential!
Why aren’t we reaching for more?
It seems fairly straight-forward but it’s not. For years, I did not understand what prevented me from following my passion. Of course I somehow knew it was fear, but that didn’t help much. They don’t tell you how to deal with fear, or in such a general way that I never found it really helped, no matter which suggestions I tried to put into practice. I felt like a failure, admiring all these people online (to which extent are they real?) who seemed to be doing what they wanted to do, while my life just sucked.
I did have ideas of what I wanted to do, ridiculous ideas. But then there were the bills. I wanted to travel, but then there were duties at home, bins to put out, plants to water. And did I mention that my ideas were ridiculous? In fact, they were as ridiculous as the ideas and dreams of all these people who did make it work.
The booklet “What would we do if we weren’t afraid” (click on the image below or in the side bar) explores the ‘fear factor’ in our lives, its texture, its taste, its composition – and shows that what we’re commonly feeling isn’t actually fear, but anxiety. It also lists practical (yogic) exercises that will daze, numb and eventually kill off anxiety, in a very gentle way (if you want to read about anxiety killers right now, simply jump to page 10 of this document).
I’ve worked on it over the past weeks, it’s raw, honest and has – at times – been painful to write (as painful as realising stuff about your own personality is, I guess!) .
I hope you enjoy reading it. If you do, please pass it on to a friend and do leave some feedback, suggestions and tips how you’ve dealt with fear in your life in the comment box below 🙂
~ Andrea
(After clicking the image you can choose to read in your browser or download for later.)
What would we do if we weren’t afraid?
CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT!
Categories: Happiness, Inspiration
Yoga & Joyful Living 
Hi Andrea, As someone who took the plunge 13 years ago, I would add the caveat that we should always remind ourselves of what we enjoy about what we are doing. Sometimes we dream because we don’t appreciate what we have.
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Well said, Andrea. I recently read William Zinsser’s book, Writing About Your Life, and have been quoting his line, “Change is a tonic” to myself and around the house. My daughters and husband are now repeating it. Even the littlest changes brighten my day. Oh, and that smile technique? I’ve tried that…in the car. True, we must use those few muscles to lift the mood.
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Simple but meaningful friends, greetings compassion 🙂
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Fear and anxiety were at the core of most of the decisions I made in my life. Approaching retirement, I was journaling one morning and found myself writing that my life felt like “marking time, a frantic waiting to die.” The stark honesty of that remark shocked and sickened me. Over the next months I explored, in writing, how I had come to that forlorn place. What I found was that the core beliefs dictating my decisions were mostly lies. When I took them out, one by one, and told myself the truth, a vision of a different kind of existence began to take shape. A dream. It seemed impossible at first, but I kept asking myself why I didn’t believe I could have the life I wanted. The answers were revelations.
Once I began to move in the direction of my dream, it was as though the Universe opened the floodgates and cleared my path of obstacles. What I learned as I allowed myself to believe in possibilities, is that my dream was far too small. I couldn’t have imagined the explosion of joy, the healing of emotional parts that I didn’t even know were broken, and the bounty and blessing that poured into my new reality moment by moment.
There is so much more available to us than we can possibly know, and it exists just beyond fear.
Sherry Bronson
Writing for Self-Discovery in Bali
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Isn’t this such a crazy experience, and one we don’t expect at all: Finding out that our dreams were actually too small? Thanks for reading!
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Thanks for writing!
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