Fear and a Boldness Challenge

By Dr. Marta Adelsman
Life Coach in Communication and Consciousness
www.DrMartaCoach.com
(July 26, 2017)

Today I’m inviting you into some esoteric wanderings prompted by a thought I woke up to a few mornings ago:  “If I’m not taking action that scares the snot out of me, then I’m stagnating.”  I jumped out of bed and started journaling.

That day, the ebb and flow of life and energy led me to take time off from deliberate outward action around my teaching and coaching.  Instead I nurtured my inner world, sometimes feeling guilty about it, yet mostly not.  I also entertained some concerns about a shrinking income—yet mostly not.  

My particular personality structure tends to become distracted from activities in the outer world and to focus instead on inner-world feelings and fantasies. While I had given way to this tendency, I also knew I would sense the right time to move into action again.  The thought a few mornings ago – “If I’m not taking action that scares the snot out of me, then I’m stagnating” – makes me think it’s time.

While life orchestrated this break in my activity, fear also had a role.  A belief system from past conditioning in my family of origin frequently haunts me:  “Who do you think you are to put yourself out there as someone who has something to say?”  I have lived with dread that, if I did so, something bad would happen.   

Reflecting on this fear, I recalled teachings by “enlightened” people who indicate there is no self, that the self we experience as “me” is not real.  It’s a structure made up of fleeting thoughts, emotions, beliefs and past conditioning, a phantom scaffold that only appears real.  

In reflecting further, I drew parallels with quantum physicists who, when they look closely into material objects, find less and less solid stuff, more and more space.  If the world and the self only appear real, then there is no one to feel scared and nothing to be scared about, so what’s the point?  It sheds new light on the acronym for FEAR – False Evidence Appearing Real.

If fear is only a phantom, what prevents me from taking action that scares me – action such as expanding my workshops, submitting articles to big magazines, entering writing contests and boldly pursuing re-discovered artistic interests?

What do I have to lose by taking one small action daily that puts this little phantom “me” out there?  I can play on the stage of life and write my own script.  I can stare down that conditioned voice in my head that says, “How dare you?”  Who knows?  These actions could open up the possibility of miracles!

I submit this article today because 1) maybe there is something in my experience that supports you to take bold action, and 2) it’s my bold action for today.  

Now I’m accountable—and that’s scary!