Monday, June 28, 2010

Doing Something Scary and Facing Your Fears

A friend recently sent me a text and said do something today which you've been scared to do. Basically, face your fears! Well that day I was going to be doing something I have self-consciously had a difficult time with in the past. Instructing a dance class with having no practice or thought of what moves I would use to teach this class. Taylor had asked me to do it that morning at 10:30am, basically to come teach at 6pm that day. After telling her how scared I was to teach, I finally decided that I needed to do it.

It had been about 4 years or so since I had really choreographed anything or taught a dance class, so it was a giant leap for me to take. There had been other things in my life of recent that I felt like I would regret if I never told that person my true feelings for her. You can probably guess at this point who that person was. Dancer, beautiful, amazing in heart, I can go on and on. Anyways the point is you cannot fear what man will say or do, you can only face your fears. I was able to teach the class for 2 hours and it gave me a lot of confidence to move forward with no matter what it was.
My best friend had told me he contacted 10 people who were inactive regarding coming to church or accepting home teachers to come over. I'm sure that is a big fear to overcome having to ask people who are not active in church if they would come or at least have home techers meet with them. It gave me power in other areas of my life to overcome weaknesses and make them strengths. Why should we fear what man can say or do? We have the ability to overcome the insecurities inside we hold and let go of a past that has held us back for so long.
One of my favorite quotes is by Marianne Williamson-"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
So do something that you are scared to do. Set up a list, similar to a bucket list, and conquer what you need or want too. Don't let the world conquer you for you have power beyond capacity of what may really seem. While you are conquering your fears, you will not fully be doing that if you keep selfishly to yourself. So be an example to others by encouraging them to overcome their fears and share in the experiences we call life!