What’s holding you back? When you think about taking some action, what are the very first thoughts that come into your mind?

Are they fear-based thoughts and emotions? Do you feel as if there’s a glass door in front of you but when you look at it you can’t see clearly through it and what you do see is very scary? Is it grimy and blurry? Is there a big green monster looking back at you? Does your heartbeat go up when you look at the door? Do you automatically back away without even thinking any more about going through that door?

How often during the day (and even the night) do you think about that door and what’s beyond it? You know that if you could get out there, you could get what you want and be oh, so happy. But something is holding you back…..

You haven’t even tried the door before you backed away. You don’t even know if it’s locked or not of if with the slightest pressure it will open and reveal the greatness of what is out there for you. There’s no blur or grime – nothing to stand in your way once the door is opened.

FEAR is an overpowering and overwhelming emotion that holds us back from achieving and obtaining so much of what we desire and deserve. It’s the fear that is loading those obstacles in front of us. When we look through our FEAR-filled eyes, our vision is extremely blurred and everything does look monstrous and forboding.

What’s the answer? You just have to decide to first, try the door and see if it’s locked or not. If it’s not locked, then your journey will be so much easier. If it is locked, then you have a few more things to conquer. But right now you don’t even know whether it’s locked or not. Once you’ve decided to see if it’s locked or not, then you simply tell yourself to open the door and focus all your energy and will on putting that foot out past the door jam.

You will be amazed at what will happen. I imagine if it’s like most situations, you’ll be kicking yourself because it turned out just fine. All that you feared didn’t happen. In fact, after you’ve actually gotten out the door, you’ll soon forget what it was you were worried about. You will be totally amazed and will be wondering why the heck you didn’t try this before.

You’d think that would help you the next time but it’s no surprise that the next set of FEAR based thoughts will keep you from venturing through the other door.

Let me give you an example since you’re probably thinking “yes, this is so easy to say but not easy to do.” Believe me I know it’s not easy. I just want to help you make it easier as each situation presents itself.

As most of you know, I finished my 2nd 100 mile event about 3 weeks ago. What I don’t think I mentioned was that at mile 90 my right foot was in agonizing pain. Every step for the next 3 1/2 hours was filled with nauseating pain (the pain that is associated with “bone” pain – which to me was indicative of a stress fracture of one of the long bones in the foot). But despite wanting to cry for a good part of that time and feeling so alone and abandoned, I finished. But I was worried.

Fortunately I had an appointment on Monday with my AIRROSTI provider and felt she could help me figure out what was going on. She agreed that she thought it was a stress fracture. Of course I wanted to know if it was as soon as possible. To make a long story short, I was finally able to get an MRI and it did NOT show a stress fracture. There were some abnormalities visible but nothing to explain the type and location of my pain. Although it was sort of a relief that it wasn’t a fracture, it created more consternation because my foot still hurt and no one knew what was wrong. If it had been a stress fracture I would have known that it would be 4 weeks minimum without running but then I could start running again. Without a diagnosis it was hit or miss as to when I could run again. I was told that after 3 weeks I could try to run again..that put the ball back in my own court. I had to open that door!

So much of FEAR is based on the UNKNOWN. I guess it’s why so many are afraid of the dark and why things always seem worse at night or when the lights go out. When you can’t “see” very far in front of you, your old programming takes over and your imagination goes wild. Your heart rate speeds up, your breathing rate increases, and your anxiety level maxes out. It’s a very similar reaction to our “Fight or Flight” survival physiology. We FEAR the UNKNOWN and want to run away from it rather than standing tall and facing it. In some instances that may still be appropriate but our intellect tells us that we should assess our situation before we decide the response. Or we could even say “ok, I don’t mind initially responding with flight, but when I’ve gotten a bit away, I’ll stop and reassess everything and see if further flight is warranted or if this is something I can handle”. I did the right thing because I shut my body down from running to allow whatever it was to heal. But I didn’t know how long that was going to be. The UNKNOWN consisted of not knowing whether it was going to be healed enough that it wouldn’t hurt; of not knowing if it would hurt or not; of not knowing how far I could get.

The other component of FEAR is “What if”. We are so good at creating imaginary scenarios in our mind and living them and reliving them virtually. And for some reason we always seem to go to the negative scenarios, not the positive ones. What would happen if I went out and ran on it and it hurt? What if it never gets better? What if that means I have to stop running? What if this means I can’t do the New York City Marathon this year? What if, what if, what if?

So, after we stop our flight or flight reaction and reassess what the UNKNOWN really is, then it’s time to play the “What if UP” game. This is an Abraham-Hicks process and is meant to get you to not only look at the other possibilities but also to raise your vibrations. In my case it would go like this “What if my foot doesn’t hurt? What if I can run really well and far without pain? What if I’ve given it enough time to heal? What if I feel really good when I’m out there again? What if everything is fine? What if I was worrying for nothing? And I wasted all that energy on worrying when I could have been doing something positive? That’s key – what if I was worrying for nothing? How many times have you worried about an upcoming event and then when it came along it turned out to be a great thing and one you actually enjoyed and were so glad you experienced. Do we think, then, about the worry? Probably not. But if we used it to learn a lesson about worry, that would be great!

What happened with me? I went out and ran today and was able to do 2 miles (that’s all I intended so as not to push it) without ANY pain. And almost felt normal again. Of course, all my attention was focused on my foot and “oh what was that I just felt?” But no matter how hard I tried (LOL) to make it hurt it didn’t. Now I’m prepped to go out tomorrow and run further and see what happens.

Try the “What if UP” game and see if you can raise your vibration (I guarantee this will do it) and then you’ll be able to move back to the door and reach for the handle….and then actually turn the handle and find out that it’s beautiful outside.

Terrie