Since October is the month of Halloween and “celebrating” ghosts, haunted houses and scary things,  I wanted to write this month on the impact of fear and how we can become free from it. 

            In the prime of her career, Ann Landers was receiving more than 10,000 letters a day.  Someone asked her once, “What is the most common problem people ask you about?”  She said “Without a doubt, fear!”  We are a society plagued by fears and we have a fear for almost everything.  From the time we are born, we are taught that there are things in life that are to be feared.  I heard a pastor say once that fear is only: F=false E=evidence A=appearing R=real.  Usually what we fear the most is only an imagination or something that “appears” to be real or true.  It is something we have pictured in our minds, that we believe has the possibility of causing us harm in some way.   I grew up having an extreme fear of cats.  Why, I don’t know, I never had one hurt me, but somewhere along the way I believed the lie that cats were something to be feared.  
    

        A lot of times we have fears relating to memories of the past, or unfortunate incidents that happened.   Because we still identify with the pain of those memories, we project that pain and those feelings into the “possible” future.    Whatever we identify with or relate to,  is what we magnify or “exalt” in our lives; because we somehow see that thing as a part of us.  
   

        With my fear of cats; although I had no real basis for that fear, it was carried into all my friendships (all my best friends growing up had cats), my new adventures ( I was always hesitant to go into “new” homes or places for fear that a cat would be there).  Therefore, I was actually bound and limited by my mindset that there was a possibility that something could hurt me. 

      That is the result of all fears.  They box us into a limited life and mindset, therefore not allowing us to really live freely.  Fears really do hold us back from living in our true potential and freedom.  Fear is very individual, our fears come from our own individual experiences and perceptions of those experiences.  But where they exist, we have somewhere made an agreement with the lie that that “thing” has the ability to cause us harm or pain.  If we have the fear of not being skinny enough, pretty enough, smart enough or fast enough, it comes from the perception that we can be rejected, therefore causing us pain.

      When we fear things, it is because we have lost trust and faith in what is the truth; whether it be about ourselves, a situation or a loved one.  Norman Vincent Peale said “the cure for fear is faith.”  To really live free from our fears, we have to identify what lie that fear is telling us about ourselves or our life.  We must then shift our focus to what is true.  What we focus on, we get more of, so if we are focusing on the negativity or pain of a past situation, we will automatically draw more of that same thing to us.  Not dwelling on the perceived negatives in life, but focusing on the positive and truth, will bring more of what we want into our lives.  I challenge you this month to look at what fears you may be “celebrating” in your life that you would rather be rid of.  In that searching, I believe you will begin to experience more freedom than you ever thought possible!

                                                                       Copyright Divine Potential 2009