The Trusted Journey~ Living Without Fear
Waking up this morning, on New Years eve~ sent a wave of excitement down my spine... as well as gratitude..I am undoubtedly grateful for my mindfulness practice for inviting in new chapters & journeys with excitement, and not fear.
Before my meditation and yoga practice, It used to be difficult for me to live in the present moment with trust and contentment. Constantly looking to the future gave me a tremendous amount of anxiety. The "not knowing" and uncertainty created a fearful based mindset that truly took away from the beauty of the moment.
As years passed, and I found my yoga practice~ I found myself sitting in peace practicing conscious breathing.... where the focal point was on the simplicity of breathing in and out, while taking note of how my body felt in the process... I would notice the subtleties of my body, such as the natural moments of the belly and the chest rising and falling with each breath. Then I would notice the state of my mind as well as the level of contentment my body was feeling in that moment.
To my surprise, I felt no anxiety.. I felt no fear. My body felt, alive. The connection to the moment as well as my physical body was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I was able to realize then that fear & anxiety were constructs that I built in my own mind based off of ideas that I started to entertain through thought and over thinking....
This finally felt like- FREEDOM.
It is in this sense of liberation that a wave of realizations crashed over me like a massive wave in the ocean crashing down ~ breaking all the silence in the air to draw the attention of everything in its' proximity... We create fear.... We can break fear and create trust..... We are the creators of the world we live in~ through the way in which we steer the mind.
This isn't to say there aren't actual things in the world to be afraid of; BUT more times than not, we convince ourself to be afraid of things that aren't direct threats to us.. Yes there are scary things in the world, but in actuality- how often are we really faced with these? ..the answer is almost always - little to none.
Training the mind is just that- training. It takes daily practice, willingness, dedication & patience to retrain the way that we have learned and adapted to thinking, up until this point in our life.
The first key to moving away from fear while in mindfulness training~ is to ask yourself a series of questions, and perhaps journal the answers. Some of the most useful questions could be:
*How is living in fear benefiting your life?
*Does living in fear open doors or close them?
*How does giving fear attention, bring you strength?
*Could you see yourself, not living in fear- and what would THAT life look like?
There are so many more questions that could help you truly take away the power that fear has over you. The best piece of advice that I could truly give somebody looking to escape this state of mind is this:
Where we choose to focus our attention- gives that which we focus on, power- the true key to happiness in this life, is to focus on happiness and trust- RIGHT NOW. and in EACH moment.. it is from this mindset- that you begin to construct the life that you want.. if it is happiness- then you shall have happiness.. If it is fear, that you may just live in fear... Whatever it is that you choose- STICK TO IT.. and DON'T give up..... perseverance is key..
The journey ahead, welcomes you with open arms; it believes in each of us: which is why is opens its doors yet another minute, another hour, another day & another year.
Happy New Year.
