Laugh in the Face of Fear

This video cracks me up. And it gave me an idea. I keep bumping into gratitude, lately. Which is to say that sometimes I feel like I’m stumbling about in the dark when I’m facing a major decision, and then, out of the blue, a feeling of deep gratitude will wash through me. Like today, for instance. Since the New Year, I’ve been working on my novel. Or should I say, working on working on my novel. The story itself has fled for the hills, apparently, leaving me with the daunting task of starting the whole thing over again. Sigh.

Should I keep the main character? Or merely change the circumstances she finds herself in? And now that you mention it, just who is my heroine? These, and many other questions, sneaked up on me during the night, and left me staring at the ceiling. Blindsided by fear. Like a cunning Survivor member – Russell Hantz comes to mind, immediately – Fear knows exactly which buttons to push. And like Russell, fear won’t hesitate to cut you out, and cut you down to size, when it suits its purposes. As business coach, Aprille Janes once said, “Never underestimate the Inner Saboteur. He/she is very smart, AND just when you think you’ve successfully banished him, viola, he has henchmen!”  

I read today that 

“Fear is a mysterious thing. It’s mostly imagination based, but we live our lives as if it were the most physical thing in our existence. Many times in your life, you have probably discovered that things you were afraid to say, do, or have, were nowhere near as bad on the other side of them. At this time in our cultural history we are facing many real fears, including layoffs and financial losses, and while it’s worrying, and perhaps threatening, it’s not the end of the world.

Making changes in life is hard at the best of time. We like the ‘comfort zone’ of our existence, but many times we are deeply uncomfortable. We have a million reasons why we can’t or won’t do something, even when we know that doing things differently will improve our lives.

We are in transition with no way of knowing what’s next, and that’s when fear likes to show up. It lurks in the GAP between the known and the unknown. It keeps our mind locked on overdrive, worrying if we will survive.”

 Fear lurks in the shadows of the night, waiting to pounce. Last night, I took it by the hand and gladly invited it into my bed. Fear became my bedfellow, when really I should have treated it like an intruder.

In the clear light of day, as I stopped what I was doing and literally smelled the flowers, I found that gratitude is one of the most powerful antidotes to the poisonous presence of fear. And did I mention that it doesn’t hurt to laugh in the face of it?

Going After the Things You Want

“Television is a medium because it is neither rare nor well done” – Ernie Kovacs

I have the kind of cold that sends you underground. This place is either your bed, or the room where your TV resides. I grew up in a home where daytime TV was considered verboten. The message I absorbed was that couch potatoes fall into two categories: (1) they suffer from a debilitating illness, or (2) they are malingerers.

So, of course, when this mother of all colds hit this week, I hit the TV trail. And Oprah was my first pitstop. Adam Lambert and Susan Boyle were her guests, and I settled in with my blankie, a box of man-sized Kleenex, and a hefty mug of scalding tea. My greatest wish was to escape, even for an hour, the constant need to blow my nose and hack into my arm.  

What I didn’t expect was that I’d end up sobbing into my Kleenex, while warbling along with Adam Lambert. And I certainly didn’t expect to be jolted out of my snug, safe place by two such divergent personalities as Adam Lambert and Susan Boyle.

As soon as the credits rolled at the end of the show, I ran for my journal. My hand flew across the page, downloading everything that’s been sitting inside, afraid to show its face to the world (or at least some of it):

• Don’t be afraid of what you want.
• And don’t be afraid of going after it.
• Visualize your dream; then take action.
• Take what you do seriously, but have fun with it.                                                           
• Your gift lies within, but it belongs to the world.
• So give it – fearlessly, willingly, lovingly. The world has never seen your gift before, I promise you.