Hello Everyone! This week officially marks the two-month milestone of this weekly journal healing journey! Congratulations to you for making it this far!
Each journal entry you have written to this point is like a small footprint in the sand. Go back to your first week and re-read your first journal entry. A lot happened since then. What do you think? How do you feel? You may not feel much difference now, and that is totally ok! Give yourself time to heal, grow and evolve. There isn't any timeline or deadline. By the time you continue on this path for 6 months or so, you will start to see the trail you are on and how far you have traveled.
Last week, we faced our fear and unpacked the heavy load we had kept for a long time. You might be wondering "What now?" This is where this week's journal prompt comes in, so read on!
Let's step back and see all our fears from a distance. Observe from there how your fears and anxieties are stopping you from doing many things in your life, including realizing your dreams, passions, and heart's callings. That is because when we are fearful, we see everything through that fear lens. It's like wearing a pair of heavily tinted sunglasses in the dark and not being able to see things.
So, how do we take off those "fear" sunglasses? It is very simple - shift your perspective. We are going to compare our visions with those glasses on and off. Are you ready?
So here is this week's journal topic:
On one page, describe your life situation from your fear perspective. Write down all the things you think might happen based on your fear. As you write them, don't judge anything that comes out in this process - write everything down.
After you are done, on the next page, describe your life situation again, but this time, focus on your gifts and resources you have available. Imagine if you never had this fear. How would you act and handle things differently?
For example, when my marriage was ending, I was very fearful of what might happen - from my basic life arrangements to my relationship with my children, and how I would financially support myself. Not to mention how the divorce process itself seemed so daunting and stressful. But I had to choose to focus on my gifts and resources- my support network, my being a business owner allowing me to work flexible hours, my spiritual practices to ground myself amid stressful situations, and my own self-reliance in overcoming difficulties. If I stopped worrying about how things would turn out in the end and just focused on what needed to be done at that moment with all the help I could get, I would be able to take that first step into this unknown territory. The fearless person I wished to be still felt some fear but did it anyway, knowing that things would get a little easier and less scary if I kept doing it again and again. In the end, I became that fearless person and came out of it a stronger, more resilient, and patient person who learned where and how to set boundaries.
We live in a world of dichotomy - two opposing things existing simultaneously. There is no light without darkness, no courage without fear, no peace without wars, and so on. It is like looking at two sides of a coin. One cannot exist without the other because the one defines the other.
A while back, I read somewhere that a problem is already half its solution - meaning that understanding your problem already defines much of the solution. So, what if we can change the way we look at the fear? What if by understanding our fear, we can start resolving our life's big challenges?
This exercise helps us to see the two sides of the coin for the challenge you are facing right now. And by understanding both sides, maybe you'll be able to see the whole picture and come to a place where your "fear" sunglasses won't alter your vision anymore. From there, you understand your "fear" sunglasses as just one of many, many ways to look at things. You have the choice to choose how you look at your world, your life, and your experiences. You are the one with the power to do so. Let's take our power back.
In each and every moment, you get to choose how to live your life. Do you want to live your life in fear and anxiety, or with love and courage? You don't need to victimize yourself with your fear, anxiety, shame, and judgments. Choose love, courage, acceptance, understanding, and compassion, and act from there. Make every single life decision from that space. And watch.... your life will change. Trust me on this.
Happy journaling,
Noriko
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