Fear: Friend or Foe?

As “The Fear Whisperer,” I hear A LOT about the down side of fear. Things like:

• It’s scary.
• It keeps me from doing what I really want to do.
• It holds me back.
• It sucks.
• It’s ruining my life.

Waa, waa, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Fear really gets a bad wrap.

And I’m here to change all that. So before you get your panties in a bunch and leave comments attacking me and my stance on fear, take a deep, cleansing breath, calm the F down, and listen.

For all the bad things you have to say about fear, there are some good things too.

Think of fear as your ultimate protector. It wants the best for you. It wants you safe. While it may not feel that way sometimes, it’s true.

You learned all about fear when you were very young. Chances are, the life you have now looks MUCH different than the one you grew up in. Especially if the one from years ago was full of uncertainty and dysfunction.

You see, when you’re in an environment that is unpredictable or allows harm to come to you (physical and/or emotional), you don’t feel safe. And fear runs rampant. But as a youngster, you cannot process fear the same way you can as an adult. As a child, fear is a big scary monster under the bed (or even in the next room).

And what do we do when there are monsters? We attack them, or run from them, or get so scared we cannot move.

Then we grow up and when other monsters appear and we feel threatened, we react in similar ways.

• Attacking may look like verbal or physical aggression
• Running may look like avoidance or procrastination
• Immobility may look like shutting down emotionally

But you must remember, fear is still just there trying to protect you.

One strategy I find helpful is to take a pause and THANK your fear (yes, you read that right).

Thank your fear for protecting you. It’s only doing its job.

Then let fear know that you no longer need protecting. You can handle this on your own. You can put your big girl/boy pants on and face that fear head on, and not let it keep you stuck.

Invite fear to walk away or gently escort it out of the building. Basically, give fear permission to leave. Think of it as your bodyguard. You can tell it to leave anytime you want.

Then, roll up your sleeves, take some more deep breaths, and move through the fear to the other side.

It may take some practice, but I promise, once you learn to look at fear as your FRIEND rather than your FOE, you will forever change your relationship with fear.

Looking for more strategies to help you through YOUR fear? I’d love to chat about how I might help coach you to the other side. Check out how you can work with me HERE.

Listen to Ramona Remesat’s “Get Out of Your Own Damn Way Story” on October 22, 2015

Join me as I interview Ramona Remesat on Thursday, October 22, as part of the Get Out of Your Own Damn Way Jam Sessions. Powerful people sharing powerful stories of how they tamed their fears, embraced their greatness, and got out of their own damn way.

Sign up to listen to the LIVE or RECORDED interview for FREE by entering your name and email in the box that appears below…or head on over to the registration page.

ABOUT THIS GUEST:  Ramona Remesat is a Spiritual Life Coach and Angel Therapy Practitioner and has been studying spirituality and metaphysics for over 30 years. Her greatest joy is teaching others how to recognize, and trust, their inner guidance so they can transform from feeling blocked and fearful of change, to getting clear on their goals and taking inspired action steps. She’s passionate about teaching women how to connect with their spiritual helpers so they can create a more fulfilled, abundant and happier life and business. With her guidance and support, women uncover their purpose and move towards living the life they truly desire.

43 Quotes About Fear

I love quotes! A good quote can help shift your perspective at just the right moment and provide inspiration in the face of darkness. Enjoy some of my favorite quotes about a topic near and dear to my heart: Fear.

You might take one (or two or more) of your favorites and post them around so you can see them, read them, and breathe them in when you need a dose of inspiration.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. ~ Marianne Williamson

Fear is only as deep as the mind allows. ~ Japanese Proverb

Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will. ~ James Stephens

Fear: False Evidence Appearing Real. ~ Unknown

Where no hope is left, is left no fear. ~ Milton

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. ~ Helen Keller

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you. ~ Eric Hoffer

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment. ~ Marcus Aurelius

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. ~ Bertrand Russell

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear. ~ Nelson Mandela

Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free. ~ Jim Morrison

Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change – this is the rhythm of living. Out of our over-confidence, fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope. And out of hope, progress. ~ Bruce Barton

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. ~ Mark Twain

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear. ~ Baruch Spinoza

Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it. ~ Salvador Dali

If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. ~ Dale Carnegie

For tips on HOW to overcome your fear, check out my online course –> “Fear 101: How to Harness the Power of Fear to Get Back on Track.”

Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out. ~ Karl Augustus Menninger

Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all. ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends. ~ Shirley MacLaine

Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain. ~ Mark Twain

If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles. ~ Sun Tzu

We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. ~ Steve Jobs

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream. ~ Paulo Coelho

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you, therefore no harm can befall you; all is very, very well. Do this in complete faith and confidence. ~ Pope John Paul II

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest. ~ Henry David Thoreau

No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear. ~ C. S. Lewis

When one has the feeling of dislike for evil, when one feels tranquil, one finds pleasure in listening to good teachings; when one has these feelings and appreciates them, one is free of fear. ~ Buddha

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way. ~ Babe Ruth

Check out my online course “Fear 101: How to Harness the Power of Fear to Get Back on Track” to get some of my best tips on using fear to your advantage.

It’s the most unhappy people who most fear change. ~ Mignon McLaughlin

As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it. ~ Chanakya

We fear violence less than our own feelings. Personal, private, solitary pain is more terrifying than what anyone else can inflict. ~ Jim Morrison

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest. ~ Henry David Thoreau

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

In skating over thin ice our safety is in our speed. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. ~ H. P. Lovecraft

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. ~ Dale Carnegie

Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time to figure out whether you like it or not. ~ Virgil Thomson

The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear. ~ Gandhi

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic. ~ Unknown

For tips on HOW to overcome your fear, check out the online course –> “Fear 101: How to Harness the Power of Fear to Get Back on Track.”

Listen to Diane Young Sussman’s “Get Out of Your Own Damn Way Story” on October 15, 2015

Join me as I interview Diane Young Sussman on Thursday, October 15, as part of the Get Out of Your Own Damn Way Jam Sessions. Powerful people sharing powerful stories of how they tamed their fears, embraced their greatness, and got out of their own damn way.

Sign up to listen to the LIVE or RECORDED interview for FREE by entering your name and email in the box that appears below…or head on over to the registration page.

ABOUT THIS GUEST:  Diane is a Transformational Life Coach and Energy Healer who works with women’s Empowerment by helping them prepare for the Spotlight. Her work in the Alexander Technique for the last 25 years prepares her in this unique venue for claiming the most powerful presence and calm abiding when sharing their work with audiences from one to thousands. Diane believes that the very best way to become better known in business is through being visible and making a splash publicly, but many women are reticent to get out more because of inner feelings of “not worthy” or “not ready yet”. She dispels the fears women often have about their inner game by helping to organize systematically all of the aspects of marketing and sales from the inside out. Her new book, Step Up and SHINE shows a step by step easy path to delivering ones message in an easeful and powerful way.

Listen to Debbie Peterson’s “Get Out of Your Own Damn Way Story” on October 8, 2015

Join me as I interview Debbie Peterson on Thursday, October 8, as part of the Get Out of Your Own Damn Way Jam Sessions. Powerful people sharing powerful stories of how they tamed their fears, embraced their greatness, and got out of their own damn way.

Sign up to listen to the LIVE or RECORDED interview for FREE by entering your name and email in the box that appears below…or head on over to the registration page.

ABOUT THIS GUEST:  Debbie Peterson is a midlife mindset expert helping women to build Confidence and get clarity on their Identity and Purpose. She is a speaker, trainer and coach guiding them to write their next chapter in life the way they want it! Debbie is an introvert and former “behind the scenes” person until she learned to get out of her own way and play bigger! Now she’s out front and using her training as a certified practitioner of NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) and student of Huna (a form of Hawaiian spiritualism) to reinvent their future, one chapter at a time.

Listen to Elizabeth Tobin’s “Get Out of Your Own Damn Way Story” on October 1, 2015

Join me as I interview Elizabeth Tobin on Thursday, October 1, as part of the Get Out of Your Own Damn Way Jam Sessions. Powerful people sharing powerful stories of how they tamed their fears, embraced their greatness, and got out of their own damn way.

Sign up to listen to the LIVE or RECORDED interview for FREE by entering your name and email in the box that appears below…or head on over to the registration page.

ABOUT THIS GUEST: Liz Tobin can help you overcome your relationship challenges and experience more joy, connection and intimacy with your partner.  She has the uncanny ability to identify and transform the hidden patterns you bring to your couples relationship that trigger arguments, create distance, and kill that emotional connection that you long for in your relationship. By clearing these patterns you can keep your relationship growing so that it supports both you and your partner over the long-term.