Saying YES!

COURAGE IS KNOWING

WHAT NOT TO FEAR.

Recently I said YES.

And trust me, every bone in my body was whispering NO.

I brushed up against my fear - it was attached to feeling like maybe I wouldn’t be ‘enough’, maybe I would ‘fail’ and maybe I would have a classroom of eyes on me watching while it happened (teacher problems).

But I said YES anyway, here is why…

I thought about my children. My older daughter brushes up against fear often; convincing her to face reasonable fears is not always easy. My younger daughter, in contrast, races towards fear! She runs directly towards the roar!

There is an old African teaching about this precisely. It tells the story of a hunt. A pride of lions surround a herd that is gathering. At one edge of the field the skilled hunters hide and at the other edge of the field the oldest and weakest member roars loudly.

The herd responds as expected, they turn from the roar and run directly into the direction of the strongest Lions. You see, with the old Lion, the strength of the roar is far greater than its ability to bite.

It is often the same with Fear - the strength of the thought is far greater than the bite. In this case, with my YES, there is no real risk involved. The roar is essentially part of a hoax! And my system, yours too, is wired to protect… but…

Sometimes the counterintuitive move is the best.
In this case, confronting the fear is actually saying YES to life!

Saying YES to life means saying YES to the things that make you feel alive. Saying yes to the things you want to do, even when you are terrified, is saying yes to who you really are. And after two years of feeling like I was hearing a lot of NO (eh-hem Corona life…) I am ready to break back into a vibrant life.

Why shouldn’t I say YES to what I want and to who I am?!

Why shouldn’t you too?!

Part of my YES is also about modeling to my children that trying new things (and succeeding or not) is life. When I come up against one of my fears I can teach my children how to become ‘thought detectives’ and challenge the thought. Is it real? What is really scary about it? Are there small steps I can take (or we can take together)?

Small steps or giant leaps, keep moving towards the roar!