No, no, that’s not fear, that’s excitement!
I recently listened to Greg Mooers, a motivational and spiritual speaker who spent eight years living as a monk. He was searching for his soul and what life was about and decided to go to into the monastery to pray and find his answers. He studied heroes such as Mother Teresa. He found that each hero that he studied had a heart virtue – this is what gives him/her passion and makes life worth living. For Mother Teresa, her heart virtue was compassion. Our heart virtue is also what we are so passionate about it that we would die for it. And though we are born with our heart virtue, he contends that as we grow up, we are encouraged and taught by our “tribal people” to take the safe route versus the courageous route. The safe route keeps us in our comfort zone where we don’t take risks or step out when in fear. Mooers has an assessment tool you can take to find your heart virtue on his web site. (Mooers)
Greg’s mission is that we each need to be our own hero and step out in courage. Living from the inside out, he encourages us to live life BOLDLY and asks that each day we step out in courage by doing one act that requires courage, putting aside our fear of looking like a fool. The part I love the most is how he helps us differentiate between fear and courage. He reframes our fear into excitement when he states, “No, no, that’s not fear, that’s excitement!” He encourages us to say this out loud when facing fear. I love this because when you think about embarking in a new activity, or something new happening in our lives, we often have a sense of anxiousness and may identify the feeling as fear. But that is also the same feeling that can move right into excitement. Reframing this in our mind, stepping out in courage allows us to shift from fear to excitement. Now that is fun! Mooers challenges us to train ourselves to be our own hero daily doing heroic acts of stepping out of our comfort zone with courage and excitement. One small act of courage a day – in alignment with the world you want to create. “No, no, that’s not fear, that’s excitement!” Go out and create the world you want to live in!
Works Cited
Mooers, G. (n.d.). http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=2MXgIQ6sMEE&feature=endscreen. Retrieved August 18, 2012, from www.heartvirtue.com.
Tags: fear or excitement, No that is not fear that is excitementABOUT THE AUTHOR
Janie Pfeifer Watson
Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker
Licensed Independent Mental Health Practitioner- Janie Pfeifer Watson, LICSW, is the founder and director of Wholeness Healing Center, a mental health practice in Grand Island, Nebraska with remote sites in Broken Bow and Kearney. Her expertise encompasses a broad range of areas, including depression, anxiety, attachment and bonding, coaching, couples work, mindfulness, trauma, and grief. She views therapy as an opportunity to learn more about yourself as you step more into being your authentic self. From her perspective this is part of the spiritual journey; on this journey, she serves as a mirror for her clients as they get to know themselves—and, ultimately, to love themselves.
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