Fear is normal. Don't let it stop you!

By Erik Vienneau

Have you ever had the experience of fear trying to stop you right when you were ready to allign with your deepest vision and succeed? That's exactly what happened to me recently - which I gratefully overcame - and I want to share how to overcome this common challenge with YOU.


I LOVE offering AWAKE meditation retreats! It's part of my passion in life to be of service. It aligns with my life's vision to reduce confusion and uncover our shared birth-right of Loving Kindness, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity (aka the Four Immeasurables). In every day terms - this passion revs me up and makes me feel alive! 

But then the fear hit. My belly and chest got tight. My breathing quickened. My thoughts took a turn to negative town. I was hooked by fear - the great destroyer of dreams! The feelings of fear felt so bad that they made me want to hit the brakes and cancel an upcoming retreat just because we don't have many folks signed up yet (which makes sense as we haven't gotten the word out much yet!). What if no one comes? That would affirm my fear and prove to my lower vibrating mind that the ego was right. The deeply entrenched thought - that many of us share -  "I'm not worthy of living the life of my dreams" - took over.  

Thank God for the three jewels (Buddha and all the sages!), Dharma (the teachings) and Sangha (friends on the path) for getting me back on track to my highest potential. I quickly applied some regulating techniques that I'm learning about at the Neurosculpting institute to get out of fight/flight mode and back to center. I breathed deep into my belly, did a mindful body scan and started to calm down. I said to myself gently,  "thinking, thinking" and let the self-limiting thoughts go on their way. After a talk with Derik Easilus, who co-leads our next day-long mindfulness retreat on Sunday Oct 13 at Newport Street Retreat about how JOY trumps FEAR every time I was back on track! 

After the fear was gone and the JOY flooded back into my system I remembered to follow my bliss and am now proud to report our next retreat is up and ready for registration here. We even have chef Heidi Dietz on board to provide a super-clean veg lunch for you! Watch the latest installment of AWAKE5 video on our YouTube channel (quick powerful videos with amazing folks to help you live the mindful life) to see just how inspiring Derik can be! Hope to SEE YOU on retreat! 

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