Lean into the Unfolding
“I think maybe I just don’t want to be afraid anymore,” I said to a friend in a moment of deep clarity. “I’m not actually scared of the worst happening, so why not leap wholeheartedly? Why not risk it all and take a chance on what I really want? There’s nothing to lose if I’m not actually scared of losing anything.”
Fear.
It holds us back and keeps us small. It’s natural, biological, instinctual. It’s the reason we stay stuck and stop ourselves from truly showing up. It’s the reason we settle into ruts and routines, digging into those well worn grooves as if our life depends on it… because on a deeper subconscious level, we believe it does.
We hold onto ‘what is’ and ‘how things are’ with a white knuckle grip, because surrendering to the unknown induces a level of terror we simply can’t handle.
Yet, when we choose to face into our fears FULLY and COMPLETELY—acknowledging the worst as absolutely possible—it gives us an opportunity to take back our power, our lives, our selves. Japanese Samurai warriors call this “dying before going into battle.”
Coming face to face with the things we most fear and making peace with their possibility, it sets us free and opens us to other experiences and opportunities we could never consider otherwise.
It allows us to drop into wholehearted devotion around creating what we desire… because we’re no longer fearful of what we may lose in the process.
Endings are simply new beginnings, as painful as they are. Loneliness is simply an open container for new connections to be formed, as heartbreaking as it feels. Rock bottom is just a sturdy foundation from which to launch again, as devastating as it can be.
Lean into the unfolding. As Rumi says in one of my favorite quotes, “Do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know the side you are used to is better than the one to come?”
You don’t.
