It's Okay to Feel Afraid

Oftentimes, when we take a leap and step into the life that we feel we are meant to live, we feel afraid and unsure and unsettled.

We wonder if we have made the right choice. We look around us, and it seems that everyone else is confident and entirely sure of themselves and their choices. And this causes us to feel alone and isolated in our frightened state of mind. We worry that something must be wrong with us – why can’t we just take the leap, be okay with it, and get on with our lives?

But I have a secret to share: we’re all afraid. This newness that we are feeling right now is completely normal. These jitters are absolutely part of our stepping into who were truly are.

We are babies in this new world, so it makes perfect sense that we don’t know our way right from the start. We are learning and growing, but all the while we know that this is exactly where we need to be – exactly where we long to be. And we are so brave to have even gotten this far.

We should definitely applaud ourselves for that. So many others live their entire lives on the edge of life – looking out over the edge, wanting so desperately to leap into their dream life, but quickly step back into the known. They feel the jitters and the fear, and they cower to it. But we feel the jitters and the fear, and we leap anyway! We leap in spite of it. We are no longer willing to let this frightened part of ourselves lead the way. We are no longer willing to give our power away to the land of What ifs and What may happens and What could go wrongs. Oh no, we are done playing that game. We have now entered the land where we have stepped into our true power. We know the way, and we are soaring into what we knew we could be – what we knew we would be – what we knew we already were.

Sure we are afraid. So what? We were afraid before we took the leap, too, right? But there is a big difference between then and now: we are no longer looking out over the edge. We are no longer looking at our dream life from a distance. We are IN IT. We are LIVING IT. We are there!

So it’s perfectly okay to feel afraid. Let’s embrace our fears! Let’s sit with them and listen to them for awhile. They will probably tell you that they are simply unsure about this new life. They will want to protect you from getting hurt or feeling uncomfortable or not knowing what to do – how to be – how to live in this newness. And that’s okay. Your soul has led you to this point, and your soul definitely knows the way through this uncertainty. Let your fear know this – hold its hand – and sit there for awhile. And then, move forward together into your beautiful life that is right there waiting for you.

We are all on this journey together. And there are moments within each of our lives where we took that leap of faith and were completely enveloped with fear. However, we all landed on our feet, didn’t we? We are all here right now. And we are all okay. So when I start to feel extra fearful, I remember that, which is very comforting. We are never given more than we can handle. And we have all been afraid when we experienced something new and soared toward our dreams. And being afraid is a huge part of this process. It’s part of being human and truthful and vulnerable. And aren’t those beautiful things to be?