Fear and Doubt: The Straightjackets of the Universe

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Jordanna Eyre, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

We’ve all been there. Riddled with fear, overcome with doubt. It’s as if we can’t make a single decision because we’re so stuck in our heads and/or our feelings that our sense of “knowing” just disappears. Though they’re different emotions, fear and doubt can often come hand in hand. Fear creates doubt, and doubt feeds into fear. Though they are brother and sister, the fear part is the more important of the two to overcome. When we tap into our fears, figure out what we’re really afraid of, and work through those fears, the doubts often either dissipate, or we gain clarity on the concerns we once had.

So let’s look at fear first. It’s an emotion that starts in somewhere in our bodies, and is fed into by negative thought. But if we’re not present to any negative thought patterns, we can still experience fear. Sometimes it seems to come out of nowhere – sometimes in the form of depression, procrastination, or confusion. We may think we know where we’re headed one day, and the next we simply can’t move forward. This often happens when we disconnect from our relationship with our higher selves. You see, we have the ability to live in human spirit, and the ability to live in “just human” form – meaning we disconnect from the “spirit” aspect of ourselves and just go about living in a more action oriented, do-it-because-we-think-we’re-supposed-to fashion. That just human form often leads us away from remembering that we have all the answers. And that’s where fear comes from – a forgetting that we have the answers, and we have the power to create anything we want. And though it’s often not that simple, that’s where it generally stems from.

The doubt then comes in when we get so wrapped up in the emotions that our thoughts head in the direction of what we’re feeling. That’s the part of us that’s up in our heads about things that we actually have the answers to. And because we’re human, we often forget that being in our heads often prevents us from getting clarity and truly having the answers (at least the answers that come from a knowing within us). And so, we spiral down into fear and doubt, doubt and fear. Because we’re human, and we forget. We have brains, and begin to use them more than was intended.

So what is one to do when fear and doubt take over and prevent us from doing anything and everything we once thought we wanted to do? To start off, get your needs met. If we try to jump out of fear and back into movement without enough sleep, healthy food, exercise, or whatever our needs are, we’ll stay in “just human” form. So take care of yourself before you worry about anything else. And once your self care is in balance, take some time to check back in with that part of yourself that simply “knows”. Stillness, meditation, nature, journaling – go within in whatever way works for you. Don’t expect to gain clarity (ie. break out of the darned straightjacket) in an instant, but know that by going within you will ultimately come back to the part of you that is stronger than the fear and doubt, and you’ll be able to move forward in human spirit once again.