What fears have you overcome and how?
The dentist: by facing my fear head on and getting the work done. Even though the dentist I trusted let me down, I feel as though the part of me that had a quite literal existential fear has healed.
Not being liked: the more ‘myself’ I become the less I fear rejection. It’s almost as though it matters less to be rejected if I’m being my authentic self. If people don’t like me, it’s none of my business.
The gentle irony is that the more ‘me’ I become it seems the more I am liked and appreciated. Years of meditation and personal work has softened my edges so I’m far nicer now. Fear does awful things to people and often the fear of rejection sees us pushing others away and behaving in ways that we’re not proud of.
Failure: like the point above, the closer I get to making the work of my heart, the less it matters if it finds an audience. I have also reconsidered my idea of ‘success’ to more accurately reflect what I want from my creative work.
The thing I still fear is missing out on life. Basically I’m not scared of death but I am afraid of missing out on all the things I won’t get around to doing.
I have so many things I want to do and places to go that I’ll need to live forever.
