How to Overcome Your Fear of the Future!
By Michaiel
Patrick Bovenes
Fear of the future is a mental emotional obstacle.
This subtle, yet powerful fear has always lurked in the heart of humankind. It is rooted in the fear of the unknown – fear of the future – and continutally threatens the ego with never ending crisis, chaos and self-doubt, resulting in restlessness, anxiety and insomnia. Overcoming your fear of the future is a powerful way to create positive changes in your life, today!
Expose your fear and bring it to the surface. Many people ignore their fear. They pretend they don't have any fear. Some people have even repressed their emotions so well that they honestly don't feel their fear anymore. When fear is left unattended they eventually create a crisis to deal with and this brings their repressed fears to the surface.
A truth that changed my life, was to understand that even if I don't "feel" my fear, it is still vibrating inside me and has negative impact on what I create and attract in my life. Everyone has fear to some degree and the first step to release it is to expose yourself to it and tell yourself the truth. All genuine healing begins by being more conscious of your emotional nature.
Being Conscious. Becoming more conscious of the choices you have and the decisions you're making is a vital step toward self empowerment. Just because you are not consciously aware of your fear doesn't mean you don't have any. We've learned to numb ourselves emotionally to our fears and it is time to wake up and go deeper into our feeling nature. Fear can be a positive influence in your life. It can be a personal teacher, protector and motivator in your life, when you are conscious of your relationship to fear it can bring positive results. When you ignore and distract yourself from fear the consequences of this action ends up in crisis, chaos and self doubt. Denying your fear only keeps you feeling powerless and never creates positive circumstances in your life.
Don't wait to see what your future brings, create it in the present moment. Most people resist thinking about and planning their futures. This inertia stems from a feeling of powerlessness. Empowered individuals don’t wait to see what the future holds, they focus their mind on a vision of the future and imagine it. They focus on “what could go right” versus worrying about "what could go wrong". They don't ignore "what could go wrong" they process through those feelings and take their power back from the negative potential. In many ways, they extract the energy from the negative to build a more positive expectation for the future they desire and it shows in their attitudes and actions.
What vision of the future do you hold in your mind? Without a vision, anxiety can build and feed your fears, keeping those fears alive and attracting more negative experiences in your life. It is vital to begin thinking, imagining and feeling the promise of a future that is positive. Your relationship to your future is were peace of mind begins. How you relate to your future, effects your current reality now. Fear comes out of the unknown, and for most their future is unknown.
The future exists only in your mind. The only way to connect with your future is through your imagination. Nothing exists within the physical world without first existing in the imagination. Your imagination is the birth canal of everything that exists. Think about it. The clothes you’re wearing, the computer in front of you, everything had to exist in the imagination of someone before it could exist in the physical world. The same is true with your future – it always begins in your mind, specifically your imagination. Refusing to imagine or dream your future creates unnecessary feelings of powerlessness, anxiety and stress.
Both positive and negative futures loom upon the horizon of the future.
There are many future possibilities out there both positive and negative and it is up to you to dismantle any negative futures and begin to feed and energize the positive ones. You do this by consciously visualizing and dreaming what you desire.
Due to childhood conditioning, most people focus the negative.
Simply put, it's easier to imagine a negative future versus a positive future.
For example, If I were to ask you, "What could go wrong on Monday morning?" You could probably list out many potential negative circumstances in a few minutes, yet if I were to ask you "What could go right on Monday morning" you would have fewer responses and perhaps take longer to think of them.
It is
more difficult for people to imagine positive events happening due to early conditioning. This is a result of negative programming since childhood and the negative sensationalism of the news. Simply put fear has captured our attention and imagination, making it more challenging to visualize a positive future. It takes awareness and effort, but once you change your relationship to fear, the positive future will be easier to imagine. You will have shifted and lifted your focus from negative to positive and your life will begin to soar. You'll then realize that you don't have to be afraid of your fear, anymore!
People are afraid to get their 'hopes up'. Nobody likes to feel disappointed. "What if I visualize a positive future and it doesn't happen, I'll be disappointed!" That is a risk you have to take, there isn't a guarantee, however by feeding your attention to 'what you do want' and energizing that in your mind can tip the scales in a positive direction. To not do that because you might be disappointed, only keeps you stuck in the negative potential.
Many people erroneously believe that how they relate to their future doesn't have impact on them right now. It does, it provides hope, direction and changes how you feel about yourself in the present moment. Anxiety is often caused by a undefined relationship to your future.
Avoidance doesn't resolve your personal negativity.
Our ego likes to avoid negativity and seeks the “simple answer” and will run and hide from anything negative or unpleasant, erroneously thnking it is "being positive." Avoidance is always born of fear. Love seeks to understand your fears, so you can transform them. This approach can quickly resolve personal fear and offer you greater self empowerment.
Overcoming Fear: Changing the Course of Your Future:
1. Write down your positive (hopeful-light) future.
What is your personal dream? What is the most positive future you can imagine for yourself? Expand the joyful possibilities in your heart and mind, feel it in your Soul. How would greater love express itself in your life? Think about having more joy, peace and success in your life. What kind of relationships will you have? Career? Financial security? Spiritual fulfillment? Open your mind to dream of the possibilities! Don't hold yourself back, dream big! Then when you are ready move to step 2.
2. Write down your negative (dark) future.
Think about and face your greatest fears. What are your personal fears about the future? What negative events could possibly happen to you: Illness, pain, homelessness, cancer, rejection abandonment, humiliation? Confront and examine the fear-based futures your ego is projecting. This important step is to bring your fear into your consciousness so you can take your power back! Write it all down onto paper.
3. Unplug the negative future and activate the positive one.
This third step is a meditative technique. Close your eyes and imagine a bubble hovering in front of you. It resembles a large crystal ball and inside is all the energy of the negative fear-based future is inside of it. Imagine your worst fears manifesting and everything going wrong in your life. Let yourself feel and experience the fear and panic, the sorrow and pain. Get involved emotionally. What you can feel you can heal! When you can't stand it anymore, say out loud, "NO! I refuse to create this future... I am NOW taking my power back from this fear!”
4. Visualize that fear-filled future growing weaker and falling apart.
Your subconscious mind will understand and help you as you imagine this scene. Conscious choice is the foundation of all genuine change. When you consciously choose to reclaim your power from your own negative mental projections, you begin to reinforce the positive future you desire.
5. Empower your positive future. While still in meditation, envision popping the dark bubble that is your fear-based future. Destroy the bubble, release the energy trapped inside, held captive by your old fears. Take in several deep breaths and imagine you are retrieving the power and energy that was trapped inside your fear. You will have taken back your power and feel the energy expand inside of you.
6. Next, create another shimmering bubble of light and hope (the positive future). Step into this welcoming bubble and visualize the most beautiful, successful, and loving future you can. Remember what you wrote about the positive future you desire to create for yourself. Imagine you have resolved all of your problems and are joyously living out your destiny. You don't need to imagine the details as much as you need to feel the energy of this positive future. Feel the joy, gratitude, and love held within this future. Energize yourself with this positive light. Spend as much time inside of this bubble, let it heal your mind.
7. Connect with your future self. Inside this bubble, begin to visualize and connect with your future self. Imagine how you would like to be in the future: confident, secure, trusting, abundant, happy, successful, and at peace. You don't need to know what you will be "doing" as much as deciding how you are going to be... your "being.” I want to BE happy, free, alive, secure, healthy, and vibrant. Choose your state of being first then allow the formation (the doing) to manifest in alignment with your destiny. Then when you are ready you can exit the meditation.
Overcoming fear involves ending procrastination so you won't wait to see what your future is going to bring, but decide to create it instead. Both potentials – the positive and the negative futures– are possible. Consciously choose to create your personal dream. Your personal future influences the collective future of humankind. Choice is always within your reach. You can make a powerful choice and finally resolve your fears of the future. As you take back the power trapped inside of your fear, you can know that you are more powerful than your fears and begin living a more enriched and empowered life.
Article Author: Michaiel Patrick Bovenes
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Bio-Michaiel Patrick Bovenes is a creative writer, author and professional speaker and teacher. He has a popular series of guided visualization meditations, he calls, "Soul-utions". He offers classes and words of wisdom in many articles published in various magazines worldwide. He currently resides in San Francisco, CA.
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