How to Overcome Your Fear of the Future!
By Michaiel
Patrick Bovenes
One of the greatest mental emotional obstacle we encounter in life is the fear of the future.This subtle, yet powerful fear has always lurked in the hearts and minds of mankind. It is rooted in the fear of the unknown – fear of the future -- and continutally threatens the ego with chaos and self-doubt, resulting in restlessness, anxiety and even insomnia. Overcoming your fear of the future is a powerful way you can create positive change in your life.
Expose your fear and bring it to the surface so you can release it. Many people ignore their fear, pretend they don't have any. Some have repressed their emotions so well that they honestly don't feel their fear anymore. A truth that changed my life, was understanding that even if you don't "feel" your fear, it is still vibrating inside you and has negative impact on what you create and attract into your life. It all begins by becoming more conscious of your emotional nature.
Being Conscious. Becoming more conscious of the choices you have and the decisions you make is a vital component of 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 and it is time to wake up and go deeper into our feelings, even the constricting ones, such as fear. Fear can be a great teacher and motivator in your life, when you are conscious of your own relationship to it. Denying your fear only keeps you feeling powerless and never creates positive circumstances.
Don't wait to see what your future brings, begin to create it in the present moment. Most people resist thinking about and planning thier futures, this inertia stems from a feeling of powerlessness. Empowered individuals don’t wait to see what the future holds, they focus their minds on a vision of the future and begin to imagine it. They focus on “what could go right” versus worrying about what could go wrong. They build positive expectation for the future and it shows in their attitudes and actions about life.
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 negative experiences. It is vital to begin thinking, imagining and feeling the promise of a future that is exciting and positive. Your relationship to the future is were all creation and peace of mind begin. How you relate to your future, effects your current reality now.
The future exists only in your mind. The only way to connect with your future is through your imagination. Nothing exists in this physical world without the imagination. Your imagination is the birth canal of everything that exists. Think about it. The shirt you’re wearing, the computer you are looking at, first had to be in the imagination of someone before they could create it in this physical world. The same is true with your future -- it always begins in your mind, specifically your imagination. Refusing to consciously imagine your future is one way to feel powerless and to create added anxiety and stress in your life.
The future is possibility. Both positive and negative futures loom upon the horizon.
There are many future possibilities out there and it is up to you to dismantle any potential 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 on a negative future. Simply put, it is easier to imagine than 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'll realize that you don't have to be afraid of your fear.
People are also afraid of being disappointed. What if I visualize a positive future and it doesn't happen, I'll be disappointed! People erroneously believe that how they relate to their future doesn't have impact on them right now. It does, it provides hope and changes how you feel about yourself in the present moment. Anxiety is often caused by a poor relationship to your future.
Avoidance doesn't resolve your personal negativity, it only augments it. Our ego likes the “simple answer” and will run and hide from anything negative or unpleasant, erroneously believing it is "being positive." Avoidance is always born of fear. Love seeks to understand your fears, so you can transform them. It is this approach that truly resolves fear and can offer you greater self empowerment.
Overcoming Fear: Changing the Course of Your Future:
1. Write down your positive (light) future. What is your personal dream? What is the most positive future you can imagine? Expand the joyful possibilities in your heart and mind. How would greater love manifest in your life? Think about creating more joy, peace and success in your life. What kind of relationships will you have? Career? Financial security? Spiritual fulfillment? Open your mind and dream of the possibilities! Don't hold yourself back, dream
2. Write down your negative (dark) future, the most hideous and negative future you can imagine. Think about and face your fear. What are your greatest fears about the future? What negative events could possibly happen to you: Homelessness, cancer, rejection abandonment, humiliation? Confront and examine the fear-based future your negative ego is projecting. This first step is to bring your fear into consciousness so you can take your power back!
3. Unplug your 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 fearbased future. Look inside, and again imagine your fears manifesting and everything going wrong. Experience the fear and panic, feel the sorrow and pain. Get involved emotionally. When you can't stand it anymore, say out loud, "NO! I refuse to create this reality and I am taking my power back from this negative future!”
Next visualize that dark future growing weaker and falling apart. You have dismantled its foundation and it is crumbling. Choice is the foundation of change. When you consciously choose to reclaim your power from your own negative mental projections, you begin to reinforce the positive future you desire.
4. Empower your positive future. While still in meditation, envision popping the dark bubble that is your fear-based future. Take in several deep breaths and imagine you are retrieving the power and energy that was trapped inside your fear. Next, create another shimmering bubble filled with light and hope (the positive future). Step into this welcoming bubble and visualize the most beautiful, successful and loving future you can. 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.
5. Connect with your future self. Rest inside this bubble and begin to connect with your future self. Imagine how you would like to be in the future: confident, 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 "being.” I want to BE happy, free, alive and vibrant. Choose the state of being first; allow the form to manifest in alignment with your destiny.
Overcoming fear involves ending procrastination so you won't wait and see what your future is going to be, but choose to create it instead. Both potentials -- the positive and the negative -- are possible. Choose to create a personal dream. Your personal future helps sculpt and create the collective future of mankind. Choice is always within your reach. You can make a powerful choice and finally resolve your fears of the future once and for all.
Donatations Gratefully Accepted: If this article helped you and you would like to donate $5.00 or more, I would appreciate your kindness. Thanks. Feel free to forward this article to your friends.
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.
Recommended Meditations to help you Deal with Fear:
Click Here To Learn about Michaiel's "Soul-ution Healing Sessions" or to Schedule an Appointment
