Christine Hart and Mastin Kipp of The Daily Love
A few weeks ago I attended a workshop with one of my faves, Mastin Kipp of the Daily Love. He’s recently published a book called Growing into Grace and I’m looking forward to diving in this weekend.
When striving to follow your truth, inevitably fear comes up over and over. Am I doing the right thing? What if this doesn’t work? What if I make a fool of myself? Is this too risky? Mastin gave us a brilliant acronym associated with the word FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real.
We know that fear is our brain’s way of keeping us safe so of course, it makes sense that our brains have become masters of even creating evidence to back up their claims. It’s almost like our brain is a well-resourced lawyer ready for a strong debate at any given moment. ☺
So since we know that this is typical behavior of our brain, how can we adjust it? Mastin suggests that:
How you relate to fear shapes the quality of your life
He went on to explain that our relationship to each fear determines the type of fear it is.
Huh?
More specifically:
Excitement is fear with POSITIVE energy Anxiety is fear with NEGATIVE energy
This means that once we acknowledge what our fear is, we can choose if we are going to create excitement OR anxiety around it. I think this is pretty awesome and allows us to get back in the driver’s seat of our brains, rather than being a hopeful passenger.
For example: let’s say you are in a relationship right now with someone that you care deeply about but you’re almost positive they are not the one you are going to spend the rest of your life with. You may default to anxiety, negative based fear and not break up with the person because you fear being alone. The other choice would be to place excitement and positive energy around the fear and see it as the right decision to free yourself up for a more suited relationship. In both cases, you are fully acknowledging the fear but you are choosing what energy you are going to give it.
COACHING EXERCISE FOR YOU
Name two fears you have. They could be about work, relationships, fitness, life purpose, whatever you like. Be real with yourself and identify if positive or negative energy surrounds it. Now look to see if you can switch them to positive energy. Notice how this opens things up. You might be inspired to set some new goals once you see that FEAR as False Evidence Appearing Real.
Let me know what you discover by sharing in the comments below!
To your authenticity,
Love, Christine
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