What fears have you overcome and how?
I have spent a lifetime trying to avoid being embarrassed. Maybe not a lifetime really. Just since I was six which was some time ago. I was at a neighbor’s house for dinner when something I said left me being the source of everyone else’s laughter; only what I said was not funny to me. I made it my practice to not say anything I wasn’t sure of or that I hadn’t rehearsed. I insisted on becoming an “expert” on everything (expert was definitely a “relative” term). It became an unconscious, self-protective pattern.
Fast forward to the last 10 years and a meditation and mindfulness practice. The practice taught me to value the present moment for which I could not prepare, to catch myself when I was “rehearsing” for later conversations, to be less reactive in the moment, and to let go of what happened when I was six. I hold that six-year old inner child in love and reassurance whenever I catch myself feeling embarrassed or rehearsing or “reading-to-become-an-expert.” And I intentionally smile at the pattern and thank it for serving and protecting me all those years faithfully.
I still get embarrassed. Just the adult me lets it go a bit more easily than the six-year in my head. I’ll keep practicing…
Infinitely Precious 