I have a desk in a studio in Brighton where I do my computer based work -marketing and admin and the like. I was walking over here this morning and I could hear one or two gremlins knocking around making me fearful about one or two things.
In the past I might have sat with those thoughts for hours, days even. Like I’ve mentioned before this kind of self attack actually has a physiological impact on the body, releasing cortisol and adrenaline and all sorts of highly useless hormones in the body.
Today however I was able to catch the gremlin by it’s tail and have a word with it. My gremlin was making me feel insecure and worried about money. This gremlin has been around for years and comes up regardless of whether I’ve got cash in the bank or not – it just finds a way to rear it’s ugly head.
So anyway this morning, on my way up the hill I played the fear forwards. I said ‘ok gremlin, so let’s say I go bankrupt, I have zero cash, then what happens?’ And you know what my gremlin was a little stumped, because from somewhere else in my brain I had a vision of me on my bike, with a tent and a couple of panniers cycling and camping around Europe, doing odd jobs to keep me fed and that image made me feel magnificent. That image honours my values of freedom, nature, simplicity, connection with new people, adventure and authenticity.
And you know what I felt, for the first time, my gremlin submit and agree that I had a point. And the fear disappeared.
I guess what I’m trying to say this week is that internal fear about things is so often based on zero evidence. Fear is ‘false emotions appearing real’ and is so often a made up story, and playing it forward can actually bring you back to the truth.
Give it a go.
*Image by Alexey Lin www.unsplash.com