DSF7 Today’s topics: “Faith” “Fear” “Courage” 1-15-2010

Today’s topics: “Faith” “Fear” “Courage”  1-15-2010

good morning & thank you I am grateful to be here

fear & courage go hand in hand with me

because courage is not a lack of fear

it is moving with it, doing it anyway

in spite of that fear

so even when I’m terrified, it is ok

I acknowledge that and can move forward

I think for me and my acoa issues

not doing things – perfectly held me back from trying many things

since I have been in program, I’ve given myself permission to try

and make mistakes

that is how we learn and grow

we stumble as we learn to walk, we fall as we run

I no longer hold the concept of – being perfect

it is a facade, a lie, an illusion and it is not reality, unless you are in school

and working for grades – you can strive to achieve perfection in grades

we have an acronym here for fear

FEAR future events aren’t real

this helped and does– help me tremendously because

I was projecting and that was where the fear/anxiety

was coming from

I was creating fear by looking into the future and not in the present moment, reality

learning to get into right now/today, helped most of that fear go away

and today if I do get fearful – I can recognize I’m projecting away from now

and get back into this moment and what can I do

right now that will allow me to feel better

I began realizing that I had choices

many more that I once perceived

and that my actions/choices were allowing me to feel one way or another

once I decided to base my decisions on how it would make me feel in the end

making the hard decisions got easier

because I wanted to feel – peace

I used to not have any hope for myself

and my faith, was tied up into some expectations

they were mostly negative ones

now that I have a much better relationship with hp/god

and I defer to god a lot these days

surrendering whatever I need to, thoughts – feelings, other people

because god is the only one that can help us all

I am gaining faith in myself

because I have had some good (positive, healthy)  growth in the past

I know if I set my mind to something – I can try to work towards that goal

for me this is huge because I am not really a goal oriented person

so planning things out, is sorta like new behavior

also, remind yourself, when you are scared

it is often because it is something new we are attempting

new things are always a little bit scary, that is natural and “normal”

for me, just acknowledging – this is new behavior (therefore scary)

took some of the sting out of it and made it more manageable/less daunting

and it was easier to move and end up seeing the byproduct of that action- the courage I used

you don’t have to have courage before  you try

just try anyway, in spite of it

no one overcomes their fear until they are acting – sitting on the side lines won’t change a thing

done