Happy Halloween!! Welcome to the House of Hell-thy, muahahahaha. Hope you all are having a delightfully frightful Halloween. Our house is decorated, 
the hubby HAD to get this one at a yard sale. It homemade -which is awesome!- but it definitely is one of the saddest pumpkins around
the treats are ready to be handed out, 
and the doggies are avoiding their costumes. 
Hopefully, their costumes don’t leave them too traumatized.
On Halloween, what is it that is spooking you? What fears do you face today? Fear can be one of the things that cripples us the most often and the most easily. For me, when I am deeply afraid of something, I freeze, retreat, or avoid. Sometimes this is a good thing (such as with the hazardous trail in Hawaii), but sometimes it keeps me from experiencing something amazing. I used to be afraid of speaking in front of people and expressing my thoughts and ideas to others. It kept me from really branching out and having my own opinions on much of anything. It also stopped me from a lot of personal growth. If I hadn’t moved passed some of my fears, then I would never be where or who I am today.
The stem of most of my fears is the fear of failure, leading to feeling that I may not be “good” enough.
In school, I hated speaking in from of classmates because I was afraid I would fail at it. I was always the one who would go last, try to avoid it at any cost, and eventually speak with a quivering (verge of panic attack) voice.
I was nervous about starting a blog – not because I didn’t want my ideas to be heard, but because I was afraid I would fail at learning to navigate a website.
I had a meltdown when I went skiing and almost refused a FREE ski lesson, because I didn’t want to try again and fail.
Everytime, I was people would see me as a failure. Hello stupid ego. But I am now getting better at dealing with it, so that each time I can at least recognize my fear, even if I still become frozen at times.
So here is my advice to anyone who experiences this: recognize it, accept it, and move on. Take a few deep breaths, remind yourself that it’s ok to fail – you can always retry, and remember that most things worth doing take baby steps to learn the path to it. If fear starts to take a hold, try deep breathing, meditation, or yoga.
Take the pledge today to accept and face one of your fears – whether big or small. Look it in the eye, and don’t be a Halloweenie (hehe), cast your demons away. Now go out and face those fears – one baby step at a time.
Peace, love, and fearlessness,
Jessi
