YOLO: How to Overcome Fear to Live a Life Without Limits
Date 10/16/2024
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Anxiety Personal Growth
Life Without Limits. YOLO – You Only Live Once. Follow your heart. Listen to your inner guidance. Let the Universe guide you.
Doesn't that sound GOOD?
If only it were that easy.
Fear is one of the biggest obstacles to living the life we dream of. Scratch below the surface of negative thoughts and limiting beliefs, and fear is often what holds us back. Fear can cause us to doubt our intuition and keep us operating small. It can keep us stuck in unhealthy patterns and stifle growth and cause us to fear change. Fortunately, there are ways to tap into life’s limitless and expansive energies, by conquering our fears.
Good Fear and Bad Fear
Despite the popularity of the slogan “No Fear,” a healthy amount of fear can be a good defense mechanism that keeps us safe. Healthy fear can show up like that intuitive feeling of just knowing you shouldn't do something, or how you know not to put your hand in fire.
Unhealthy fear is different. Watch out for fear that is stopping, preventing, or delaying positive or healthy change. Here are some examples of unhealthy fear:
- Fear of speaking out because you’re worried about being judged or hurting someone’s feelings.
- Fear of changing careers and doing what you love because you don’t want to risk the stability of what you know.
- Fear of leaving an unhealthy relationship because you’re not confident you can make it on your own.
- Fear of expressing your talents because you worry you’re not good enough.
What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid?
The spirit of the acronym YOLO is to make the most of the present moment instead of worrying about the future. Imagine that your only task was to live life fully, focusing on the present moment, without having to worry about the worst that could happen. How freeing! Would you
- Ask that person out and get it over with so you can move on?
- Talk about what is bothering you to your mate, friends, family, and coworkers so you can develop truthful loving, lasting healthy bonds?
- Express yourself?
- Go for your dreams?
- Clear the air with an ex?
- Make that call you're procrastinating?
If you don't take leaps of faith, the unknown will remain forever unknown. Often we can get so wrapped up in fear we don't even notice that it’s preventing change.
If fear is robbing you of joy; face it down so you can move on to better things.
How to Know If It's Fear Or Intuition Talking
When a little voice whispers caution in your ear, how do you know whether to listen? It could come from a place of fear and avoidance, or it might suggest that your intuition wants to warn you not to go ahead with a decision or change. If something tells you to back off your current path, knowing how to discern between fear and intuition on a psychic level becomes essential.
Fear Demands Your Attention
When your inner voice refuses to silence itself despite your doubts, you're probably dealing with fear and not intuition. Fear demands your attention because it's fighting for your survival; it tries to convince you that, if you stay on your current path, you won't survive the coming destruction.
Intuition, however, places a gentle hand on your back and guides you in the right direction. It suggests an alternative path instead of simply demanding that you halt because it operates from a place of love and knowledge instead of blind panic.
Intuition Gives You a Reason
When you feel the pull of intuition, you'll usually understand the logical reason behind your hesitation. Ask yourself, "Would my higher self be proud of me for taking this action or not?"
With fear, you will feel uncomfortable and anxious about every aspect of the decision. Intuition produces mixed feelings. You might feel apprehensive about your path but confident in the possibility of a positive result.
Fear Focuses on the Past and Future
Your brain tries to convince you to follow fear's guidance by reminding you of experiences in the past or piquing your reservations about events that might unfold in the future. Intuition, by contrast, keeps you centered in the present.
Listen to your self-talk. Are you constantly reliving a painful experience or worrying about what might happen as a result of your decision? That's fear. If, however, you feel a nagging doubt about the present moment, you're probably encountering your intuition.
Intuition Doesn't Criticize
When your intuition guides you, it makes reaffirming and positive suggestions to your psyche. It doesn't tell you that you're stupid or reckless or incompetent in your decisions. When you start criticizing yourself, you're operating from a place of fear.
You'll notice, with intuition, that you're calm and logical. You feel centered and whole because you're in tune with your higher self. If you're listening to fear, on the other hand, you'll feel emotionally raw and on edge. You might feel pressured to make a decision now, whereas intuition gives you the time needed to process the facts.
Finding Your Intuition and Conquering Fear
If you're struggling with fear or if you don't know when to listen to your intuition, talking about your conflicting emotions and hearing insight from an objective third party can provide validation and helpful perspective.
Indeed, articulating your fear helps you hear your intuition more clearly. You'll develop an instinctive sense of when you should listen to that voice in your head and when you should ignore it.
How to Stop Fear From Stopping You
As you work toward overcoming fear, make sure that you understand why you’re scared of the things that terrify you. Try these 5 ways of working toward getting rid of the fear that holds you back.
Identify Your Fears
Some fears are obvious. If you have a fear of snakes or spiders, that’s usually apparent when you encounter them. However, if you have a fear of commitment, that’s a little more difficult to pinpoint. Take some time to figure out what you’re scared of. Maybe you're worried about getting laid off at work or have a fear of failure. Take a moment to own your anxiety.
When you take the time to figure out your fears, you’ve already started working toward mitigating their impact. Write down everything you come up with that you’re scared of, so you can work on these issues.
Understand Your Emotions
One of the most important things you need to remember as you’re trying to conquer fear is that it’s an emotion just like any others you experience. Just because it is a negative emotion doesn’t mean you need to try to eliminate it completely.
Suppressing your fear will lead to negative consequences, such as chronic anxiety and panic attacks. When you suppress emotion, you don't give it an outlet. Acknowledging and owning your fears, however, can help you to heal. You can examine the fear, better understand it, and figure out ways to avoid potential triggers or lessen their impact on your behavior and outlook.
In fact, when you accept that there will sometimes be fear in your life, you’re able to live a better, more fulfilling life. Battling your fears doesn’t mean that you get rid of the emotion forever. It just means you put it into perspective.
Start Small
You’ve analyzed your fears and you know how you react when you’re faced with something scary. When you start confronting your fears, it’s good to start small. Make a few changes that will help you get over them. If you have claustrophobia, or a fear of confined spaces, you may not want to start with getting on a crowded elevator. Instead, test yourself with less stressful confined spaces that you normally would avoid, such as a store dressing room or a revolving door. If you suffer from acrophobia, or fear of heights, instead of simply looking out of the window of a high building, consider going to a roof-top deck. Make sure that when you are working through your fears, you do so in a way that is still safe. Never abandon common sense or your basic instincts of right and wrong. There’s no need to have panic attacks because you pushed yourself too hard.
The same goes for things like fear of rejection. If fear is holding you back from dating and meeting new people, start with something small like creating a profile with a pseudonym on a dating app without responding to messages until you feel comfortable testing the waters. If you have a fear of commitment, it may be helpful to speak with a coach, therapist or psychic advisor, to identify the root causes, and help you take steps to overcome your fears.
The more you push through your fears, the more likely you are to eliminate them from your life altogether.
Create a Plan
Many people successfully battle their fears by coming to grips with the worst possible scenario. For instance, maybe you're scared of riding in elevators because you're claustrophobic and you're afraid you'll get stuck. If that happens, what's the worst result? You might wind up stuck in the elevator for a while, but someone will eventually come and get you out. If you’re afraid of getting active on dating apps, what is the worst that can happen? You might chat with someone online or meet up for coffee and discover that one of you isn’t interested. This is a great way to turn irrational fears into rational thoughts.
After you've accepted the worst possible scenario, create a plan for it. What if that first date is a bust? If you haven’t exchanged personally identifying information or gone off the platform, you’ve risked nothing but coffee with a stranger. What if you get stuck in an elevator? You probably carry a cell phone, so you can call 911 or the building operator to let them know about the problem. Decide that you'll try meditation, deep-breathing techniques, and other calming practices to get you through the situation. If you know how you'll respond to the thing that scares you, it becomes less powerful.
Communicate Your Anxiety
Telling other people about your anxiety can also help you cope. Choose someone you trust implicitly, such as a parent, best friend, or spouse. Or, if you’re not sure if you can trust them with your deepest secrets, consider asking an objective third party, such as empathic psychic, who in your circle is safe to confide in. Explain how you feel and what has triggered your anxiety. When you're living in constant fear, you can appear distant or even cold to those around you. Expressing your feelings will help loved ones understand what you're going through.
Living a Life Without Limits
You have a life - just this one, and it is calling you to stop waiting for the right circumstances to begin truly living it. It’s waiting for you to overcome your fear and live well and fully. You can have a more expansive experience of life. You can begin living the life you were born to live. You can experience a greater degree of peace and aliveness right now.
Which way to go, how to even get started, and which direction to turn next are all questions you'll come up against. It's totally normal. Why? Because you've never been here before. And that's a good thing. You are moving toward your brilliance, toward a life without limits, and toward living more boldly, confidently, and in a more purpose-filled way than you ever have before.
Your life is waiting for you - not a new set of circumstances. You are the creator of your life.
Here are some tips to guide you on your path to create your own reality - a life without limits! You’ll start by getting your mojo back, letting go and letting the Universe guide you, and releasing the idea that everything must be perfect in order to be successful.
How to Get Your Mojo back
The dictionary defines mojo as: Good luck, charm or skill that seems to come from something magical or supernatural. Psychic Source Advisor Jackie defines it this way: The unexpected joy and amazing possibilities and potentials of the soul.
If you feel like you’re just going through the motions and not fully living you may feel that your mojo is missing. When we live small, letting limiting beliefs like fear constrain our potential, we feel stifled, bored, or demotivated. As you work through your fears, you begin to feel a renewed sense of optimism and empowerment. It's time to refocus and reawaken the joy that you used to feel. Here’s a simple plan to get your mojo back.
Find the Hooks
There’s a reason that you’ve come this far in the first place. There’s probably something you like about the life you’ve built. There are people who love you and things that interest you. But has the passion you once had slipped away? Are you living in a habitual safety zone, afraid to break free of your limits?
The things and people you’re passionate about are your hooks. Appreciate the details of those hooks even if it means writing them down and thinking about what they mean to you. You may find yourself with people's names, hobbies, old dreams, places that you have always wanted to visit, interests you once had or things you love to do like reading, fishing, or exercising. This can be as specific as a religion you once practiced or as general as a time of the year (autumn).
These are your hooks because they once anchored or “hooked” you into life.
Plan a Path
Start by developing a program that allows you to have as many of your passions as possible. Even if you never really got to experience them the first time around, plan a way to enjoy them in the future.
Your plan should be as specific as possible—go back to church, go to the bookstore and get new books, start fishing on the weekends, or call an old friend.
Some hooks may take detailed planning. For instance, if you have always wanted to be an electrician or go on a cruise you may have to plan the steps involved (save $100/month to go on a cruise or find a school that offers courses for students who want to be electricians).
You’ve just reset your priorities in life.
Take Action
Reactivate your hobby and re-energize your relationships. Work on your list of priorities.
Envision your life filled with the things that interest you, accomplishing the goals that you need to reach. Spend more time with the people you enjoy. Even if you just take one small step a day towards the life you want, take action!
Open up the doorway to the optimism you used to know. The more you act, the more you want to act. In no time, you’ll have your Mojo back.
How to Let Go and Let the Universe Guide You
Sometimes you don’t know what you’re passionate about. Things that once interested and excited you no longer seem relevant. Or you have so many choices you’re not sure how to prioritize.
We hear people say to “let the Universe guide you” but how exactly does one do that? There are always signs around you, pointing you into the right direction. The question is, “How do you see them?”
The answer lies within.
Take time out of your busy day and go inward—reflect on your situation and see what symbols show up during this meditation. Ask out loud, “What do I need to see that I’m not seeing?” Close your eyes and let your mind unravel. Soon symbols, words and sounds will fill your head. If you have trouble discerning what is noise from what is truth, take a minute, then attempt to connect to your higher self again, asking the same question, “What do I need to see that I’m not seeing?”
When you try to reach out to the universe, the universe always answers.
Sometimes there’s so much negativity—like a gray cloud hanging around you—that there’s no way for the universe to come and speak to you. If you’re trapped in a cycle of negative self-talk and limiting beliefs, you’re cut off from your source of divine wisdom. Sometimes a sign can be a harsh and blatant crash into your life because that’s how hard the Universe was trying to connect with you and couldn’t. Allowing time daily to open the window for the breath of the spirit to come in allows for roads to open and signs to be seen. In doing so, you build a strong vocabulary with yourself and your spirit. Always look for signs, and ask for them, to show spirit you’re trying.
Tips to Connect to the Universe Daily
- Clear a space in your home, preferably by a window to make it sacred. Bring precious things that you hold dear and decorate an altar. Meditate by this altar.
- Keep a daily journal. If writing daily is hard, try to do it at least once every three days. If something extremely negative is plaguing your mind, write it down on a sheet of paper, then burn it. This helps relieve your spirit of negativity.
- Sunlight keeps the mind right. Nature is nurturing, and most people have lost their connection to the earth. Make sure you go out and soak up sun daily—the sun is the strongest energy to clear you.
If you follow these steps, remain open to spirit, and ask for the guidance you desire, the universe will provide you with answers.
How to Release Perfectionism and the Fear of Failure
So you’ve committed yourself to overcome your fears and living your best life. You’re working on getting your mojo back and letting the Universe guide you. You’ve set your intention, and you want to manifest a perfect, beautiful, amazing life without limits.
And it’s good, but not quite perfect and not happening the way you’ve imagined. You wonder if the Law of Attraction is not working, and you fear you’re doing something wrong.
You have not failed.
You always want to manifest an attitude of positivity and gratitude. If you make peace with your accomplishments, goals, and life direction, you'll enjoy far more happiness. Here are some tips for addressing these limiting beliefs:
- Make Peace With the Mess. Life's messy. There's always a pile of dishes in the sink, an unmade bed, dog hair clumping on the carpet, and kids throwing food at one another across the dining table. If you want your life to look perfect all the time, you're basing your happiness and level of success on something that doesn't matter. Get comfortable with messy topics and situations so they don't get tied to your sense of self-worth.
- Review Your Progress. Maybe you're not where you thought you'd be by your age. So what? Think back over the last several years and make a list of accomplishments. Include milestones in your career, family, personal life, hobbies, and every other aspect of your life. Chances are, you'll have a long list before you're done. When you take pride in the small achievements and recognize the major ones, you're less likely to consider yourself a failure.
- Stop the Comparison Game. Do you catch yourself comparing your station in life with your neighbor's, best friend's, or Katy Perry's statuses? If so, stop. Comparison can only make you feel worse about yourself, and it's never a zero-sum game. Everyone encounters different obstacles and privileges, so you can't judge your own merits by stacking them against someone else's.
- Start a Mindfulness or Gratitude Practice. When you start to feel pressure to improve your life or meet certain milestones, you'll constantly think about the future. In the process, you'll miss the little things — the small daily joys that make life worth living. To prevent this, practice mindfulness and gratitude. Remind yourself to be present when you're tucking the kids in bed or having coffee with your college roommate. Every morning or evening, find something for which you feel grateful.
- Take Control of Your Life. Nobody has the right to tell you how to live your life. Whether it's your mother, your boss, or your neighbor, you can't let other people dictate your decisions. Take control of your life and figure out what you actually want. You might discover you've been chasing dreams you never really wanted.
- Get Back to Basics. Nature is an awesome way to commune with a more silent part of yourself and line up with a higher vibration - just watch the stress melt away and the mind quiet down! Sitting with a nice cup of relaxing herbal tea while journaling can also be useful. Listening to guided relaxations, practicing yoga or tai chi, or any other conscious movement class, can serve to de-stress the body and the mind and evoke a greater connection to your more limitless nature.
You Have New Choices to Make
Time to become a finder once again (or for the first time) of the life you are meant to live - the one waiting to express itself through you. You are a rock star - the star of your own life. Quit hiding. Summon the courage to confront your fears and answer the call. And take a tip: Allow yourself to be guided and supported. None of us does this alone. It doesn’t ever work that way, so if you are in that habit, try something different this time around.
Help is Available
One last and wildly transformative tip: it would be beneficial to not just seek but explore the use of the advice of those who can see wider and further than you - of those who may have traveled deeply on the journey within. That's where the radical work and swift growth are.
Sometimes we need someone to listen or simply to reflect to us our progress and our own inner perfection, and to remind us how crucial our unique flavor is to this world. Sometimes we need someone willing and capable of seeing our grandeur and of challenging us to just go for it and live the life we are waiting to show up for us. We can't always see what's lurking within our subconscious on our own. Support from clear seers to access where we are tripping up in the old habitual patterning and guidance on how to create a new habit can be profoundly transformative.
Experienced and qualified support is waiting for you at Psychic Source. There's no need to do it alone. Don’t cast your net out to the ones who also have been living in too many limitations. They are not the ones to hold you to a higher vibration and ideal. They simply don't have the capacity to do so - even if they are well-intentioned in their cautioning you to not dream so big.
We are waiting for you. You are a bright shiny amazing being of consciousness. Prioritize your "Life Without Limits" now. YOLO – You only live once. It is the only moment you've got to live in anyway - isn't it?