Fear Is A Liar
How to stop letting fear run the script and put your conscious mind back in charge.
Fuck fear.
Fear is stories made up by your nonconscious mind. Some may be real and helpful (instinct to not fuck with a rattle snake), while others are totally fake (staying in a job you hate or a toxic relationship b/c of the unknown).
Regardless, these fears create stories and these stories create patterns in our lives that will repeat until we do something to change them.
We all have both kinds, realistic and fake, fears. Not all of us learn to decipher between the two. Letting the nonconscious mind win leads to a life of high anxiety and stress.
Luckily, us amazingly intelligent humans have our conscious mind in addition to this pesky and reactive nonconscious mind. Our conscious mind can look at what our nonconscious is doing/saying and determine whether it should listen or ignore it. This isn't done as easily as it's said, but can be trained.
Our brain BELIEVES wholeheartedly in what the nonconscious mind is saying. When the conscious mind determines it's bullshit, it has to work extra hard to convince the brain otherwise.
A simple example I feel we can all relate to...
Growing up, when your parents said, "We need to talk." The result was usually not great. That story gets written to our nonconscious mind, fear sets in, and patterns are established.
So, as an adult, when your boss says, "Let's sync tomorrow." Your mind may go a little crazy. "I messed up?! What's going to happen? Am I getting fired?!"
Stop being so dramatic, lol. This is simply a story turned into a pattern, which results in unnecessary fear and anxiety.
I've done this before. I stressed all night long, got shitty sleep, only to be praised for my work the next day.
After nearly dying from COVID, I realized life is too damn short to let fear, stress, and anxiety dictate my experience.
For the last 4 years, I've narrowed in on my fears, overcame, and rewritten them. There has been one in particular that has lived in me for a loooong time.
In January 2019, I got severe food poisoning that changed my life. It was likely (but ultimately unknown) salmonella from tempeh. This infection nearly took me out. 💀
The result was a completely destroyed digestive tract leading to leaky gut, gut dysbiosis, SIBO, nervous system dysfunction, and the onset of Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. Eating food as I knew it was gone. My body reacted violently to anything I ate and my anxiety around food grew out of control.
It took me a few months to find my healing path, and once I did, I hung to it TIGHT.
Was this fear rational? At first, yes . My body NEEDED to heal. Did I need to hold into this fear and the stories I told myself for 7 years? Hahahaha, no...
An elimination (autoimmune paleo or AIP) diet is what healed me and became my new story. I HAD to eat like this to maintain my health. I built fears around whole food categories like beans and legumes, especially soy and even more so tempeh. And I was fine with this until my body suggested otherwise.
After 6 years, I started facing digestive issues that the AIP diet didn't resolve. My GI doc, understanding my desire to address issues holistically, suggested less meat and more plants. Whaaaa??? 🤯
Knowing how important protein is in my diet, that meant that I needed to be open to plant-based proteins -- a lot of which are in the beans/legumes family.
This is when I really started noticing the fears and stories I had created.
One thing about me and fear is that when I notice it is affecting my life, game fucking on! I just don't tolerate that shit it in my life.
Whether it fixed my digestive issues or not, it was time for me to eat beans and legumes again. Even more, it was time for me to eat soy AND tempeh.
I started small with lentils and chickpeas to build my confidence. Then, I moved to organic tofu. Finally, I reintroduced organic tempeh into my diet. 🥳🙌
I'm not going to lie. Eating tempeh for the first time was TERRIFYING. But, with confidence, I moved forward. ChatGTP and I went over how best to buy it, store it, and cook it to avoid contamination and I followed it to a T. This gave me some comfort, and I am beyond proud of myself for overcoming this nonsense.
This recent change to my diet, which is almost completely opposite of how I've been eating for 7 years now, has indeed resolved my digestive issues, and I am overjoyed to have tempeh back in my life. I loved it before, and I can confirm that I still love it today.
Sorry, but not sorry... this fake fear that we create from negative life experiences is stupid. Putting your conscious mind in the driver seat will allow you to push past these fears, live, and experience life to the fullest once again.
Always remember that YOU'RE in control of your mind. It's truly one of the ONLY things we CAN control in our lives. When it's running rampant, you can choose to get it back under control again.
One of the best tools you can use to train this is meditation. Sit and observe the mind. Let go of the thinking over and over and over again.
A more extreme but highly effective tool is cold plunging. That little nonconscious mind will eat you up telling you how horrible it's going to be and give you a million reasons to not do it. Only the conscious mind can move you to do it. Repeating this practice regularly will firmly root your conscious mind in the captain's seat.
Another good tool - working out. Pushing yourself through the hard sets when your nonconscious mind wants to quit.
Basically, doing hard things that you don't necessarily want to do is what will train your conscious mind to rule over all.
I challenge you to face any fears you notice in your life. I promise you, it's not going to be as bad as your nonconscious mind if making it out to be.
Sometimes the things that scare us the most are the exact things we need to do for ultimate peace, joy, and freedom.
Stand tall,
Tracey