stop being afraid

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

- Marianne Williamson

‘Why are you afraid?’ I asked myself, because fear is at the bottom of everything, even love usually rests on fear. ‘Why are you afraid, when whatever you do you will die anyway?’

—Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson

from this post

“Stop being scared of who you are. Stop being scared of who you want to be. Stop being scared of loving. Stop being scared of sharing yourself. Stop being scared of aiming for the moon. Stop being scared of missing. Stop being scared of being scared. Stop being scared of everything. Stop being scared of what others think of you. Stop being scared of what you think of yourself. Stop being scared of change. Stop being scared of what needs to be done. Stop being scared of what you want to do. Stop being scared of the past. Stop being scared of the future. Stop being scared of right now. Stop being scared of being loved. Stop being scared of failure. Stop being scared of success. Stop being scared of starting again. Stop being scared of thinking out loud. Stop being scared of being right. Stop being scared of being wrong. Stop being scared of being alone. Stop being scared of being together. Stop being scared of others trusting in you. Stop being scared of trusting in others. Stop being scared of your intuition. Stop being scared of analysis. Stop being scared of being worried. Stop being scared of how powerful you are. Stop being scared of others relying on you. Stop being scared of being found.

Having someone find you and show you who you are is a far more wonderful experience than I can possibly relate”

it’s interesting how the things you’re scared of change. i’ve managed to get down to fear of death, failure, and the future.

which, actually, is better than i once was. scarily enough.

my friend justin made a good point today. he said, “you can’t do any of the other things on your list until you stop being afraid. it should be number one.”

and so it is.

how can i do this?

i’m so scared.

of love. of betrayal. of death. of never living. of spiders. of killer whales.

of love.

i dont want to be afraid anymore.