I’ve just finished putting together a new Feel The Fear and Do It Anyway® presentation for my workshops.

During this process I’ve been running through where specific fears come from, and how powerfully they manifest themselves.

When I really thought about the levels of fear associated with things I was looking to do, I noticed that at I seemed to feel more fear and resistance to the things I ‘really’ wanted to do.

When I looked at this more closely, I came up with this thought and idea.

Is it that, when you are moving towards your passion and your purpose and what you believe you should be doing; you feel that there are no excuses!

What do I mean by this. Well, it’s easy to make excuses for not being particularly good at something that doesn’t ‘mean’ anything to you. For instance “well, what do you expect, I don’t really want to be doing this” or “If I was interested, I would be better at it”, or “I’m just doing it to get by, so you can’t really expect me to be any good at it” etc.

However, if you feel it really is your purpose and/or your passion, then it goes without saying that; you must be interested, you must want to do your best, you must want to give it your 100%. Therefore there’s no excuse. You have no get-out clause.

Hence the fear.

And all the old favorites sick their head up!

• Fear of not being good enough:

• “but this is the thing I love. I should be great at it”

• Fear of being made to look silly:

• “if this is my passion and I’m not brilliant at it, I’m going to look  stupid”

• Fear of being found out:

• “this is my passion, but I’m actually not that great at it – I’m a fraud!”

• Fear of being wrong:

• “I thought this was my calling, but how can it be if I’m not brilliant at it!”

And who say’s you have to be ‘brilliant’, the ‘best there’s ever been’. We frequently compare ourselves to the ‘best’. For a very long time I held myself back from playing guitar in public or joining bands, because I wasn’t as good as Jimi Hendrix or Jeff Beck.

Absolute lunacy! I can play the guitar. It is my passion and that is enough.

So consider this. When you feel strong fear and resistance about something you are intending to do – It is very possible that this is because this is your passion and purpose and leading you towards the very thing you should be doing!

If you are feeling a high level of resistance, it may well be that this is what you are destined for in this life. You don’t have to be the best there’s ever been, you just have to engage with your passion and ‘show up’

So you know what to do ………….‘Feel the fear and do it anyway!’

If you have a view on this whether it be in agreement or disagreement I would love to hear your comments below.

This blog first appeared on my Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway page:

For full blog with responses see here: http://www.conradwildsmith.com/apps/blog

www.conradwildsmith.com

Will you travel to meet them, listen to their stories and help to save their species? Mtaona your cheeky parrot guide will lead you on a journey of where you will learn many secrets about your planet and the animal kingdom.But most of all you will discover more about yourself.

In this enchanting storybook, you will be introduced to 8 elephants who will invite you to accept a mission to save their species. Along the way, you will be encouraged to find your inner spirit, trust your intuition and enhance your skills. Are you ready to accept the mission to save the elephants,and maybe even the world as we know it?

Website: www.afindica.com

Website: www.imageboutique.com

She is now using her creative talents, performance expertise and life experience to inspire and motivate people to be the best they can be. Debbie is an author, inspirational coach and motivational speaker. She has a deep interest in the spiritual side of life and helps people to identify and reach their goals and manifest their dreams. Debbie founded the London Inspiration and Reinvention Group and is a partner in Inspiring Enterprises.

After her 3 year stint on the Channel 4s soap, Ciara decided to broaden her career, and concentrate on theatre. This led to her West End Debut, starring opposite Nicholas Hoult in the sell out production of ‘New Boy’. Since, Ciara has made various television appearances, including a new comedy pilot for BBC3, and the long running soap Doctors to name a few. Ciara has also been treading the musical boards with Tony Mchales ‘Bloodbath’, and ‘Pop Star The Musical’. Once again, however, she is heading back to her roots on screen, and will be soon appearing in BBC One’s Holby City.

Ciara’s career as a voiceover artist started at the tender age of 2 years old. At 5 years old she became the youngest child to have done a radio play for The BBC -‘Victoria’. The voice industry is one of Ciaras greatest passions, particluarly in animation. In this field, her extensive credits include Disney’s new version of The Famous Five, CBBC cartoon series ’64 Zoo Lane’ and various dramas for BBC Radio 4. She is continuing to voice many different television and radio campagins, whil particularly enjoying working for ‘Big Finish’ in a trilogy of linked Doctor Who audio dramas (beginning with ‘The Judgement of Isskar.’)

I studied Fine Arts at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London, where many of my paintings were of car parts! I started to sell my work then worked in advertising, later moving to Scotland to work in a Recording Studio, getting involved in local music and advertising on buses, tv and radio. My two sons were born in Edinburgh then I moved back to London and continued to sell my paintings. I had a daughter in 1986 and did a B.A. Degree in Education and Training and began teaching painting to many groups including Housebound Learners, the U3A, a Day Centre, Adult Education, plus helping Day Patients at a local hospice. I helped school children in the Big Draw at Guildford Cathedral and at Southwark Cathedral.

Past work includes many paintings of landscapes in Norway, Prague, Italy, New Zealand and of course many scenes in the UK. I had a year painting cathedrals, then ‘bridges of London, Prague and Paris. The emphasis has always been on light, exuberant colour and effects with texture often playing a part. I love to have several works on the go at once. Music plays a huge part in my life and I have painted over 75 paintings based on music, often that of Gustav Mahler!

Exhibitions have included 2 solo shows at the Barbican Library, and at the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music, Putney Arts Theatre twice, Celia Purcell Contemporary, Oxon Hoath Conference Centre, Guildford Cathedral, Wine Gallery Chelsea, Landmark Festival of Song, and many others.

I have donated paintings to many charities to raise funds including: Walk the Walk, Sam Beare Hospice, The Princess Alice Hospice, CHASE Children’s Hospice, Breast Cancer, Oxfam and in 2010 on 7th July the 150th anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s birth, I auctioned two paintings of his music to raise money for In Harmony children’s music charity in Lambeth.

2011 exhibitions: Southwark Cathedral Refectory: “London Light” acrylics and prints of London skylines, and the Thames. In July I exhibited 36 paintings of the music of Gustav Mahler at the Lewis Elton Gallery, University of Surrey, in conjunction with an international conference on Mahler there.

Many visits to a Tuscan Art School has inspired much work and the time there in June 2011 has led to a huge body of drawings, paintings and mixed media based on the links between the shapes and patterns of olive trees, stones and the landscape. This has continued looking at UK landscapes and trees also.

I am a Freeman of the Mercers’ Livery Company, on the Committee of the Gustav Mahler Society UK, and on the Committee of the Friends of the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Commissions Undertaken: Acrylics, Watercolours, Mixed Media
Website: www.ctate.co.uk

Artistic talent combined with life-long exploration of consciousness and devotion to self-realization has given Daniel B. Holeman an ability to depict uplifting and profound sacred imagery. His inspirational paintings have a strong impact and an uncanny affect on people. Many are deeply touched emotionally – sometimes brought to tears – and describe his paintings as the most beautiful pictures they have ever seen.

Daniel feels it is not so much the beauty as the place it stirs in people that they are responding to. He invites the viewer to dive into a deeper dimension of consciousness while viewing his paintings. The imagery stirs forgotten awareness of a place felt to be HOME – a warm, familiar and heartfelt state of mind – a welcome contrast to the day-to-day world we live in. His work has been used on TV and videos, book and CD covers, magazines, prints, posters, cards and the internet.

Radiant Heart by Daniel Holeman www.awakenvisions.com

I had the privilege of attending Tim Freke’s New Year Mystery Experience retreat in Glastonbury from 30th December 2011 to 1st January 2012.  I am so grateful to Tim and his lovely wife Debbie and their wonderful daughter Aya who made us all feel so welcome and for the other amazing and diverse group of people who opened their hearts and joined together to explore and experience the Mystery.

The Mystery Experience is the perfect title for this event. Tim shared his ‘both / and’ philosophy of ‘lucid living’ – being BOTH conscious of our essential nature of being one with all there is AND fully engaging with the personal adventure of our unique life.  Tim sums this up in his book  ’The Laughing Jesus’ written with Peter Gandy:

“Wake up! Rouse yourself from the collective coma you mistake for ‘real life’.  See through the illusion of separateness and recognise that we are all essentially one. Although we appear to be isolated individuals, in reality there is one awareness dreaming itself to be everyone and everything.  This is our shared essential nature.  The simple secret to enjoying this dream we call ‘life’ is to wake up to oneness.  Because, knowing you are one with all, you will find yourself in love with all.  You will fall in love with living.”  

This was not a new concept to me as through meditation and various spiritual explorations I had experienced being aware that I am both the observer and the observed, the creator and the created, the all and the one.  However I had never experienced what happened next.

But before I describe the Experience I would like to set the scene. I had promised myself that this new year I would do something spiritual and meaningful to welcome in 2012. I felt driven to find a retreat where I could withdraw from my every day world and be somewhere where I could reflect and explore in a spiritual setting. I found the Mystery Experience whilst searching for a retreat on the internet and it sounded exactly what I was looking for and it was in Glastonbury, which was a place I yearned to visit.  It was dark by the time I arrived at Abbey House in Glastonbury. I arrived at the same time as some other people who seemed to know the house and Tim’s daughter Aya who greeted us and took us to our rooms.  It turned out that they had attended the Mystery Experience before.  Aya had created beautiful name sheets for each door and name badges for us to wear, which I thought was a lovely touch.  It suddenly struck me that I was going to be doing this retreat with other people.  Of course I knew there would be other people but I hadn’t really thought about who they would be, what they would be like,  what kind of interaction we would have or the social side of the event.

That evening, after a delicious vegetarian dinner, about 34 people gathered together in a large room with chairs set out in a semi-circle and after introductions Tim welcomed us and invited everyone to introduce ourselves and to explain our reasons for attending. As each person spoke it became clear how diverse the group was in every way and it was hard to imagine feeling intimately connected with everyone else.   Which brings me to the Experience.  After an hour or so of Tim sharing his philosophy he invited us into another room where we had our first experience of The Mystery Experience.   I am not going to describe exactly what Tim does or what we did as a group as I think that’s something you really need to experience for yourself but what I will say is how I felt. I had the privilege of experiencing the first experience with Tim’s wife Debbie and I entered a beautiful, peaceful, emotional ocean of love.  It was gorgeous and I could have stayed there…and I was amazed that we could enter such a state so quickly and easily.

The following day, Saturday 31st December, Tim led us through a mixture of more philosophical discussions and ‘experiences’.  I thought perhaps that my experience the night before was so special because it had been with Debbie but throughout the day I found that the depth of feeling of oneness grew and grew with each interaction and I had an amazing connection with everyone and especially with a lady called Chris, who I felt I ‘knew’.

We had an early supper that evening after which we were given time to reflect and get ourselves ready for the New Year ‘initiation’ and celebrations.  Tim asked us to come to the ‘initiation’ with sincere intention.  Again I am not going to describe the preparation or initiation experience as this needs to be experienced personally.  However I will tell you that I re-entered the ocean of oneness as if it were my most natural state and I bathed in the ocean of love for what seemed like forever. Whilst interacting with other participants in this process I had an extraordinary experience with almost everyone I was honoured to ‘meet’.  I ‘saw’ connections from other ‘lives’.  I have never had this experience before. It was like a knowing rather than a seeing although I did see too. I knew/saw my previous relationship(s) to and with each person on a deep emotional level rather than ‘in my head’.  This experience made me realise that all the people in that room were connected not just as part of the oneness but also as individual expressions of the all – the human lives we had lived over centuries.   I realised that we had all played out many dramas with each other and that we were all here to to heal, to know, to fall in love.  And yes, I fell in love with everyone and everything. Another Both / And experience!

We followed the initiation by going outside and lighting chinese candles and letting them float up into the sky with our new year intentions and we lit sparklers and enjoyed being in the elements. I had the honour of meeting Tim’s amazing mother Ellen who was an inspiration and role model of living lucidly.  We came back inside and welcomed in the new year with champagne and dancing.

I decided that I would set my alarm and walk up to Glastonbury Tor the next morning. It seemed like the perfect way to mark the beginning of the first day of 2012.  It was extremely dark when I started out for the Tor and I walked the long way around and up to it.  As I climbed up higher there was a wonderful view of the town of Glastonbury below with its twinkling lights still sparkling as the dawn was breaking. By the time I reached the top of the Tor and the fort like structure the sky was light and it was clear what a special place this is. I walked back down the shorter way to Abbey House feeling very much at peace with myself and the world.  It was hard to believe that the Mystery Experience retreat was almost over and that we would all be leaving later that day. I tried to imprint upon my soul the feeling I had had  during the previous day and evening and that I still felt in that moment so that I could visit it again whenever I needed to ‘recharge’ and ‘remind’ myself of who I really am, how connected I am to myself and importantly how connected I really am with everyone and everything else.

That morning we gathered together and everyone was invited to talk about their experience during the retreat and how they felt now.  I completely surprised myself  in this session as I really didn’t expect to tap into an old wound I had felt as a child, which I felt compelled to share with the group, who were incredibly supportive.  Although talking about a wound, which was upsetting, at the same time I felt myself filled with forgiveness and gratitude and understanding. I know that several other people had similar ‘breakthrough experiences’.  After our final delicious vegetarian lunch we had our last ‘experience’ together and once again I entered the ocean of big love, and was aware of my essential nature.  It took a long time to leave and I was glad to share the journey back to London with Helena as it extended the magic of the week-end.  Some people stayed over at Abbey House another night and I think I may do that next time.

Tim has spent years exploring and learning from the ancient Mystery School traditions. His Mystery Experience retreats offer an opportunity to participate in a 21st century expression of this tradition, which is an evolution of the perennial Gnostic wisdom into a radically new and immediately accessible form.  Tim was a wonderful guide and mentor on our week-end journey. No matter where you are on your journey of spirituality or self actualisation I believe that everyone can ‘experience’ a deep awake state. The Mystery Experience retreat is playful, gentle and relaxed and if, like the people I met over New Year, you bring an open mind, open heart and generosity of spirit, I believe you too will experience a profound shift in consciousness.

Future Mystery Experience Retreats are listed on our Calendar of events. For more information and to book visit www.timothyfreke.com