Halloween and Letting Go of Your Fears

When I was a little girl, I never really liked Halloween – the scary costumes, people wearing masks, and haunted houses (I must admit, you still can’t get me to go to a haunted house today!). As a child these were “scary things” but as an adult, I can easily categorize these feelings as fears. Logically, I knew that people were dressed up just for Halloween and that haunted houses were just for fun, but easily my imagination and the emotion of fear took over and logic was thrown out the window. Fears have a way of getting under our skin, stopping us from moving forward, and keeping us in our comfort zone. As a professional organizer, the fear that I come across the most from people I talk to and some of my clients is the fear of change. This is one fear that I can relate to and up until a couple of years ago, it ran my life. Something drastic had to happen before I was pushed to change, but once I let go, I saw how many opportunities were out there…

Here are some reasons that we may fear change:

The fear of the unknown - we consider what we know to be safer, we settle

Worried about what may be – we continuously ask ourselves, what if?, we overthink

Self-doubt - we are afraid of failing

Options - we forget that we have several options (we stay in situations we don’t want to be in)

Staying in our comfort zone - we stay in our comfort zone and live in the past which prevents us from moving forward

Here are some steps that can help you let go of the fear of change and can be used for other fears that you may have:

Accept uncertainty – do your best to let go of what you can’t control and focus on the fact that you can control how you see the situation

Embracing the idea of risks – take risks that enhance your life like going after a new job or kicking a bad habit, sometimes the biggest risk is not taking a risk at all

Avoid focusing on failure – instead of having the mindset of what if I fail, think of things turning out well

Allowing excitement to trump fear – focus on the excitement of possibilities, living a better and most importantly happier life

Seeking advice and surround yourself with supportive people – when I started my business, I was fortunate to have (and still have) great mentors and family and friends who believe in me