The Doorway to Freedom

Rhonda Britten, www.fearlessliving.org

“Fear is the gatekeeper of your comfort zone,” counsels Rhonda Britten, Emmy Award-winning life coach and author of four bestsellers including Fearless Living. Britten says,

Your comfort zone is whatever is familiar to you. As a little child, your comfort zone was your mother’s lap. You ventured away out of curiosity but scurried back to safety when you felt threatened. Now your comfort zone is the people you already know, the routines you’re used to, the places where you feel at home. Whether these are bad, good, happy, or sad is immaterial. As the old saying goes, ‘Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.’

But how satisfying is safe? Fear keeps us from feeling alive when there’s a danger of not being accepted, approved, or understood. Therefore we deny our essential nature. Fear doesn’t know you are an adult who craves adventure and love and fulfillment. It doesn’t know that you could handle it from here. That is why a crisis is sometimes what’s necessary to shake up your world and give you the courage you need to show your fear who’s boss.

There is almost certainly some level of crisis manifesting itself in your life right now. Maybe you are simply sick of letting yourself down or listening to your own excuses. Perhaps you’ve had enough of never finding the courage to stand up for yourself. Maybe you are tired of not earning what you’re worth just because you can’t bring yourself to put a real value on your contribution. You may not even be able to pinpoint what’s going on but you know something isn’t quite working. Your soul yearns for more. That’s all you need to get started on the journey from fear to freedom.