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Melissa Felsenstein

Fear is the mindkiller


2020 Scorpio season begins...


As I was driving to Portland

I had a strange realization.

Back in 2019

Inner Sounds was on a major roll,

selling out event after event.


Despite sell-out after sell-out,

before each event

I spent 29 days fearing

it would not sell out,

the theme sucks,

people won't show,

etc.

My mind found a

thousand little things

to be afraid of.


After worrying for 29 days,

the event would

finally arrive and

for a few sparse hours

I would feel fantastic.


Me and my team of volunteers would hoot and holler victoriously and then go celebrate with sangrias and tacos (oh those were the days...sigh).


The very next day, I’d

immediately loop back into fear

and stay there

for another 29 days.


Let's put this into a ratio,

and say, it was

60% fear, everything is gonna go wrong

40% everything's gonna be fine


because I invested so much time

in fear and spent zero time on the feel good, it’s all gonna be okay 60%,

the mental odds were much much

higher.

As in, even if our

actual fear is small,

if we invest a TON

of time in it,

it occupies way more than

the space in our mind

than it should.


Does that make sense?

I'm not sure I'm explaining it well

but this was a mindblowing revelation to me.


If I only spend time cultivating and tending to this fear

and don’t invest at least the same time and energy growing the hope,

I’m always going to be unstable

and leaning toward

in some cases,

excess

anxiety and stress.


Most of my fears around live events

were totally

unfounded.


There were mountains of evidence to the contrary

that I appeared to be able to completely ignore.


This particular fear isn't resolvable.

It is one of those childhood tags that I can't seem to erase

BUT

I am completely empowered

to contain it.


Time box it.

And make a stronger resolve to stay in

the hope/good stuff for longer periods.


This might feel a little

forced or fake

in the beginning, as

personal change

often does.


Regardless of how weird it might feel, I am

compelled to at least try and slay

the mind-killer.


“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”


(Isn't that Dune quote by Frank Herbert so RAD. I love the idea of turning your inner eye on fear to make sure it has gone - YES!!)


As with the quote above,

I am

happy to invite fear into my house,

give it some tea,

and then after a reasonable spell,

ask it to leave out the back door.


Keeping with this analogy, last year,

I invited fear over, fed it an elaborate dinner, tucked it in so it could spend the night and served it breakfast the next morning. Cycle repeat.


Let's frame this in a real life scenario.

The election.


Predictions say it will be an

88% landslide,

so a wimpy 12% likelihood of Trump's win,

yet,

we invest a lot of time

fearing

that 12%.


We agonize over the what ifs…

We fret over what might happen.

Our blood pressures continually shoot through the roof just thinking about

another four years.


Despite all logic and an 88% lead and a LOT of astrological support,

we are

deeply fearful

of that small chance outcome.


Like an uncontrollable reflex,

it is so hard

to not feel afraid.


Sure, maybe we have a lot of good reason, for example,

the pure shock of

what happened in 2016.


But, is that fear held to the 12% of actuality?


And do we every give ourselves

a chance to

feel

88% excited.


I noticed that ratio wasn’t true for me, so I decided to timebox

my nightmare fears

into a 12% container.


And, increase my hope, excitement, and chance of true change

by 50% which felt like a good achievable starting point (vs wanting 88%).


To help you steel yourself further into the good, here is an

election sound survival kit

designed special for you.


This is a moment to transform

your relationship

to fear

and root yourself in

what you believe.


There is a beam of light

slicing through the darkness

right now,

carving out the future.


As we enter the last phase of the year

and dive into the underworld depth

of Scorpio.


Represented by the scorpion, which has the ability to shed its skin, Scorpio represents

the alchemy of transformation.

Scorpio’s ruling planet is also Pluto which has played a starring role

in 2020.


The planets that began their game of criss-cross in January are on their third and final round and are finally moving on and coming to a close.


Flash insights

and integration

rule this

closing energy.



We’ve got extra support to transform,

rebalance,

and investigate depths of what we fear

with the power of the

scorpio sun.


May we be

unflinching

as we hone

in on the laser of

the future.


Go Biden!



xoxo

M


image credit: unknown :(

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