The first time I heard that question I was on a stage at a rehearsal studio waiting for feedback from my teacher after I just sang.⠀
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I didn’t respond.⠀
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He asked again: What are you afraid of up there?⠀
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I was stunned. Voiceless. I felt like I wanted to cry out of embarrassment. Other students were sitting in the audience. What were they thinking? Did I just humiliate myself?⠀
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I don’t know, I replied. ⠀
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But I did know I just couldn’t get the words out. I wouldn’t allow myself to be vulnerable then. I was only nineteen.⠀
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He continued: You look like you’re holding back up there.. like you’re not giving us your all. Close your eyes and sing the song again. Pretend we’re not here.⠀
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When I did close my eyes, I pretended no one was in the audience and I started to let go. And I got lost in it. I felt the kind of freedom that my soul had been craving but didn’t know I was capable of feeling yet. ⠀
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I think about that moment a lot. And how many times I’ve asked myself that same question throughout my life.⠀
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I had no idea how much fear paralyzed me then. How even though I was in the class, working on the very thing I wanted to do for my life… I still couldn’t let go. ⠀
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We are often drawn to do the very thing in life that scares us the most.⠀
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And it becomes our purpose to follow it.⠀
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To develop the muscles, the tools, the strength and the courage to live our authentic path. ⠀
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That fear is the glue that binds it’s all together. ⠀
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So the next time you are afraid to do something, say thank you. ⠀
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It means you’re on the right path.⠀
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✨Close your eyes, and ask, what am I afraid of? What is on the other side of this fear?✨