How Facing Fear Unlocks Growth
The uncomfortable path to confidence
I’ve just returned from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where I performed a solo storytelling show every day for the past three weeks.
In the lead up to it, I felt incredibly fearful. It was the first time I was taking a show there in eight years. And not only that, it was far more honest and vulnerable than any previous of work that I had created.
The procrastination leading up to it was immense, I was stuck in fight or flight, distracted and unable to get the script into my head. I knew it needed changes, but couldn’t bring myself to do them.
For the first three shows, I had a printed copy of the script next to me and kept on reverting to it when I forgot a line. But slowly, day by day, the words began to sink in and by show four I was off book.
Some shows went well, where everything clicked into place and the audience laughed in all the right moments. Others were a complete shit show and I left the stage questioning why I’d come. But by the final two performances, I found my feet again.
So why am I telling you this? Because we often face fears in our lives, but are so crippled by the magnitude of them, that we shy away from the challenge. And are left with the regret of what could have been. But fear is part of the process. When we run from it, we stay stuck. And when we face it, we grow.
Before the Fringe, I projected all kinds of disaster scenarios onto the unknown. At the time, I had no way of knowing if the show would work or how the audience would respond. It was only by doing it, that I discovered it wasn’t as bad as I had envisaged.
The only way to knowing, is to do the thing.
One morning over breakfast, I met another performer who had just completed an Iron Man triathlon. “It’s like the Fringe,” he said. “A mindset endurance event.”
And it got me thinking, that firstly - I want to complete an Iron Man! And secondly, the way to growth is through facing our fears and doing it anyway. It is only by the doing, that we realise reality is never as frightening as what we imagined.
When we put ourselves in uncomfortable situations, we discover that we are capable of far more than we ever knew. And it is whilst we are in the muck of testing, trying, and tweaking that we come face to face with our mind and its madness.
We learn to enter a dialogue with our thoughts and begin to understand that they are not facts. What we tell ourselves matter, whether that be negative or positive. We can choose to believe we will fail or succeed, and when we choose the later it puts us in prime position to move forward with conviction.
Ready to face your fear and discover what’s on the other side?
Join me on the Focus & Flow retreat - Sept 20th - 25th.
🌿 Learn breathwork to regulate your nervous system
❄️ Test it out in guided cold plunges
🏄 Reconnect through surfing, yoga and time in nature
Shared dorm spaces start from £595 per person and they’re limited.
If this is calling you, don’t wait. Reach out to reserve your spot - info@breathewithadhd.com
Facing my fear and doing it anyway!