Embracing fear to find our power and courage

Have you or your clients been paralyzed by fear? Have you felt the effects of living in fear yourself or observed the impact on those you love and the people you work with? Do you notice the voice of fear whispering in your ear or feel the emotions fear brings up inside your body?

As coaches it is part of our job to get to the heart of fear, to support ourselves and others to uncover the message behind it. If we choose to go head to head with our fears, embrace them and peel back the layers to understand the purpose of these fears – the reason they originally came to protect us – we can create new awareness for ourselves.

With this new awareness we can then choose to take this learning and move forward with our lives in a powerful inspiring manner. At Empower World, we believe all of us experience fear in some shape or form. By becoming aware of how fear manifests itself, and understanding what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like in our bodies we can choose to change the frequency of fear. We can take the volume control and turn fear down so that we are able hear the powerful, loving voice that comes from our internal leader and supports us to learn, grow, be inspired and find our strength to deal with whatever comes our way.

Naomi Abboud CTI life coach , WOMBS Birth coach and Doula for mothers to be, faced every parent’s worst fear: the fear of losing her new born baby girl. Last year, Ocean Grace was born very prematurely and Naomi’s journey with a high risk pregnancy and the potential loss of her baby girl triggered her greatest fears. This in turn led her to recognise the gift of self love and acknowledge her power and the decision to act on her desire to share her experiences with the world to inspire people to lead their lives fully from within.

Naomi’s goal and passion since the birth of her daughter is to reduce premature births through her work and research. Her experience and her decision not to choose fear but to choose life has been the catalyst for supporting parents to connect to the reason they are here on earth: understand their legacies and how they design their lives, whether in the birth room, in their business or anywhere in their life.

In 2015 when Naomi’s baby daughter was born prematurely at 29 weeks, she was told by doctors that her new born baby may not survive. She shares, “I was faced with fear in a really difficult position, where it was life and death. We had to potentially prepare for the loss of our child and I had to make a choice at the moment: whether to live in fear for what could happen or to stand in my strength and in my love with everything that I know. My entire life experiences, my coaching experience, my wonderful relationship with my husband and every single moment of my life had brought me to that point: to stand and look at fear in the eyes. So I do have a committed relationship with fear.”

At this conjecture in her life and for the following 9 weeks, Naomi decided to have conversations with her fear. She knew that being with what makes us uncomfortable ultimately makes us stronger. By meeting her fear she began to understand it better. She explains, “Fear comes in different forms. Sometimes it is just a shadow, like a discomfort. Or it could be a fear of failure or something that’s just ever present and keeps us in mediocrity. Whatever form it comes in, it can stop us from achieving our goals and living a fulfilling life.”

She continues, “We all have fear, and having the courage to have a real conversation with it – being with it and coming out the other end – that is really worth embracing. If you choose to do this you’re going to learn something and those lessons are going to impact your life and the lives of people around you.”

Naomi and her husband lived in the hospital (NICU) for two months after Ocean’s birth. During this period Naomi realized something inspiring and empowering for her own life: “There was no shadow of a doubt that if this little human can fight so hard, then everything else in life is a no-brainer, life is worth living, and it is worth looking on the positive side.”

Naomi made a decision not to live in fear and in sadness and sorrow, but instead chose to practice gratitude. By recognizing she had so much to be thankful for, she believes she was able to cope with enormous challenges, embrace them and discover how to learn from them.

At Empower World, we believe we can make a choice in every second of every day about how we are going to respond to the challenges we are faced with. By taking one hundred percent responsibility for our lives and the choices we make we are setting ourselves up for success and fulfillment.

Naomi is an incredible brave and inspiring woman – she has faced the darkest of fears and chosen to take the learning from it to move into a place of growth, happiness and positivity in her own life and melded this and all her life experience into her coaching and leadership work. She has chosen to take her unique message out into the world and make a difference to those people going through a similar experience who need it most. As Naomi beautifully says: “The more we share, the more we heal.”

Here are some simple tips you can incorporate into your life to create a positive personal relationship with fear – to be present with it and understand the deeper learnings from the challenges coming up:

• Breathe – take time out – even if it’s for just three big breaths – and focus on your breath coming in and out.
• Acknowledge your strength – name your strengths and appreciate them.
• Ask the fear: What are your teaching me? What do you want me to know?
• Ask yourself: Who am I when I face this fear? What will I do? What will be the outcomes?
• Reach out and ask for help – maybe a friend, a family member, a coach… a professional of some kind.

The presence of fear will never disappear. It is hard wired into us as human beings to serve us, to keep us safe from danger. It is also our job as the master of our own lives to take control and manage that fear. We challenge you to sit down and have a conversation with your fears so you can make choices to support you to live an inspiring, fulfilling life on your terms.

Be empowered.