Live peacefully with these practical steps from Jean Walters and her book The Journey From Anxiety To Peace: Practical Steps to Handle Fear, Embrace Struggle, and Eliminate Worry to Become Happy and Free.
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When I started my entrepreneurial journey, I naturally kind of fell into the mindset aspect of things. I wanted to make things work and I had all of these self-limiting beliefs, fear and anxiety, and so much more that was holding me back.
Naturally, when you do anything that’s a little scary at first you think of all the ways that it can go wrong, that it will go wrong, that it should go wrong. But I needed this to work!
So I fell into my old habit of figuring out how to fix it. I went back to introspection and what I found was a wealth of information that I was looking for, for a lot longer than just my entrepreneurial journey.
The stories you tell yourself are robbing you of your chance to live peacefully.
There are a ton of things that you tell yourself that you don’t even realize you’re doing. Things like I’m too tall, too short, too quiet, too shy. All of these things combine to tell you a story about yourself that may not even be true.
These are all stories about who you think you are that you can use as a crutch to stop you from blossoming. Everyone has them. As a mom of two kids under two I can easily say that I have no time. But where there’s a will there’s a way.
You can always find the reasons not to do something. Re-writing your story to find the best version of yourself will begin with first identifying all of the ways that you hold yourself back. Like a weed, you have to uproot all of those beliefs you hold about yourself that aren’t true so that you can emerge the flower that you are.
Then you have to let it go to live peacefully.
Just like the Disney movie, you know the one, you have to take all of those stories and let them go. Eliminate all of the baggage that holds you down. It may take years, months, weeks, or a lifetime to find and remove all of the weeds that made their way into your brain but it is possible!
You always love the underdog story, the little engine that could. David versus Goliath. This is YOU! This is you facing down your fears, your self-limiting beliefs, those weeds that infiltrated your very soul.
How do you do that? You have to think like you’re chasing off a bear. Imagine you’re in the woods and you see a bear. You know that you’re supposed to act larger than the bear, scream, and shout and extend your arms above your head. This is how you have to approach your fears. You have to find a way to be bigger than them.
You have to learn to be you.
In order to live peacefully, you have to learn how to be you. All of you. The good, the bad, the ugly. If you’ve been following me for any length of time you might know that my husband and I are in recovery.
It wasn’t an easy journey, it wasn’t fun, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else. But a lot of my personal struggles were exactly that. I spent so much of my life and my time trying to be someone I wasn’t. I wanted to fit in, I wanted to be “normal”, I wanted respect and all of those other things.
What I didn’t know was that in order to live peacefully, I had to let a lot of those wishes go, just be myself, and those wishes would find me! It sounds backwards, and if you’re where I was 10 years ago, it sounds like a lot of work, but it’s so worth it.
It doesn’t seem like being yourself should be tough, but you know that it is. There is always the pressure from someone in your life that has made you feel like who you are is wrong. For myself, I had to play small. People didn’t like if I was smarter than them, or stronger than them, or whatever else they felt that they were personally lacking. But that’s their problem, not mine.
Learning to be your authentic self means letting things flow.
Sometimes it feels like an uphill battle, and sometimes I suppose it should. But when you get to a point in life when you’ve done the inner work, then you have to let things go. Let them flow to you and from you.
You’re not even who you think you were when you do enough inner work. There comes a point when a lot of those stories you told yourself become just that, stories. Fables of who you once felt the need to be because of circumstances outside of your control.
Live peacefully with the knowledge that when you have done enough inner work, some circumstances, situations, and people will find their way to the door. Whether they are coming or going is usually not up to you. You simply have to have faith that things are working for you. That life is not happening to you, but rather that it is happening for you.
Master Meditation.
I’ll be honest, I never thought much about meditation. My mother used to try to teach me how to meditate when I was young and anxious all the time. Now I’m old and only anxious half the time.
Meditation, like everything else takes time. In my experience, guided meditation works best, especially in the beginning. You want to use mediation as a tool, to get you from anxiety to peace.
One day you’ll be able to tap into your meditation practices and simply pull the peace to the forefront on command. To eliminate the worry and anxiety almost before it begins. I hope that you’re able to do that sooner than later because the world needs YOU! The world needs you and your authentic self, because you never know how you might be able to impact the world if you never show the world who you are.
About the author.
Jean Walters has been teaching people how to live peacefully for over 40 years. She has a doctorate among other decorations that she humbly does not boast about. I had the pleasure of being able to interview her and she has a way of making you feel at ease instantly.
Jean Walters began her journey simply because of her circumstances, she wanted her mother to be able to live peacefully and in her effort to help her mother, she was able to help herself and consequently others with her wealth of knowledge.
Having classes both at universities and her own private practice, she helps students take their own personal journey from anxiety to peace. With a keen eye (and ear) for what people are really saying, she also does Akashic readings for her students and has other published works.
This isn’t all! This is only a brief overview of Jean Walters’ book The Journey From Anxiety to Peace: Practical Steps to Handle Fear, Embrace Struggle, and Eliminate Worry to Become Happy and Free.
Get your copy today!
I love these tips! Definitely being your self and learning how to move on will help you live peacefully. Of course a good meditation and yoga practice helps too!
Thank you so much! Yes, they definitely do. Glad you enjoyed!
Meditation has really brought me a lot of peace.
I’m glad! I agree, me too.
Such a valuable read. In my university days, I’ve struggled to be myself. I was a people pleaser and always conforming people’s expectations. Only when I started my personal development journey, I learned how to be trule me and focus on authenticity.