Read Other Current Essays Here

Shifting Perceived Realities
What you perceive to be reality magnifies™ ... beca lewis

TARP FEARS VERSUS PEPPER SPRAY
by Beca Lewis © 4/2008

Have you ever stopped doing something you loved to do because of fear?  Last summer I stopped riding my bike and running because I was chased by dogs. All the joy of both those activities seemed snatched away.  With the coming of spring I realized how I had allowed myself to stop doing something I love to do because of an outside circumstance.

The question I had to ask myself was, “How willing are you do to something about that fear?”  As I missed my freedom more and more I became very willing to do something about it.  Then while flying home from my last trip I ran out of reading material and started reading the sky mall magazine with all that really nifty stuff you never knew existed or that you wanted, before seeing it.

And there it was; a solution to the problem, a non harmful sound device that would stop a dog in its tracks and send it home. In addition I found a miniature can of pepper spray I can carry with me just in case.  Hopefully I never have to use either, but now that I have this protection I can venture out again without that fear.

This story is symbolic of the deeper fears that each of us carries within that keeps us from living freely in every area of our lives.  If we stop and notice we can feel the shut doors and small rooms that we have moved into in our thoughts.  Our lives get smaller and smaller with less and less possibilities of living freely.

It is the intention of the one lie, masquerading in its many forms, to make us believe that there is more than the One power of Good. It is its intention to keep us living behind closed doors afraid of venturing into the infinite possibilities that have already been provided for each of us in and as our lives.

It takes awareness of what we believe and perceive to be true in order to uncover those hidden fears. Our fears may have been caused by an actual event, like my barking dogs, or by a conditioned and taught belief, but the result is the same; a slow reduction of freedom and possibilities.

What is required to free ourselves from this lie is our willingness to no longer be willing to be in its power and a burning desire to be free of the fears it produces. As we see these fears as false evidence appearing real we can use the analogy of the sound device to send those thoughts scattering, and the pepper spray to stop them in their tracks.

In order to see what may appear as a physical answer to our fears (like my sound device and pepper spray) we first must shift within.  The process must always begin within and with the correct premise, otherwise we simply cover up the problem only to find it magnified when we weren’t looking.

In this case my correct premise was there is no other power other than Good.  This meant that the lie of scary dogs existed in my own perception and belief system. Staying within the premise of only Good I knew I could trust that there was a solution that would dissolve that particular lie for me.

Over the winter months I laid a black tarp underneath our bird feeder to make it easy to clean up the seed shells they drop as they eat. I delayed a few weeks longer than I meant to so when I removed the tarp I found that some of the bulbs I had planted in the fall had already sprouted and were lying on the ground yellow and sad looking.  However, once the tarp was removed it took only a few days before they righted themselves and turned green.

The bulbs couldn’t help but grow underneath that covering. But, they couldn’t fully live as the flowers that they are until they were free of the tarp and receiving the sunlight that was already present.

This is true about each of us.  Who we are can’t help but grow. But fears act like the tarp, covering us up, keeping us from the light that is already present and not allowing our lives to bloom!

As we see our fears, we can take out that sound blaster and the pepper spray and send them on their way. Be diligent about it. Don’t worry about where this will lead you, it will be more than you can imagine. It is spring and a perfect time to remove the tarp fears and ride free into the beauty that is your life.

With Love,

Would you like to comment on this ezine? Click Here To Blog

Reprinting Rights:
You have permission to reprint this article. Use it in your ezine, at your website or in your newsletter. The only requirements are that it is copied in full without changes and includes the following footer:

*Article by Beca Lewis, author of Living in Grace: The Shift to Spiritual Perception. Visit http://www.theshift.com/ez.html for content on The Shift®. Reprint permission granted with this footer included.

Read Beca's Book: Living in Grace: The Shift to Spiritual Perception