Whispering in Wonderland | By Alicia Izzo

I’ve spent a lot of time focusing on fear lately. I’m on a mission to become the best version of me, and who I want to be, by examining every part of myself. Fear is a natural part of how we are made up. Some of us have more of it and some have less. Here’s why fear is a big fat liar…

Fear is your ego talking

Let’s think about fear and really break it down for a moment. Think about the last time you were afraid of something.

What was driving it?
What was behind it?
Was it the act itself?

No, it isn’t the act itself, it’s fear of failure. Or worse, fear of what others will think of you if you fail.

Start to focus on fear this way. It’s nothing more than your ego trying to take over your mind! Don’t let it!

Fear is the past

Have you ever heard the line fear is the past and anxiety is the future but peace is being in the present?

Let that line sink in.

I love it, it’s so helpful when you’re trying to examine what ridiculous thing you are afraid to do.

You have fear because of something that happened to you or someone you know in the past. Key words: in the past.

Think of a small child, they’re fearless. They do and say as they please without any fear or concern because they don’t know any better.

As we get older, we get fearful because we put ourselves in situations where we give someone else power to judge us when we might not succeed at what we are attempting to do. Fear is in the past, but peace is in the present.

Live in the moment, my friends.

Punch fear in the face

I can’t tell you how many times I say this to myself. My sweet, sweet love gave this one to me and now we regularly remind each other of it.

Here’s what recently happened and I do:

I picture whatever it is I’m afraid of and turn it into a physical object. Most recently, I had two MRI’s done for what turned out to be herniated discs in my neck (omgosh the pain!)

I am terrified of MRI’s. So much so that I chose to have an open MRI even knowing that the pictures might not turn out as well.

Torture devices

If you ask me, the machines are just torture devices you are forced to lay in while in a freezing cold room. The noises sounds like a series of jackhammers ripping away at your brain! On top of it, I spent the whole time praying my permanent metal retainer on my bottom teeth wouldn’t pull out like in some horror movie. Dramatic? Probably.

Anyway – I was signed up for 80 minutes of what they call “table time.” Yikes. That’s 80 minutes of torture for me.

SOS button, cages and wash cloths, oh my!

After they put my head in some sort of cage and gave me a button to push if I needed to stop, they put a wash cloth over my face (at my request) and sent me into the machine!

Queue the immediate extreme panic. I knew I was at the start of a long torturous process while I had to lay still in excruciating pain, not knowing what was wrong with me.

I literally started having a panic attack. I could feel my breathing increasing and my heart racing underneath my hands that were placed tightly on my chest.

Here’s where the SOS button almost came into play, guys. Almost (and I was probably only three minutes in). Until I thought to myself, I have pushed two babies out of this body and have had multiple surgeries. I can survive a freaking MRI to give me answers for my pain.

I imagined the word fear, since the MRI machine was way bigger than little old 5’3 me! While I laid there, I pictured it in big bubble letters and me punching it into a million pieces.

In that moment, I started paying attention to my breathing, focusing on the sound and how good it felt to just breath.

I literally walked myself out of a panic attack for what felt like the first time ever.

Fear – JUST PUNCH IT IN THE FACE!

Summary

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