Fear & Procrastination
May Insights 2025 – By Regina Kaiser
Fear is one of the biggest reasons people don’t start something new or leave it until later. Later rarely, if ever arrives, and eventually they look back at life and wonder how it could have been different. While there are always circumstances that affect your decision-making process, such as overwhelm and perfectionism, it is fear that lurks beneath the surface and causes hesitation. “He who hesitates is lost” Joseph Addison”
Are you having difficulty making up your mind? Maybe you are putting off starting something new?
Fear, in its primal state, activates your fight or flight response and is important for your evolution and survival. However, fear about making the wrong decision, feeling overwhelmed, and fear of failure or success is different. You are likely familiar with the quote ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’. It’s when something inside you pushes you to move forward, to evolve. It’s when you are centered and grounded and think things through and make a decision based on details and intuition. You think to yourself “I’m going to do it anyway”
Feel your Fear
Identifying and feeling your fear, and recognizing it as the underlying reason for your hesitation, is the beginning of changing your thought process and your karma. That first step in recognition is followed by the emotions that rise and flow, leaving you clearer and calmer in your decision making process.
Fear is Learned
Your childhood experiences are what you are built upon. You learn to stay safe by looking both ways before you cross the stress, or touch a burning candle. You retain these memories to help you make future decisions. Unfortunately, you witness and are exposed to horrendous, fearful events through news, movies, media and people.
These become subtle imprints in your thought process and affect your decision-making processes. It’s as if you absorbed outside fears and have made them yours. This can leave you feeling uncertain, confused and doubtful. That tightness in your chest or stomach is fear or anxiety, and easily becomes misunderstood as “I shouldn’t do this”. Is this fear or intuition?
Good News!
Because fear is learned it can be unlearned. By taking a step into the direction that frightens you, such as public speaking, telling someone something difficult, asking someone out, taking a business risk, or pursuing your dream, you transform the fear into understanding and love. When you transcend fear in this way, you are no longer held hostage by it and can act with conscious awareness, knowing you are experiencing the experience of fear as spirit first. You use positive encouraging self talk and deep breathing to reconnect with your peaceful, inner, wise self.
Suggestions to help you overcome fear:
Identify the fear behind the procrastination
Are you afraid of leaving someone or something behind, losing money, looking foolish? Observe is you are using others as your reason for not moving forward.
Change your perspective
What thought pattern can you change? Become the witness to your creative process. Change how you think. An example would be “I an unable to do this right now because……but I can do this by……..
Share your fear with someone you trust
Sharing your fears with someone trustworthy and neutral, offers support and releases the hold fear has on you. Explain what happens within yourself, when fear arises. Do you become anxious and withdrawn? Maybe you find something else to do? Be honest with yourself.
Honour the support others give you to grow
If someone has triggered a fear within you, honour that ‘feeling’ and use it to expand and grow. This is an opportunity to look within, transform and change your future.
To learn more about overcoming fear visit our online meditation centre. Here you can listen to meditation classes that guide you inwards to understand, change and grow.
Thanks for reading my article. It is my wish for you to discover your inner strength and potentiality! Regina
