is fear stealing your joy?

I just recently got a necklace that I really really loved. I loved it so much that my first thought was I have to be super careful with it and part of me was even afraid to wear it because I didn't want to lose it or break it.

Isn't it so crazy how things that we hold as such prized possessions in our head we don't even allow ourselves to enjoy because of how fearful we are to lose it.

I find this happens in every area of our lives. Relationships, adventures, things. Oddly enough what I have found in my own life is that fear makes us react in a way that is exact opposite of how we feel.

Here are some examples of ways we could easily be letting fear take over our joy

You're in a relationship

1. You give your all, love fearlessly without concern of losing it or

2. You hold back because you're afraid of giving your all and losing it. If you gave your all like you wanted that would mean more to lose, so hold back because it's safer, huh?.

You're on a trip

1. You enjoy every moment, take on adventure or

2. You're anxious the entire time thinking about what could go wrong or how many days you have left until it's over so you miss out on the entire trip and don't allow yourself to enjoy the now.

What if we changed our perspective and allowed ourselves to enjoy those feel good moments without worrying about how long we'll have them?

Because each of those moments are what make up our entire life. They are just as much part of our life whether it's for an hour, a day or 50 years. You don't know, but God knows. And I believe He gives us blessings because he wants us to enjoy our life and half the time we miss them because we're off worrying about losing it instead of being grateful and enjoying it.

Leave what's to come in the future to the future. Because guess what, you will never know what the future looks like. You will always have to live with that thought so how about we become content with the unknown and take advantage of the known, what we have, what's been given to us now.

Someone explained it to me so well a couple months ago..

You're going about your day, you do what you have to do, you hang out, you go to work, you make conversation.

or

You're going about your day (insert fear), you do what you have to do (insert concern), you hang out (insert anxiety), you go to work (insert fret), you make conversation.

Notice that these both look identical aside from the complete unnecessary added suffering. You complete the exact same tasks throughout the day both ways. Once we learn to be more mindful of our thoughts we can learn to enjoy our days and moments. Why would we ever add unnecessary suffering to our lives?

Don't do it. It's that simple. Don't allow fear and anxiety to overcome your mind and steal your joy. It's just extra baggage that you are carrying around. It's holding you back from enjoying moments and the people you love, and crazy enough fear could potentially be the reason things don't work out for you because you aren't allowing yourself to give your all or your best. Thinking you are safe guarding yourself when in all reality your hurting yourself and the people around you. You can never live life to the fullest with a fear based mind set. And worrying about something is in no way going to keep it from happening, it only keeps us from enjoying the now. So why do we do it?!

Don't give way to fear. Don't give way to anxiety. It does absolutely nothing for you and will never help you get to your goal. You will never look back and be thankful for the times you spent worrying about something, however you will look back and regret the times you didn't give your all.

Let it go and live freely. Allow yourself to have fun. Allow yourself to express the love you feel inside. Allow yourself to be happy. Enjoy those people, enjoy those moments and endure the hardships when you get to them. Not before you get to them, because God gives us what we need in the moment that we need it. Not before, not after. We weren't meant to know what's to come. We are meant to enjoy the now!