I still remember that day in the elevator in IKEA. My wife had taken a shopping cart into the elevator.
I thought that wasn’t allowed.
I got so scared.
I was going to say something to her, but then some other people entered the elevator, and now I was also afraid of showing them I was scared.
So I stood there in silence.
Shaking with fear.
And then when we got out at the showroom floor, I realized, you’re totally allowed to bring shopping carts up there.
Today it looks completely silly.
It’s completely irrational.
I mean, even if you weren’t allowed to bring your shopping cart there, so what. Someone would tell us we shouldn’t, and then we’d either ignore that or leave it, and that’s it.
It’s not like they were going to throw me in jail.
But this is how fear works.
It’s NOT rational.
We DON’T think things through.
It triggers something old in us.
Our limbic brain pattern matches with something terrifying that happened to us when we were very young that we still haven’t processed.
For me, I grew up with a dad who would get super angry whenever I broke the rules. Only nobody would tell me what the rules were. And they were always changing.
That fear of my dad’s rage was still running me back then.
This is how fear operates.
What do you do about it?
You breathe.
You move your body.
You pause.
You become present.
You activate you rational mind.
And you question your thoughts.
You think the scenario through.
First, though, you got interrupt the limbic brain from running you.
I have a lot of compassion for the people who are scared, but we cannot let them run our lives.
Not in our personal lives, not in our companies, and not in our government.
People who are scared aren’t fully there. Their brain is not fully online. They’re being hijacked by their limbic brain.
Have empathy and love for them, but stand firm that they need to get their fear calmed down.
Master yours, so you can help them with theirs.
That’s how we get things back on track.
Do not let fear run your life.
About Calvin Correli
I've spent the last 17 years learning, growing, healing, and discovering who I truly am, so that I'm now living every day aligned with my life's purpose.
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