“Always Do What You Are Afraid to Do, First.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson said:

“Always do what you are afraid to do.”

I would change this quote to read “Always do what you are afraid to do, first.”

It’s all too easy to avoid doing the hard thing, or the thing that scares us the most. When I was in college, and a paper was due, I had the cleanest, most organized house ever, my financial statements were always entered into Quicken and balanced. My paper getting written, not so much. Once you have that hard conversation, make that first phone call, write the first sentence, (These are usually not nearly as bad as you make it out in your head.), you feel like you can take a breath and get on with life. Not to mention, empowered.

“Always do what you are afraid to do.” I keep seeing this phrase or ones similar like “It’s only a risk if it doesn’t work out.”* In many ways, I have followed this and my life has become so much better. I built my website, wrote blogs, taught at Aims, got my degrees in education and psychology, and I moved to Colorado- with no job, no place to live, and knew no one. So what am I missing now?

The Angels always have an answer for me. That was the easy stuff (and so last year), now it’s time to do more of the harder work, the kind of work that really helps others and heals yourself. Where you talk more about your fears and insecurities and how you overcame them. You know, your vulnerabilities. Gulp.

The truth is that when you follow your Spirit Guides and Angels, life has a flow to it. You happen to be in the right place at the right time. Things just fall into place. These are often “crazy” things that don’t make sense at the moment, like deciding to move to and work in Yosemite for the summer or taking a calligraphy class that years later inspires you to create multiple fonts in the new iMacs. This doesn’t mean that these are always “positive” experiences. They can be very “negative” but eye-opening experiences that you look back on and say, “Wow, that was really hard but I’m so glad that I went through it because look how much learned and grew from it.”

The Universe tried to get your attention earlier but your self-worth was in the toilet so you put up with and made excuses for bad behavior. You were put in those "negative" situations to how learn to say, “NO.”, and to stand up for yourself or others. They also help us be our authentic selves, rather than what others want and expect us to be.

The era that I grew up in was that children were taught to obey, no questions asked. The main method of punishment was based on a Bible verse, “Spare the rod, spoil the child.” This means you can’t say, “no.” What you thought and felt about the situation was irrelevant. It didn’t matter if what the adult told you to do was wrong or harmful or if the punishment didn’t teach you how to do the “right” thing. These dynamics encouraged people to contort themselves into a pretzel to make adults happy. And for women, this would later translate to their husbands. For men, it was often their bosses.

I’m so glad this is shifting with the latest generation. They are asking more questions about the why of things. I remember when a student asked me a why question about a rule/belief once and I couldn’t remember a single good reason for the question they asked, except, because I said so. To this day, I can’t remember what that belief was because I looked at it and realized it wasn’t my belief but someone else’s and dropped it. Spirit is often trying to tell us that many of our beliefs are outdated and counterproductive. For instance, in the Jewish faith, pork was prohibited because people often got sick or died because of trichomonas in the pork. Today, we have better cooking techniques, safety inspections, and antibiotics so it’s not a problem. I remember having a fight with my sister about the “proper way” to fold a towel. She said they should be folded in 4, I said they should be folded in 3. It turns out the reason my mom folded them that way (in 3) was because that was how they best fit in the cabinet. Oops.

I don’t know about you, but I have lots of these beliefs about the “best” way to do things. My Spirit Guide laughs hysterically and sends me situations to help me see the error in my ways. =). The problem with my view of the world is that it’s limited. I can see in 3-D from my perspective based on my personal experiences. Spirit has a 5-D view from hundreds of perspectives. When they tell me to take a lesser-paying job than my higher-paying job, it’s because they knew something I didn’t. They knew that the Regional Supervisor job was going to open up shortly, something he didn’t even know when I applied. If I had taken the other job because of the pay, I would have lost out on that opportunity and a $12,000 pay increase. I had to have faith that what my guides were saying was the best thing for me. Luckily, I listened.

When we feel stuck, there are a couple of reasons for that. One, it could be that we are on the treadmill of life. We know that we should be doing something else, but we make excuses for why we don’t leave our dead-end relationships, jobs, or want to rock the boat. When our first reason changes, we change the excuse, like I can’t go back to school because the kids are young and daycare is too expensive. Then when they go to school, I can’t because I need to take them to soccer and help them with their homework. Then when they graduate high school, I can’t because I’m too old. If Spirit puts a desire in you to be a nurse, then they also have a plan for you to pay for nursing school and do all the nursing things.

The second reason we may feel stuck is because we are trying to make something happen that’s not in our highest good. I was working a job where the manager screamed at us, threw stuff at us, and belittled us incessantly. I also went to the library numerous times a week. The library staff saw something in me and told me to apply. I did and got the job. After a few years, I felt restless and wanted to learn more. I was encouraged to apply for more challenging library jobs but kept coming up as their #2 or #3 candidate. I loved the people at the library, and they were exactly what I needed when I left that abusive boss.

Looking back, I wanted to stay at the library for security reasons, not because I loved doing library work. The obstacles that I kept running into at the library were the Universe’s way of redirecting me to something else. The day that I turned in my notice to the library, Aims Community College called, loved that I wanted to teach the Awakening Your Intuition Through the Clairs class, and offered me two sections of it, rather than just the one I asked for. It also paid me over double what I was making at the library. It “only” took me 3 years from getting the idea of running the Clair’s class to actually teaching one. I was stuck because the library was only supposed to be my safe place until I healed, not a lifelong job.

Lastly, we may feel stuck because the Universe is getting us ready for something else and needs time to get all the working parts aligned. I often feel that if I’m not contributing to the GDP, then I’m wasting time or procrastinating. I beat myself up relentlessly for my failure to be productive. My Spirit Guide, Garrett was playing a lot of tricks on me, hiding my keys and glasses, making electronics go haywire, etc to remind me not to take myself so seriously. When I finally got that, then he reminded me of something I learned in elementary school. Any verb with the ending in -ing or -ed is an action verb. This means that playing, resting, relaxing, and sleeping are all actions. Your job at this point is to rest, play, and replenish so when you are called to action, you are ready. (And not holding up the others who need you to be there.)

My spirit guides have told me that light-workers are needed at this time, to raise the vibration of the planet, and to make this a more inclusive, civically minded, and equitable place for all of the creatures on it. We have abused the planet and each other for long enough. Now it’s time to help heal Mother Nature and ourselves. That means that we should “Always Do What You’re Afraid to Do First.”

I hope you join me on this exciting journey.

Anyone can do these things by themselves, but sometimes we like to practice with others like us. I am running Awakening Your Intuition Through the Clairs 2 class at AIMS on Wednesdays on the Loveland Campus from September 4th - October 9th on Wednesdays from 5:30 to 7:30. I will also have an Intro into Mediumship class running on Saturday, November 2nd and 9th from 9-11 AM. In Greeley, I am rerunning the Awakening Your Intuition Through the Clairs 1 from October 16th - November 20th. I will also be at the Belu Olisa Fair on September 28 & 29, 2024 from 10 am to 5 pm both days.

I would love it if you would share the things that have worked for you, being supportive of each other, and cheering each other on. Note: The comments section is at the bottom of this page.

Until next time,

Leanne Psychic Medium

* Love and Jane (2024)