If you’re anything like me, your mind tends to have a mind of its own.

This can be a great asset when I am brainstorming and being creative. Because I have a mind that is constantly running and flitting about, I am always filled with ideas. I have an entire stack of paper on my desk where I jot down notes for exciting new projects. I love the energy I get from these ideas, and putting them into action feels wonderful. So I have learned that a busy mind can be a great thing.

However, my mind isn’t always racing around thinking up positive projects and creative endeavors. If I let it have its way, it also has a shadow side that can easily veer off into a dark place where fear dominates and self sabotage runs rampant. And when this happens, it’s sometimes hard to pull it back into a happier place.

So today I thought that I would try an exercise with all of you.
Let’s go to that place. Let’s allow our minds to be in this dark, shadowy spot. Let’s see where it takes us and what we can learn from it. I find that I can deal with fear better if I know exactly what I am dealing with in the first place. By writing it down, we take the abstractness away from it. By having it in black and white, we know exactly what we are facing, and hopefully alleviating this fear will seem more manageable.

So think of something that you are afraid of.
Something that keeps you up at night. Something that you feel in the pit of your stomach. A primal fear. Don’t worry about whether your fear is rational or irrational – they are the same as far as your mind is concerned. They manifest the exact same way in your body.

Do you have your fear at the forefront of your mind?

Okay – now write this fear down on a piece of paper.

• Underneath this fear, write down why you are so afraid of it.
• Write down your worst-case scenario. When you allow your mind to keep going to the deepest darkest place of this fear, where does it end up?
• Where did this fear come from? Is it yours or is it something that you learned growing up? Is it rational? Is it really likely to happen?
• If it did happen, would you be okay?
• Do you have any control to keep this fear from happening?
• How much energy do you spend each day thinking about this fear?
• How is your life being negatively effected by this fear?
• How is your life positively effected by this fear? In other words, what are you getting by continuing to have this fear run your life?

Now that you have it written down, does it still feel the same or does it somehow seem smaller?

If you could snap your fingers and eliminate this fear from your mind, would you?
What if I told you that you have the power to do just that?
In fact, we all do.

While we may not have the power to control whether this fear will actually happen to us (e.g., If your fear is about dying, you will eventually die – whether you want to or not.), we can control our minds and how we perceive this fear. We can take the fear out of this event. We can take the charge out of it. We can replace trying to control this fear with releasing it and surrendering to it.

The combination of writing our fears down on paper, so we can actually seem them in black and white coupled with knowing that we have the power to change our thoughts at any given time is a powerful way of taking your power back. It’s a powerful way to rein in your mind. Let your mind have a mind of its own when it comes to positive endeavors, and learn to rein it in when it starts to veer off course.

You have the power to do this.
You have the power to control your thoughts. You have the power to take action and conquer your fear. And now you have the tools to help you do this. And so do I.

P.S. – I am so excited to share some exciting news with you all! Our 3 Steps to Manifesting Happiness E-Course will be available exclusively through the DailyOM website! We are thrilled to be partnering with them again, and we can’t wait to help you manifest the life of your dreams! More info coming soon! 🙂