I have a client who said to me," Most of my nervousness comes when I walk into the ring and feel others are judging me".  She is not afraid of making mistakes with her dog. She is afraid of what she thinks people are saying about her on the sidelines. She is afraid of what people may be thinking of her. Because somewhere deep inside she believes it might be true.
It is my hope and goal to help her bust those fears and to be able to go into that ring with confidence and just run the dog.
When she told me that, I felt compeled to help her as much as I could.  Why? Because I was her. I had those fears too. I had so many stories going through my head when I showed my first dog. Different stories with the next, and even today with my 4th dog, fear sometimes pops up. The difference is today I recognize it. I can step away from it. I can thank it for trying to keep me “safe”.  And I can let it go. It is a process.  It is repetition.  It revisits a lot.  And it is ok. It doesn’t hold importance anymore.
How did I do it?  I questioned it. I believe things come up in our life to try and get our attention. In this case, fear of what people might think. First of all, I have no control of what people think. People are going to think whatever they want to think.  I do have control of changing my own thinking.  And, do I really know what they are thinking?  Unless they tell me, I don’t know.  That is a lot of energy I could be using in a better or different way.  Let’s face it, people have a right to think whatever they want to think.  That is their business, not mine.
Recognize it, Record it, and Release it.  There are tools that can help you get past fear. Once you have those tools and use them you will feel lighter and have a lot more fun doing what you want to do.
Fear is given to us so that we can look deeper into ourselves. If we can get to a place  where we recognize fear for what it really is, see it as an opportunity to look deeper at what really needs to be healed we will have more freedom and happiness.