Hello again.
This is my second article here and this time, I think I know exactly what I want to say.

Last night, before diving into a deep sleep, which usually takes me a couple of hours because of the voices in my mind: thoughts racing, making up fake scenarios, imaginary dialogues and sometimes dramatic monologues. But in the middle of all that noise, I realized I had a guest.

Fear.

Soft and quiet.
Almost like an old friend who never really left.

The atmosphere felt dark and foggy. The world around me was calm, the kind of quiet that makes your thoughts louder.

That’s where I met fear. The thing that scares us and stops us from starting… from speaking… from trying…

I asked it questions I’d been asking myself for years.

“Why do you do this?”
“Why do you stop people from reaching their goals? From taking that first step?”
“Why do you fill our heads with endless what ifs?”

What if you’re not good enough?
What if you fail?
What if they laugh at you?
What if no one understands you?
What if it never works out?

That reminded me of all the times I’ve doubted myself.
How often I’ve feared the future, people’s opinions, or simply the passing of time without me having done enough.
I’ve been afraid of not being good enough.
Of being misunderstood.

And fear listened..

Then gently said:

“It’s not me who decides. You do.”

“I don’t stop you. You stop yourself. I just plant the question. You choose the answer.”

It hit me deeply ,that fear doesn’t actually have control.
I do.

Fear doesn’t build the walls.
We do, when we believe it more than we believe in ourselves.

And maybe that’s the hardest part; realizing that “we’re not always being stopped… we’re just scared to start”.

We tend to believe that something is holding us back a lack of time, a lack of support, not being ready yet but often, what’s really happening is this:
We’re afraid.

Afraid of failing.
Afraid of being seen trying and not succeeding.
Afraid that we’re not good enough or that we’ll be judged.
Afraid of putting our hearts out there and being misunderstood.

So instead of starting, we wait.
We stall…
We convince ourselves it’s not the right time.

But deep down, it’s not that we can’t.
It’s that we’re scared to take that first step , because that first step feels like a risk.
Like leaving the comfort of not trying.

Fear isn’t always the villain.
Sometimes it’s just a voice trying to protect us , It warns us of risk, of change, of discomfort. But it doesn’t know the difference between danger and growth.

Only we do.

So here I am, still learning to be brave.
Still learning to walk alongside fear.
Still figuring out how to keep going even with a heart full of doubt.

Still figuring out how to take one more step forward, even when I don’t know what’s waiting for me.

And maybe that’s what bravery really is:
Not the absence of fear, but the decision to move anyway.
To show up. To speak. To try.
Even when you’re not sure how the story ends.

To anyone reading this , if fear is visiting you tonight, just know.
You don’t have to fight it.
You can talk to it.
And then you can choose.

Choose to be soft.
Choose to try.
Choose to begin.

Because your story matters

And fear… doesn’t get to write the ending.

With love, from a heart still figuring it out,
Shay