• Home
  • About
    • About
    • Testimonies
    • Keynote Speaker
    • How to Contact Me
    • Neuroplasticity to Learn
  • Tips to Empower
  • Media
    • Radio
    • Second Chance to Live YouTube Presentations
    • Building Your Life After Brain Injury YouTube
    • 20 Brain Injury Recovery Slideshow Presentations
    • 23 Posters Designed to Inspire Hope
  • Resources
    • Neuroplasticity
      • Stroke, Brain Injury and Neuroplasticity
      • Neuroplasticity to Learn/Relearn Skills
      • Nine Habits to Excel Neuroplasticity
      • Neuroplasticity PowerPoint Presentation
    • Other Resources
      • Translate
      • 16 SCTL Resources
      • Experiencing a Second Chance to Live PowerPoint Presentation
  • eBooks
  • Honors
    • Publications
    • Organizations

Second Chance to Live

Empowering the Individual, Not the Brain Injury

Moving From Fear to Faith and Finding Freedom

August 22, 2017 By Craig

Moving From Fear to Faith and Finding Freedom

Below is an article that I wrote in October 2014 and revised today. The article helped and continues to help me move from fear to faith to find freedom.

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a day of workshops. One of the workshops title was, Moving from Fear to Faith.  During the introduction by the work shop leader and in subsequent discussion some great points were shared.

Several of the points that stood out to me were: “Faith is a decision” and “You can not be in fear and faith at the same time”.

Speaking with My Mentor

In follow-up to day of workshops, I called my mentor. During our conversation, we discussed the topic of moving from fear to faith. He shared several thoughts that helped me. I would like to share those thoughts with you. Fear is not the absence of faith. Instead, in spite of being fearful at times, I can ask God to give me the courage and strength to do “it” anyway. By asking God to give me strength and courage — in spite of the fear — I exercise faith. So faith is “inspired” by fear. When fear and anxiety crop up in any given situation, I can examine what is creating the unrest.

I can then ask God to help me. By doing so I exercise faith in the midst of my fear.

 Benefiting from the Fear

As I examine the fear — that is creating my unrest  — I am able to benefit from the fear. Instead of chiding myself for not having enough faith, I am able to use my fear as a tool to examine what is creating my unrest. By examining what is creating my unrest, I am able to exercise faith by asking a loving God for help and by doing things differently. Doing things differently through making different choices. So faith is not the absence of fear and fear is not the absence of faith.

Instead, fear is an opportunity in which I can exercise faith. In a way in which I no longer have to stay stuck in fear.

Today’s Thought

I am grateful for the realization that faith is not the absence of fear, but rather a catalyst that leads me to ask for help. By asking for help from a loving God, I exercise faith. Consequently, I do not have to judge myself for a lack of faith or for having fear. Instead, I can celebrate having faith when I experience anxiety and fear. I can learn from the experience and find rest. I can be empowered by my anxiety and fear, instead of beating up on myself for having anxiety and fear.

By asking God to help me, I am able to use my fear and anxiety to empower my life, instead of permitting fear and anxiety to paralyze my me.

This too is a process.

Below are several quotes that have/do encourage and inspire me to have Faith.

“We can’t have full knowledge all at once. We must start believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves.” Thomas Aquinas

“What we see depends mainly on what we look for.” Sir John Lubbock

“A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” Sir Winston Churchill

“Learn to listen. Opportunity could be knocking at your door very softly.” Frank Tyger

“All life is an experiment. The more experiment you make the better.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”Bernard Russell

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope or confidence.” Helen Keller

“The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure, instead of  having pain and pleasure use you. If you don’t, life controls you.” Anthony Robbins

“Live your beliefs and you can turn your world around.” Henry David Thoreau

“You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die or when. You CAN decide how you are going to live.” Joan Baez

“Every man dies, not every man really lives.” William Wallace from “Braveheart”

“People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success, because they don’t know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to.” George Herbert Allen

“Dreams do not vanish, as long as people do not abandon them, Phantom F. Harlock

“Patience and perseverance have a magical affect before, which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” John Quincy Adams

“There is nothing that fear and hope does not permit men to do.” Marquis De  Vauvenargues

“The best way to change your belief system is to change the truth about you. What you actually “do” is more important than what you say you will do.” Steve Chandler

“If you’re able to be yourself, then you have no competition! All you have to do is to get closer and closer to that essence.” Barbara Cook

“I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards.” Abraham Lincoln

  You have my permission to share my articles and or video presentations with anyone you believe could benefit, however, I maintain ownership of the intellectual property AND my articles, video presentations and eBooks are not to be considered OPEN SOURCE. Please also provide a link back to Second Chance to Live. In the event that you have questions, please send those questions to me. All questions are good questions. I look forward to hearing from you. More Information: Copyright 2007 -2017.

 

Share this Article

  • Pinterest
  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pocket

Like this:

Like Loading...

Filed Under: Brain Injury Recovery -- An Ongoing Process

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Author, Advocate, Keynote Speaker

Official Second Chance to Live Logo

Determine to Create a Second Chance to Live One Skill and One Skill Set

Check out the New Layout of Second Chance to Live

10 Free eBooks Empower Recovery

Click on each of the eBook titles and a page will open. At the top of the page is a PDF to read the eBook. At the bottom of the page are download instructions to save the eBook to your device now.

putting-the-pieces-in-place-after-brain-injury

Living with a Brain Injury eBook Putting the Pieces in Place 60 Video Presentations

building-self-esteem-self-acceptance-after-brain-injury

Living with a brain injury and Building Self-Esteem and Self-Acceptance e Book

Stop-Being-Your-Enemy-Create-a-Life-for-Yourself

Living with a Brain Injury, What Helped Me to Stop Being my Enemy and Create a Life for Myself e Book

being-your-own-hero-through-overcoming-adversity

Being Your own Hero through Overcoming Adversity — Tools for Rebuilding Your Life e Book

making-sense-of-why and what-is-my-destiny

Living with a Brain Injury, Making Sense of Why and What is my Destiny? e Book

It-Is-never-too-late-to-create-hope

Create a Spark of Hope— Free Download

Finished eBook Cover Moving Forward Following a Brain Injury eBook

Moving Forward Following a Brain Injury e Book

Living with a Brain Injury and Learning to Take Care of Ourselves

Living with a Brain Injury and Learning to Take Care of Ourselves eBook

Having a Relationship with Myself and Other People after Brain Injury Video Presentations eBook

Having a Relationship with Myself and Other People after a Brain Injury Video Presentations eBook

Celebrating Success after a Brain Injury Video Presentations eBook

Follow Second Chance to Live

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

Archives

August 2017
M T W T F S S
« Jul   Sep »
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  

Translate Second Chance to Live

Albanian Arabic Bulgarian Catalan Chinese Simplified Chinese Traditional Croatian Czech Danish Dutch Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician German Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Lativian Lithuanian Maltese Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swedish Thai Turkish Ukrainian Vietnamese

Copyright © 2019 · All rights reserved. · Sitemap

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
%d bloggers like this: