“Understand fear for what it is. Unless there’s a train or a bus barreling down at you, it’s probably just fear of changing the status quo.” going out with my friends dancing and a dress will be so much cooler and easier.’” As she went out the door that night, she remembers thinking, OK, I don’t have to do this — I can turn back. “But I kept going,” she says. “What happened was that people didn’t seem to care — they just went about what they were doing, and I went about what I was doing. Pretty soon I didn’t think about it.” Today, Anika has a new prosthetic leg and it’s a beautiful pink. “I have nothing to hide,” she says. TIME TO CHANGE Karen Luniw also understands how fear can hold us back — and propel us forward. “I think that with making changes to our lives, we kind of wait until we just can’t stand it anymore or we find some line and we just jump,” says the owner of The No Limits Businesswoman, an online coaching business dedicated to helping high-achieving women bust through their limits.
68
She did just that when she walked away from a marriage to her high-school sweetheart. “I wasn’t able to be myself and speak my truth,” she says. “I was feeling squashed and limited and I couldn’t stay. Another big moment of truth came years later when Karen was working as an employment counsellor. “I really did love my job,” she recalls, “but I’d been thinking about starting my own business. Then, when the agency I worked for got this five-year contract, I thought, Oh my god, if I stay here for five more years I’m going to be 50!” “There were lots of fears to face,” she adds, “like Will anybody want to work with me? Who am I to start this business and think I can help other people attract what they want to their lives? Then there was fear of not paying the mortgage. One day I was talking to my husband Geoff and he said, ‘If you don’t leave your job, I’ll leave mine. Then
YAM MAGAZINE MAR/APR 2019 Y K FILE NAME: AQUARA_Yam_Douglas_Spruce_Mags_Half_20190123.ai FILE SIZE: 7.5" (W) x 4.7" (H) with 0.125" bleed
C M
you’ll have to stay in your job forever!’” She took some vacation time to work on her business. By the time she was scheduled to return to work at summer’s end, her business still wasn’t making money, but Karen was ready for a change. “The feeling inside me was relief,” she says. But she hadn’t really dealt with her fear about the huge life change. “In the days before leaving my job, I was getting ready one morning for a chamber of commerce meeting and we had to call the ambulance — I thought I was having a heart attack!” Fortunately, her heart was fine. As it turned out, fear had manifested into a panic attack. Twelve years on, Karen owns a global online coaching business and is a leading podcaster and author who recently launched a mastermind course to help people deal with limiting beliefs. Her advice? “Understand fear for what it is. Unless there’s a train or a bus barreling down at you, it’s probably just fear of changing the status quo.” LIFE BEYOND FEAR The part of our brain responsible for the fear response, that warns us of danger, is called
PROJECT: AQUARA by ELEMENT CONTACT: info@ancreative.com