Can a cougar be an elephant?
Is it possible for a cougar to be an elephant? Well, from my perspective, the answer is a resounding yes. I am a lifestyle leadership coach and I call the fears, the big things in your life, your elephants. Fears can stop you from doing a lot of things in your life because you believe them to be true. Here's the thing, fear is only true to you...an elephant is only in your way because you have allowed it to be in your way.
Now, I'm not saying there's not a lot of stuff that isn't scary. Believe me I know the difference. What I am saying is that it's common to buy into that fear until it becomes true that you can't do what you truly desire.
Here's an example.
I have a friend, who is also a reader of my weekly ezine. She's really cool. She's single, has adult children and is looking for a relationship. She's also travelling, having fun, studying yoga, leasing out her house for four months while she goes to Great Britain this summer. Hmmm, I wonder if there's another version of that great book, Eat, Pray, Love somewhere in there. Anyway, I asked for stories from my readers this week and my friend sent this one over to me. I have her permission to share it with you now.My friend went to the west coast to an island where both our children live. She loves to camp so she decided to pitch her tent on the front yard of the property and sleep there with only a screen open at each end of the tent. The second night of the trip she zipped herself into her tent and stared up at the stars until she fell asleep. Early, in the wee hours of the dawn, she was awakened by the sound of crackling outside her tent, right beside where she was sleeping. She jumped up and, after getting a close look from inside her tent, decided she was not 15 feet away from a cougar, on her own. "I ducked, crouched down, made myself as small as possible insde the seeping bag and waited. I was waiting for the cat to pounce on me, sweating profusely and wondering what it would feel like to be clawed and shredded apart by it's paws and teeth." Ouch..."I immediately decided that there was really no point in hiding. If it was going to pounce it would just do it, there was nothing I could do. So, I sat up and faced towards the foot end of the tent and called for my son who was close by..." Eventually my friend sorted this out and, it should be told, this was not a cougar but probably a bobcat. Here's what she said in closing..." So there it is Jan. As far as fear is concerned, I am stil afraid of bobacts, but now know that, instead of making myself small and crouched down, I should make myself as big as possible when confronted by a cougar....I also felt proud and strong to have reacted the way I did..."Oh how cool is that? She was terrified, she knew she was terrified and she faced her fear, imagining the worst. Surprise, she came through this with not a scratch on her and a bigger awareness of herSELF...Now that's one big elephant to confront. (or in this case cougar.) I am so proud of her.
So, a cougar can become an elephant! And then it can disappear.
Living la vida fearless, Jan