Its true... Your fear doesn't control you, it never has and it never will. I say this because you make the choice to surcomb to your fears or to push them aside and choose to be brave. Now, I'm probably the wrong person to be encouraging you to choose to be brave because I surcomb to my fears on a daily basis. I choose to allow myself to be controlled by my fear on a daily basis. All that being said, I am actively trying to choose to be brave and although I struggle a lot I have been able to see my fear becoming less and no longer stoping me from doing certain things. So, actually maybe I am the right person to write this and encourage you to be brave through my recent experiences of choosing to not let my fear control me.

Let me explain where this all started, I decided prior to going into the Peace Corps that I was going to push fear aside and choose to be brave. Which honestly my first step in that was accepting my invitation and committing to live abroad for two years of my life with no real understanding of what I'd be doing or where I'd be living. I told myself that I wouldn't say not to doing things because of fear. This doesn't mean I'm going to be reckless or anything I'm just not letting my fear control me.

I get it, it's so much easier said than done because when your in the midst of fear and anxiety it seems so powerful, but I promise you from experience it's not. Don't let yourself jump to all the things that can go wrong, instead thing about all the things that can go right.

Now, my examples of me choosing to be brave and not letting myself say no out of fear are a bit extreme and may seem reckless. Though, I have had several friends do both things and they've all been safe and so glad that they did each.

This past Tuesday I went White Water Rafting on the Nile. Now I'm sure you're thinking why is that such a fearful thing?! Well let me tell you... We were going through grade 3 to grade 5 rapids, we were warned that we'd be flipped from the raft, and they taught us how to be rescued by a rescue kayak if needed so naturally my fear crept in and I almost backed out, but I had my friends reminding me that we'd be okay, and they reminded me that I was brave and could do it. And I did. It was one of the best adventures of my life. Our raft flipped and I had to be rescued by the rescue kayak. Every second was worth it though. The adrenaline from the rapids wondering if you were going to flip or not, because there were several times we didn't flip but we all thought we were about to. When the rafting was over I wanted to do it again.

Now my next example was the day after rafting and it was bungee jumping over the Nile. This was something I have always wanted to do but never thought I could because of my weight. Over the past six months I've lost sixty pounds and gained a lot of confidence, but my fear still crept in and told me I couldn't do this. But the more I thought about it and was encouraged by friends saying that my weight wouldn't affect anything I decided I'm not gonna let my fear stop me. So I went bungee jumping and it was the scariest thing. I've ever done in my life and I'd do it again. The thrill I got was incredible and I'm so glad that I took the leap.

Singh encouragement to you is to jump to take the leap and choose to be brave and not let fear win. I promise you control your fear it doesn't control you. So stop saying no out of fear you'll begin to live life more.