I’ve been so afraid recently, the fear has been slowly threatening to drown me but I’ve been terrified to look it in the eye. I’ve been afraid of what it would tell me, that ultimately I would find I’d have to work to heal. I’ve always refused to let fear hold me back from discovering what exists on the other side of it, except that’s precisely the opposite of what I’ve been doing recently.

There’s been a few growing within me for a long time, a fear of being stuck where I am right now. I fear that all my growth and expansion and discovery has come to the grinding halt and there’s nothing more for me here in Denmark. that the life I’ve built here is as good as it going to get. don’t get me wrong, I love so much of the life I’ve built for myself here. I love the city and all the things that it allows me to experience. I love the Danish lifestyle. I love biking. I love the people I’ve met here, the family I’m building around myself the longer I call this city my home. but I’ve begun to feel stuck. begun to feel ready for more, for something bigger and better than what I’ve created so far. I feel as though I have so much potential within me and my current day-to-day life uses such a small fraction of it that a restless energy is building. at times I feel directionless, unsure of where to channel this energy or what I want to do with it. I’m ready to break out of my comfort zone once more. it can be a scary realisation to have, the unknown that lies before you will feel dark and consuming. it can be so tempting to ignore the calling of more, to push it away and stay with your safe and known. the comfort zone is an easy place to reside, it’s warm and comfortable and predictable. Nothing hard or scary can happen there. but neither can magic. Nothing can surprise us when we are only surrounded by what is known. the magic happens when you dip your toe into uncharted waters, when you slowly venture into places and Spaces you’ve never occupied before and open yourself up to what you might achieve or experience once you get there. As they say, you don’t know until you try. I don’t know about you but I’ve come to realise that the idea of staying exactly where I am for the rest of my life is far scarier than anything I might experience out there in the wild unknown. I would rather make mistakes trying to discover what I’m capable of creating and experiencing than make the biggest mistake of all – letting the fear of the unknown paralyse me into staying stuck. all the things I’d never learn, all the people I’d never meet, all the memories I’d never make. That’s more terrifying to me. that’s what’s been threatening to consume me recently.

the thing is, my knee-jerk reaction to all this fear that’s almost bubbling to boiling point by now, is the upturn my entire life in an attempt to shake things up. I’ve had to fight the urge to build an entirely new life for myself just to feel some fresh energy again. I felt like everything needs to change all at once and that’s what’s been so overwhelming to deal with.

And so what I want to remind us both of this week is this : we have time. we have so much time to live this life of ours to our truest potential. Notice I said truest not fullest because I don’t want to unnecessarily add to the pressure I’m sure we all feel from existing in the world we do. I don’t want to rush you or make you feel like you have to be doing all the things in order to be successfully moving forward. there is a fine line between working hard fuelled by passion and overworking fuelled by obligation and societal pressures. I know which side of the line I’d rather exist on. I want to remind us that we can unfold in our own time, in the way that feels most authentic to us. that we do not have to push ourselves out of the comfort zone in a frenzied rush with no plan other than to change something, anything. We can move forwards with intention, our own pace. We can get real quiet, turn inwards and listen to what the deepest, wisest parts of ourselves have to say. We can follow our inner compass, step by step, in the direction that feels most aligned to our inner longings of how we want to show up in this life. We can walk, one step at a time towards where we feel we are destined to be. We do not have to follow anyone’s timeline but our own. But we do have to make sure we continue taking those steps, no matter how small. We must commit to this journey called life and we must follow our hearts and our intuition to the spaces in which we will shine the brightest. the light that shines within us needs to be powered by something, needs to be fuelled by inspiration and passion and exploration in order to glow. Feeling stuck and paralysed by fear does not let that energy flow and eventually become stagnant, dimmed by all we are holding within us that does not serve us. i want to remind us that we have the strength within us to do the hard thing, to feel that fear and step forwards anyway. We don’t need to have all the answers, we just need to do ourselves a favour and at least try to see what we might be capable of when we face the unknown. We can change things little by little, we can take it slow. We have time. I have time and you have time to create the story of our lives with intention and authenticity. I pray that we have the courage to write them honestly and passionately.

if you want to hear more about my journey towards a more authentic existence, follow me on instagram @the.authenticity.project and on medium . see my photography work on instagram @s.ophiea.lice and connect with me on linkedin.

big love to you all x