REACH FOR THE STARS: Don’t hold your spirit back from greatness

I once listened to a radio show with Wayne Dyer. In the show, the host was asking him the question, “How do we refrain from holding ourselves back?”

He responded, telling listeners to think about that question for just a moment, by picturing yourself moving forward and trying to hold back from taking another step forward. He said to think about how exhausting that feels. It would take a lot less energy to just allow oneself to move forward, so how does someone hold back? I thought to myself: I am a master at that. I can teach you how!

As I was listening to his response, I was having a rather overwhelming reaction within myself. All this time, I had convinced myself that there was an invisible force forcing me to hold myself back. But the more I sat with this concept that it takes a lot more energy to hold yourself back than to move forward, I was having a genuine epiphany regarding my own patterns.

4 keys to why you hold yourself back

REACH FOR THE STARS A spiritual understanding of why you hold yourself back from your greatness 2

There is a payoff for standing still

For every habit, behaviour or repeated pattern, either good or bad, there is something that we are getting in return. The thing that we are receiving for our bad habits or repeated patterns may not always be as obvious to us as the negative side of this behaviour.

Sit with the question, what am I getting in return for holding myself back from moving forward? Is it safety or comfort? Have you convinced yourself that it is somehow not safe to move forward into the unknown? Once you understand this, everything else begins to untangle itself.

Holding yourself back is a form of control

When we hold ourselves back, we are trying to control our lives. From a spiritual perspective, the more you try to control things, the more you will lose control. This is because what you resist will always persist. It will continue to come back to you in the form of a lesson, over and over again.

The way to set yourself free from this is to let go of the need to know the how, when, where and why. If you can train yourself to be OK with not knowing, but instead, flowing from one step to the next, you will set yourself free. Learn to surrender everything over to a higher power.

Learn to co-create with God and the universe by cultivating unwavering faith, trusting, and believing in the process to effortlessly move from one step to the next, without needing to see the future result. Let go of the idea that setbacks and challenges mean failure, as they do not. They are sometimes a part of the process to get you from where you currently are to where you want to be. Learn to surrender to the process and allow a higher power to guide you.

REACH FOR THE STARS A spiritual understanding of why you hold yourself back from your greatness1

Indecision/inner conflict will cause you to spin in circles

One of your greatest superpowers is free will, the ability to choose what you want to create and/or accomplish in life and move towards that choice. If you lack intention and direction, you will most likely choose to stand still and wait until you know for sure. This is OK, if you are actively taking the time to work through your indecision and you eventually do make a choice.

But be aware that this could be hiding the fact that you are holding yourself back by not making a decision, for fear of making the wrong one.

You fear your power and potential

Our fears are designed to keep us safe. They are mostly hidden from us, until we are getting ready to make a change. The bigger the change, the bigger the fear. This is because your conscious mind’s job is to keep you safe. So it is always trying to predict the future by digging into the past to remind itself not to recreate the pain from the past.

Not only does it dig into the past, but it also dives deep into social programs to ensure you are conforming to societal standards, because one of your biggest fears may have to do with being an outcast, not being understood, being alone or made to feel like a misfit.

As a human being, one of our deepest desires is to belong and feel a connection to others. So what ends up happening is that when you step outside of the box, do things differently than others, or move into your greatness and past the invisible barriers that keep you small so you can fit in, you run the risk of being kicked out of that inner circle or even being envied or disliked for stepping into your power.

Everyone who has ever dared to step into their greatness has gone through the initiation of the judgment of others. Your mind will try to convince you that you will lose everything and everyone, but your spirit understands that nothing that was ever truly yours can be taken from you.