How to Lean Away from Fear-Driven Decision Making

Have you ever wondered how to discern whether your decisions are led by fear or guided by intuition? 

I've come to realize that what we think is a natural progression or stepping stone, may not actually be the right next step...  so today, I'm peeling back the layers of my own struggles and triumphs in my quest to regulate my nervous system and conquer energetic challenges.

In this episode, you'll learn how I harnessed the power of introspection, navigated change, and ventured into exciting new opportunities within my business. We'll also dive into my world of mindfulness, kundalini meditations, and breaking free from lingering money stories – all while prioritizing new possibilities with my writing!

I hope this episode will be your passport to personal growth, infinite possibilities, and a reminder to explore a deeper connection with your authentic self ❤️ 
  
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Lauren Best is a Certified Hypnotherapist and Provoker of Possibility. She works with Curious Individuals, Creative Entrepreneurs, and Conscious Companies who are ready to explore how they can do things differently in their work and life.

She creates spaces and experiences that share with them the tools to dive into a world of self-discovery and growth where they can unlock an even greater potential inside of themselves using their subconscious minds.

Lauren has collaborated with public and private sector organizations, small businesses and solopreneurs across the globe from Canada to the UK, Netherlands, Australia, The United States and Singapore to help these folks move through the noise, envision and come up with new ideas, and create bite-sized plans of action that support their desired area of transformation.

Links: https://linktr.ee/laurenbest_co

Website: https://lauren-best.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenhollybest/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@laurenbest_co

Free Hypnosis Audio: https://www.lauren-best.com/dreaming-during-uncertainty-hypnosis-audio/

Chapters

• 2:42 Reflecting on January 2023
• 5:10 Balancing Energy Cycles
• 9:24 Letting Go of Fear Based Decisions
• 12:23 Reflecting on Stepping Stones
• 13:32 Introspection and Mindfulness Practices
• 19:20 Transforming Current Reality
• 24:23 The Writing Experiment
• 25:33 Exploring New Possibilities Through Writing
• 26:43 Trying New Things that Feel Good

Transcript

Lauren Best (00:00:08) - Welcome to provoking Possibilities, where we reflect on pivotal life moments, asked provoking questions and dream up new possibilities for living a life you love that may be a little out of your current reality. I'm Lauren Best, a certified hypnotherapist and provoker of possibility, and I've created this podcast for people who are curious about exploring new ways of living, who are looking to connect deeper with their bodies, their intuition, their hearts, and then known and who are really ready to just embrace their most authentic selves, to move into flow and into alignment. There is just so much that is possible for us when we open ourselves up to exploring new possibilities beyond our wildest imagination. So if you're ready and curious to begin exploring new possibilities, join me every week for a new episode of Provoking Possibilities on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's dive in. Hi everyone. Welcome to Another week where we explore new possibilities for unlocking the potential of your subconscious mind to really design a life that you love. I'm your host, Lauren Best, a certified hypnotherapist and provoker of possibility.

Lauren Best (00:01:24) - Before we get into the episode today, I want to take a moment to welcome back any listeners who have joined us before and welcome any new listeners to the show. I am so grateful that you have chosen to spend your time listening to the show and also giving yourself that space to really discover something new about yourself or perhaps something new that you want to try out for your own life. And today is going to be a different episode than usual. I have been sending out for the past quite a few months, not quite a year yet, but for sure over six months. A monthly love letter each and every month. We're at the end of the month. I do a little reflection of what's been going on in my world and share any new habits or rituals or observations that I've made just on. Taking time for new. Experiences or adventures or focusing and prioritizing my own well-being. So today I'm going to be sharing with you a little recap. A little. A synopsis, one might say, of, you know, what was going on in my world in January of 2023.

Lauren Best (00:02:42) - And it was really interesting to have this first reflection of the first month of the start of the year, because I think I started writing these these love letters, which you can visit my website, Lauren, and find newsletter at the top of the website, but you can subscribe there. And you know, I started sending these out, I think last summer, perhaps even last June, June 20th, 22. So this is the first month of a new year. And it's really interesting because the end of well, and I'm going to get into this when I when I read this love letter, but at the end of last year, I just really had to pause and. Make space to really recognize how far I'd come in terms of just working on myself and giving myself that space and compassion to grow and not being too hard on myself and really letting go of a lot of old stories and conditioning that I had been experiencing. And, you know, regulating my nervous system was a huge thing that I can say I was happy to experience in 2022 because at the start of 2022, it was still wild.

Lauren Best (00:03:58) - My nervous system was still in this fight and flight stage. And so just saying, just being able to say that I got to a place where I felt like, you know, I wasn't in that place of fight or flight, I can make decisions with more clarity and purpose and intention was a huge, huge feat for me. So I'll share with you a little bit here. You know, the start of my month this year of January 2023, I was carrying such a forceful energy, this energy, really. It was something I thought was going to support me to take the action and all these things I plan to bring into this new year, like more consistency in my business. And with that roundup of 2022 and this idea that since I had spent most of that that last year in the trenches of self discovery and growth and regulating my nervous system, that I now have this capacity, this new capacity to really carry more strategic CEO business person vibes into my business and really, you know, take more action, right? I've felt like, okay, I'm ready.

Lauren Best (00:05:10) - I really want to grow my business. I want to, you know, create more space for working with clients and all of this. So. Just after a few days into the year. I was taking a lot of action and it felt really good. But then even after a few days, I really started questioning where my energy was starting to go because I was starting to feel tired again. And this is something that I also struggle with in terms of balancing my energy, and that's why it's become such a instrumental part of my work. And the work that I do with other people is to look at, you know, what are our energy cycles? And, you know, for me, being a projector, for anyone who's familiar with human design, it just means that the amount of energy that I have and the amount of time I need to rest is a lot different from a lot of other people in this world who can carry such consistent energy. And for me, when I when I don't listen to that, it really manifests in my body and my health.

Lauren Best (00:06:10) - And, you know, this is something that last year I really focused on to try and slow down and give myself that space to really focus on my body. And so already I was seeing you know, there's something starting to go off again and perhaps, you know, these things that I had planned that we're going to bring me more consistency in my business, perhaps, you know, were misaligned. So with this idea that, you know, surely I could implement all these different strategies or one of the biggest things this is kind of referring to is last year I had started doing group hypnosis sessions with which I loved, and you can actually follow me on Insite timer at Lauren Underscore Co and in the future whenever you're listening to this there might be videos up on YouTube as well as I'm going to be sharing them there. But basically I was holding these group hypnosis sessions and you know, they were ended up being donation based and I was loving this community of amazing people. So I thought naturally, okay, why don't I start a monthly membership? I want consistency in my business.

Lauren Best (00:07:18) - This is surely the way. And there were just so many things that just weren't sitting right for me in terms of, you know, having a nomadic life is really important to me. If I commit to the same time every single month, it might seem like a small commitment, something that surely, even if I'm over, I don't know, in Egypt that I can wake up for and make sure that I'm, you know, showing up to those calls. But something just felt a little off inside of me. But I just thought, no, this is something I have to do. This makes sense. So if you didn't catch those group sessions, like I said, you can listen to a lot of them over on Insight Timer. I've made them into audios that you can listen to on demand, but. It just it didn't feel right for me to create a membership. And so I had to really, you know, realize that. And it wasn't something that I kind of stopped and check in on my own.

Lauren Best (00:08:18) - So again, you know, I've been making big strides to listen to my body and my mind, but I really, again, had to be kind of stopped in my tracks and, you know, stop doing what I was doing and took a breath to check in with a lot of my advisors. That really helped me to realize that I was making decisions based on fear still, rather than with my intuition. So the fact that I had numerous people notice, you know, my excited energy, but also a tone like a undertone of nervousness was really telling. So when it came to the time of sharing my plans, you know, to create this membership and not to say that I won't in the future, but right now it just, you know, the the misalignment is there and I had to recognize it. But I started kind of sharing these plans. And it wasn't until I started sharing it and saying out loud where I was able to realize that I was acting out of fear. And this fear that was telling me that this intuition that I thought I was tapping into was still being overrun by my fear.

Lauren Best (00:09:24) - So in just a few days, I threw these plans out the window for creating this monthly group hypnosis membership, which would have seemed perhaps on paper, strategically like the next best step for me. And guess what? Like, I am totally okay with this. It just has made space for me to invite in new opportunities that I hadn't even thought possible or I had been thinking about, but perhaps not this soon. So I have. This deep care and appreciation for every one of you who have been a part of these group experiences, these public monthly group hypnosis experiences. But I've decided to, for the moment, really turn a new page in my story and looked at partnering with. Different existing communities, whether it be corporate companies or conscious businesses or community leaders or summit leaders, to really bring group wellness and visualization into their own worlds. So I love showing up. I love being able to be present and understand what it is the people in, whether it's with private clients or whether it's in a group Like what? What is it that you need right now? What questions are going to make sense to ask you so that you can find your own answers inside of you? And where can I meet you where you are? So this excitement.

Lauren Best (00:10:51) - Is it really what excites me about about being a hypnotherapist and being able to, you know, share these experiences with people, create these experiences customized for them? So I'm really excited about bringing, you know, hypnosis and introspection and reflection to different groups, to teams within a business or, you know, if you're a solopreneur or an entrepreneur, a small business, whatever it may be like bringing hypnosis and reflective workshops and wellness workshops to your staff or to your client or to your audiences, whatever it may be. So I'm ready to step through that door. I am already stepping through that door and seeing what kind of opportunities come up. So that is something I realized that perhaps in the past seemed like it was really far away from where I am right now, but now feels like the right time. So it really is interesting because I had this idea that I had to have a thriving membership with, you know, different individuals before I could bring these experiences to different stages. And my past experience and life as a service designer and business experience designer, business transformation consultant, you know, I would conduct workshops with corporate or, you know, small medium enterprises, startups, whatever it may be.

Lauren Best (00:12:23) - And. I didn't realize how much I missed that until this realization I had around this decision to, you know, start that membership out of fear. So just to share that reflection with you sometimes that. There might be. A natural progression or something that we think is a natural progression or stepping stone that might actually not be the right next best stepping stone. And that's totally okay. It can be something we come back to. We can jump over here, there, whatever it may be. You know, there are just endless possibilities. And perhaps, you know, we're going to be ready for different ones at different times, and that's perfectly okay. So do not fear. I will continue as well to post new guided visualization, audios and reflection questions on Insight Timer and YouTube, which you can listen to for free as well. And you know, to go through this process of taking inventory of all the things that I had also outgrown or thought I should be doing and what I want to make space for.

Lauren Best (00:13:32) - I have also spent more time now more than ever in introspection, in taking the time to not necessarily always ask myself the right questions, but just simply, you know, put myself in these spaces and environments where I can, you know, learn more, whether it's listening to different audiobooks. I've been walking around the neighborhood listening to the power of letting go and welcome home. Amazing. And you know, I've been touching the trees as I, you know, walk by or smelling the flowers, just all these little things that made me more mindful to put me in a present state of, you know, gratitude and mindfulness have been really helpful for just being able to notice more and more how reflecting on my conscious thoughts and feelings has allowed me to let go of even more old stories that have been in my subconscious mind to make room for the new. I've also been working on identifying all of my lingering money stories that are keeping me within a certain financial threshold, and I've been working to break these limitations through practicing daily kriya Kundalini meditations, which I had never really done before.

Lauren Best (00:14:50) - My mom had introduced me to Kundalini years ago. She does it all the time. So I've done some stuff here and there and I remember doing one thing. It was like a a full moon solstice session and it was in person and it was really beautiful and I'd never done anything like that. It has to be. Nearly ten years ago, maybe not quite ten years ago, but definitely closer to ten years than five, for instance. But I remember doing it and being so happy and everyone being there and just, you know, being open and free and full of love. And I remember I was living in London at the time, so I had visited my mom back in Canada and done this workshop. So I thought, I'm going to find. A place locally that I can do this, and I just never really prioritized it. And that was okay. Would it have been nice? For sure. But, you know, I decided not to prioritize that at the time. So I'm glad I'm revisiting it now and in my own way.

Lauren Best (00:15:52) - And I'm in this beautiful program called Breaking Rock 2.0 from oh, Nami Mommy. She's really cool. I found her on Instagram talking or sorry, on TikTok, talking about all these different money stories. And, you know, as a hypnotherapist, I or someone who does hypnosis regularly as well, it, you know, is something I've worked on. But to really break down these different stories has been really instrumental. But more than that, having a daily practice and a container and space where. I can show up and do this thing. Like no matter what it is, whether it's this Kundalini meditation or something else. I just know that I am someone who just truly values and really. Thrives in an environment where I can show up and be supported and have that community to hold me accountable, not necessarily even holding me accountable, but just creating that space to show up to. So I've really been enjoying that and something else that I've done is removed myself from different Facebook groups or communities that are no longer relevant to where I am now.

Lauren Best (00:17:04) - I remember when I first started my journey as a solopreneur in designing my business, I joined all of these and they're fabulous Facebook groups. They really are. I joined all these Facebook groups, some for heart centered female entrepreneurs. I joined just so, so many, and they were beautiful for connecting and sharing my offers, practicing, talking about my work. That's a really great thing that I had the privilege of experiencing within those communities, but I just started to feel energetically that perhaps they aren't necessarily aligned to where I am now. And perhaps, you know, that's okay. Their community communities, I can always rejoin in the future if that's what feels good. But I just wanted to, you know, do a little update to. You know, kind of clean up where my energy is leaking into and also where and what I'm consuming in terms of content or other people's. I don't know, experiences or energy, whatever it may be. Just really checking in to see what is relevant to me right now and where I'm going rather than, you know, what was relevant to the past version of me.

Lauren Best (00:18:18) - So that is something, you know, I think it's one of those things you shouldn't push yourself to do. Like if someone told me to remove myself from some of those groups, I don't know, the middle of last year, I would have thought, no, like they're valuable. It's a place of connection. But you know, I have my communities that I will always like, certain communities that I'll always be a part of, no matter where I'm at in my journey. And it's okay to outgrow certain people or places or spaces and just know when it's time. And it was really funny because a lot of those groups I went to on join and a lot of them had been closed down by the Creator before Christmas time, so or before the end of last year. So I just thought, okay, there's something with this where people are also energetically shifting into new spaces and places. So I thought that was also kind of cool as well. And you know, with that, just giving myself the permission to really transform my current reality by introducing.

Lauren Best (00:19:20) - These new practices and rituals that would feature. Benefit me and what the future version of me has been waiting for to, you know, create that future version of me right now. So another thing with my writing that I've I've been wanting to prioritize. I've been talking about it since last year. Even my psychic has been telling me, You need to write more, You need to write more. You know, this love letter that I was just sharing with you and that I write every month has been that place where I've created my own container, where I can show up. And I know that no matter what I send out to my newsletter audience throughout the month, I mean, there's updates on this radio show. So if you're enjoying this radio show, that's another thing that you'll get to your inbox. Just an update of when to listen to these new episodes. But aside from that and, you know, other tidbits or tricks or different things that I'm experiencing or different podcasts that I'm guessing on as well, you know, this love letter was my container, this space that I could create to hold myself in a space that felt good where I can write about what's going on, I can reflect, I can look forward.

Lauren Best (00:20:36) - I can really just share with all of you, you know, what is the journey that I am going through? And in turn, what are the lessons that I'm learning that perhaps you're relating to or will relate to, depending on what's going on in your world? And it's so funny because. A lot of these things that I see are a lot of the things that I talk about, you know, within my communities or with my clients. We collectively, it's not it's not uncommon that we'll have similar things going on in our own lives and just being able to share them and talk about them and relate to them and say, you know, as a businesswoman and as a. Person who has the gifts of guiding people back to themselves and connecting to their minds and, you know, finding confidence and just really supporting people to love their lives. My life isn't always perfect. You know, I do this work because. I had to go through the same things that you're going through. And I do this work because I've walked it before and.

Lauren Best (00:21:48) - I'm also walking at the same time as you through these different things, through different challenges, through different times in life of taking action or not taking action and really, you know, creating different practices for my life and these rituals that will really ground me into who I am and intentions that I want to lead with and. Just holding enough love in my heart to navigate what it is I'm going to do next. Knowing that there is so much uncertainty, if there's one thing I do know, it's that there's going to be a lot of uncertainty in my life and perhaps even in yours. And what we can do to find comfort in that uncertainty is really just trust that everything's going to work out for us. And that took me a long time to really get to a place where I truly am excited by that. The idea of uncertainty and it's a lot less scary than it used to be. And that's not to say that there's not moments where I'm like, Oh gosh, I wish I just had a crystal ball and like knew for sure that everything is going to work out, but it's just, you know, reconnect how we reconnect that, that trust, that self-trust and that knowingness that can be super powerful.

Lauren Best (00:23:06) - So for me, that is taking space to work on my emotional health, my financial health, my physical health, my mental health, and doing it in ways that feel good and having variety in that, you know, there's these practices that I've been doing consistently now for over a month, but part of it is changing. Part of it is introducing new tools. And I love that idea of. Having all of these different tools to choose from that we don't have to do things the same way all of the time. We can learn new things. We can check in with ourself and see if any of these things even resonate because we might be learning things that. Are great, but perhaps don't necessarily align to our values or to what just feels good. So, you know, even though there might be science behind it or all these people telling you how great something is, you know, it often doesn't matter unless you feel. Like it's something that that is aligned to you and feels good. So that's the one thing that I'll always encourage you to do is, you know, take some time if this feels good for you.

Lauren Best (00:24:23) - This is something you can experiment with. And I love to see things as experiments. And, you know, even writing these monthly love letters have been a great experiment for me to create that space for my writing. So another thing I would love to share with you that. I. It's had on my vision board at the end of the year, which if you listen to last week's episode, I spoke with Krista Marie about why vision boards are important, and she did a little deep dive into my own vision board. So if you didn't listen to those, you can also listen to the replay which will have the link below. But or you can visit my website as well, Lauren Bascombe and click on radio show and you'll find all the past episodes there. But I you know, with this writing. This desire to write more and also being. Guide it in a place where a reminded rather that I am a great writer and that writing more will be not only good for my mind, but for my soul and my heart.

Lauren Best (00:25:33) - So something that I had put on my vision board was, you know, just me writing with this idea of, you know, new possibilities or, you know, experiencing new possibilities based on some new doors. I might open through exploring my writing in different ways. And I'm super excited that, you know, not long after that, Casta, in fact, had reached out and had shared that she has written, you know, she's a book and she's contributed to other books, and her publisher was looking for new collaborators for some of the books that they had coming out in 2023. So I raised my hand and just submitted my first chapter for a book that is going to be coming out. I'm not sure when I will keep you posted, but the book is about women with healing gifts, so I'm really excited to share that. When it once it's available. And it was really cool just to see what came up for me. What were all these lessons that really got me to where I am now that I want to keep carrying with me as my story changes, as my life changes and evolve.

Lauren Best (00:26:43) - So you never know what's around the corner. You might just think you're journaling and sending out newsletters each month and that might turn into writing a chapter in a book. I'm not sure it might look like that for you might look like something completely different. So the point is to really just, you know, try new things that feel good. And if they don't, it's okay. At least you tried. But when we find these things that we truly love, they can lead to so many new things that we hadn't imagined. So I'd like to leave that with you as well. But really. Sharing this story, this part of my last little bit of life, you know, by actually integrating these different practices in my my daily life, I felt my confidence shift even higher to a place where I can feel my intuition driving my action. So if you're in a place where you're not sure whether or not you have been making decisions based on fear or from your intuition, I have created a guided reflection exercise for you.

Lauren Best (00:27:46) - You can go over to my insight timer and over to my YouTube and find it there and please do. It'll just help you ask yourself the right questions. Whether there's a specific thing in your life you're not sure about, whether it's based. You know, you're taking that action based on fear or intuition. You can kind of just take I think it's less than five minutes. You can check in with yourself and really just see what comes up for you. And if you're not sure where you're taking action from, you can also reach out to me by email or at sorry, the email is Hello at Lauren Bascombe. Or you can just visit my website and send me a message through there. And I am happy to, you know, support you in, you know, navigating that as well. So thank you so much for listening today. I am grateful for you for again, creating that space for yourself and choosing me to, you know, share with you and open up your own hearts and your own minds to exploring new possibilities within your own life.

Lauren Best (00:28:55) - Thank you so much because you've been listening to the show. I want to leave you with a little treat, which is one of my favorite hypnosis audios that will help you let go of the noise and worry from your everyday life by bringing you to a place where you can connect with your subconscious mind and imagine and dream about your life. Because as we continue to move through ebbs and flows and seasons of our lives, there will likely be times where envisioning new possibilities becomes difficult or where we struggle to move out of that autopilot mode and into self-awareness to really live the lives that we want. So do listen to this audio. It will encourage you to keep dreaming about your life even during uncertain times where new possibilities may feel cloudy. Hypnosis has been such an amazing tool that I myself have used to move from a state of overwhelm and stuckness to really being able to keep dreaming about my life. And I know you can too. So visit the link below to download the Visualize Life. You Love Hypnosis Audio for free or visit my website.

Lauren Best (00:30:04) - Lauren best.com. Thank you so much for joining me on this journey of exploring new possibilities and embracing your most authentic self. I appreciate you and your willingness to open your mind and your heart to new ideas and ways of being that are beyond your current reality. So if you found value in this episode, please take a moment to leave a reading and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to this podcast. Your support helps us to spread the message of compassion, self-discovery and personal growth to more people who may benefit from it. And if you're looking for additional support on your journey of self-discovery and transformation, I invite you to visit my website at Lauren Bascombe, where you'll find resources, courses and coaching services to help you navigate life's challenges with more ease and joy and confidence and support. So please check that out. And more than anything, I hope you'll remember that you're not alone on this journey. We are all in this together, and by embracing our most authentic selves, we can create more compassion and connection to the world.

Lauren Best (00:31:20) - So please keep dreaming, keep exploring and keep provoking possibilities with love and intuition. I'll be back soon with more thought provoking questions, inspiring stories, and powerful insights and conversations to support you on your journey. But until then, take care of yourself and others and remember that you are worthy of love and possibility.