Ep. 26 Transmuting Fear and Insecurity to Confidence

Explicit content warning

11/29/21 • 24 min

When we face and transmute fear, we gain confidence. Confidence that doesn’t depend on things happening in a way we are sure they must happen, but confidence that comes from being insecure, facing the unknown and allowing support and grace to find us in unimagined ways, letting go of certain hopes and trusting that what we can’t yet see or know is there to hold us if we take the frightening steps far enough into the dark for it to find us.
In this episode:

How to transmute fear to confidence
The difference between confidence and certainty
What to do when your confidence is shaken

With love,
McCall
Download The Second Half of the Mountain audiobook here
Quotes from the show:
--Alchemy doesn’t save us from shit. Alchemy holds us to facing the shit, facing our deepest fears. The whole point of alchemy is to transmute the shit, transmute the fears, to face the things we feel we cannot face and realize the depths in us that are equipped to face them.

--Trusting things to work out in a certain way is not really trusting in life. Life is a manifestation of the mystery. Trusting in it means trusting things to work out in ways you can’t foresee or know. The willingness to move forward even though things aren’t going as planned allows us to be surprised by unknown helpers and graces along the way.
--This is the terror, but also the delight and the magic of the unknown: when we face the things we fear we cannot face, we come in touch with the deeper, wilder parts of us that are actually equipped to face them.
--“We can find what supports us when nothing supports us. By bearing the unbearable, we go through the desert to arrive at a nurturing oasis we did not know was there”. -James Hollis
--"We don't need to learn to let go. We just need to recognize what is already gone." -Zen master Suzuki Roshi
Download The Second Half of the Mountain audiobook here

Support the show

Read The Terrible, Beautiful Truth on Substack
Stay connected through my Email List
Get a copy of my NEW book Down from the Mountain directly from me
Read or listen to my new book Down from the Mountain
Read or Listen to my first book The Second Half of the Mountain: A Guide to Personal Alchemy after Awakening

How to transmute fear to confidence
The difference between confidence and certainty
What to do when your confidence is shaken

Support the show

Read The Terrible, Beautiful Truth on Substack
Stay connected through my Email List
Get a copy of my NEW book Down from the Mountain directly from me
Read or listen to my new book Down from the Mountain
Read or Listen to my first book The Second Half of the Mountain: A Guide to Personal Alchemy after Awakening

Previous Episode

Ep. 25 Alchemizing Difficult Situations (Without Knowing Much About Alchemy)

An alchemist is one who takes everything as it comes, transforming the harmful into helpful, the ordinary into extraordinary, and the painful into beautiful. Not by way of bypass, but by way of engaging in deep and, at times, disruptive processes. Alchemists turn their back on nothing, knowing that every life circumstance, desired or not, is the critical base matter needed for making gold.
Alchemy can be an overwhelming esoteric topic with weird words, cryptic symbols and images, and various interpretations. But you don't have to be a scholar of any of that to transmute and transform your life situations.
In this episode, I pare alchemy down to three keys to remember if you want to work magic in your life.

Start Where You Are and Let It Happen
Know the Essence from the Form
Unite the Opposites

With love,
McCall
Quick quotes from the show:
A magical life is no the absence of pain, disappointment, darkness, and heartache. It's living all of that so fully it becomes your beauty.
“Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.” -Rilke

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” -James Baldwin

“What we cannot hold we cannot process and what we cannot process we cannot transform. And what we cannot transform haunts us.” -Zen Proverb

Support the show

Read The Terrible, Beautiful Truth on Substack
Stay connected through my Email List
Get a copy of my NEW book Down from the Mountain directly from me
Read or listen to my new book Down from the Mountain
Read or Listen to my first book The Second Half of the Mountain: A Guide to Personal Alchemy after Awakening

Next Episode

Ep. 27 Dealing With Exhaustion

Is it okay to take a break from alchemy and the inner healing work? It's so exhausting and there's always something more to transmute and heal. Does it ever end?
Let's explore causes for and ways to mitigate unnecessary exhaustion.

Piecing ourselves out half-heartedly in too many different directions
Giving ourselves to relationships and endeavors that aren't giving back to us
Expecting the outer results to match the inner efforts in proportion

I also explore what it means to rest, not only as a way to recover the physical body and energy but as a way to access soul energy and creativity.
And finally, what to do when you CAN'T take a break, when the alchemy and life keeps hitting hard and you can't escape having to do things you don't really want to do.
With love,
McCall
Download The Second Half of the Mountain audiobook here
Quotes from the show:

Even the most beautiful endeavors can be a distraction if the soul has other plans. The heart breaks itself on all its favorite things to align with something deeper, unknown and more true.
“The antidote to exhaustion is not necessarily rest. The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness.” Brother David in conversation with David Whyte from Crossing the Unknown Sea
"A thousand half loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home." -Rumi
"If you're tired and you rest/and you're still tired/it's your soul that needs care/the only way to rejuvenate a tired soul/is to listen/you must be still and quiet/and listen/then gather up every scrap of courage/to follow your soul's advice." Jenna Whitman's book, Softly

LINKS:

Click here to go to the show Transcripts

Download The Second Half of the Mountain audiobook here
Related Episode: Ep. 4 Inevitability, Pull of the Soul, and Living the Life That Wants You (Song: Fall From the Lie)

Support the show

Read The Terrible, Beautiful Truth on Substack
Stay connected through my Email List
Get a copy of my NEW book Down from the Mountain directly from me
Read or listen to my new book Down from the Mountain
Read or Listen to my first book The Second Half of the Mountain: A Guide to Personal Alchemy after Awakening

Falling Into Soul - Ep. 26 Transmuting Fear and Insecurity to Confidence

Transcript

When we face and transmute fear, we gain competence, confidence that doesn't depend on things happening in a way we are sure they must happen. But confidence that comes from being insecure, facing the unknown, and allowing support and grace to find us in unimagined ways. Letting go of certain hopes, and trusting that what we can't yet see or know is there to hold us if we take the frightening steps far enough into the dark for it to find us.
Intro
Hello, friends