Talking about yourself. Showing up as you are. Choosing a new path.
Daring to say what you think.
All of this may sound easy… until fear shows up.
It doesn’t matter how prepared you are or how reasonable your decision is —
fear can appear unexpectedly.
Not because something is wrong with you, but because fear is human.
What if fear isn’t the problem?
We often think courage means being fearless.
But that’s not true.
Courage only exists when fear is present.
Without fear, there’s nothing to overcome —only unconsciousness or disconnection.
Fear is a basic emotion and has great value.
It protects us from danger. It keeps us alive.
It tells us when something might harm us:
“You’re going too fast,” “Take a taxi,” “That place isn’t safe.”
Thanks to fear, we’ve survived as a species.
But what happens when fear takes over?
The problem arises when fear is triggered out of place:
- When you want to speak but can’t.
- When you avoid raising your hand in class.
- When you keep quiet at work.
- When you delay important decisions out of fear of being judged.
In those moments, there’s no real danger.
What’s at stake is something else:
the need to please, to avoid failure, to not stand out, to avoid rejection.
The key is your relationship with fear
It’s not about eliminating fear.
It’s about acknowledging it, listening to it, and choosing courage anyway.
As the author of Eat, Pray, Love said:
Fear can ride with you —but it doesn’t get to drive.
You can picture fear as just another passenger in the car:
It doesn’t have to get out.
But it can’t touch the steering wheel, the radio, or the brakes.
Courage isn’t invulnerability. It’s presence.
In Gestalt therapy, we don’t aim to make you invincible.
We work so that you can stay with yourself, even when fear appears.
Not to ignore it —but to know when to protect yourself… and when to make space for courage.
Don’t let fear decide for you
If you allow fear to make your life’s big decisions,
your space for freedom will shrink more and more —
until there’s only room to survive, but not to truly live.
You choose whether to live from fear or from freedom.
And if you feel that the time to change has come,
Gestalt therapy can help you reconnect with the courage to be yourself —and to enjoy it.
