Last week I walked over glass. Not just one or two bits, but a pile of smashed beer and vodka bottles. It wasn’t the smooth rounded part either, it was the jagged edge designed to slice and dice.

Our tormentor ensured that he amassed the pile so that it was extra sharp before we walked over it.

Why on earth would we do this?

To prove we were bigger than our fears of course.

We were in the Whitsundays at our Remarkables AGM, in an empowering seminar about achieving your dreams and pushing yourself outside your comfort barriers in order to do it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the energetic perspective It is amazing how teachers arrive in your life at the right time.of the talk. For the past year energetic healers have been present in my life and I have been exploring this path.

I resonated with and understood so much of what the speakers, Doug and Terrianne told us. And of course, with open mind and heart I learned so much more.

Mostly that our fears seem so much bigger than they really are.

When they first laid out the pile of broken glass for us to walk along, dread hit my stomach and my thoughts were “You have got to be kidding me. No way.”

All I could see was a shredded foot and  a trip to the hospital. I have done far too many of them the past 18 months.

I’ve heard of fire walking at other empowering seminars, but that seems to be focused on the intense raising of your energy levels so you feel invincible and that adrenalin is what gets you walking without being burned.

I kind of thought burned feet would be better than cut ones. At least I could run like a jack rabbit over the coals if it all went pear shaped.

Where was my back door with this one?

Walking over the broken glass was more about centering yourself and finding your own quiet and steady power. There was no intense motivational build up needed. It’s all about going within.

It was a very emotional scene as each of us fought to find our own power to walk over the glass. After watching Nikki and Carly go over first without a scratch I had a deeper sense of confidence that I could do the same.

And so when they asked who was next, I strode up to the front.

I was shaking, but the only way I know to tackle my fear is to hit it straight on. Had I stood around and watched anyone else do it I probably would have let the fear win and found an excuse to bow out.

Doug held my hand and guided me through the walk. His conviction helped me to find my own and I deliberately and gently placed my foot on the pile. Points of glass began jabbing at my foot. I ignored them as best I could, focusing only on my goal and drawing the power from within my stomach to hold me steady.

It took a lot of focused energy to put the full pressure down on that foot in order to move my left foot in front on the pile of glass also. Both feet on glass gnawing at my skin desperate for a taste of my blood. I held firm and then carefully moved off.

Done.

Feet courtesy of Veggie Mama

And then the weirdness of it all. I felt as if I hadn’t really achieved much. It was as if I just walked over a pebbly beach. Even hours later, my mind didn’t even fully grasp that it was broken glass I walked over which could have literally sliced open my feet. It felt no big deal to me, which showed me how much bigger we make our fears.

We blow them up to be things that are going to take us down, cut us, or even worse kill us. They become so real that we stop walking upon the paths of our destinies, choosing instead the perceived safe route, which really is no different to the route that is filled with fears. It’s just a shorter way and we gain more power by walking over the fears instead of around them.

You can walk over the fears if you do it deliberately and gently and go deep within to that place of knowing and strength that each of us has.

And once you do that you’ll feel like it was no big deal, because that immense power you gain by moving through your fear takes you to a greater level without you even really noticing that you stepped over the boundary of your comfort zone.

Fears, broken glass, meh so what? I’m more powerful than all of that.

It sometimes takes walking over piles of broken glass to figure it out.