Once the door is locked, there is no way out. The windows have bars a jail would be proud of, and the only door to the outside locks like a vault.

                                                                                            ~ The House on Haunted Hill

Creak…. Creak

You’re laying there dead asleep…

It is the middle of the night and…

You get an eerie feeling. 

Warning bells ring in your brain telling you something is wrong.  You try and open your eyes, but you are trapped in your sleep state. What is a dream and what is real? Your semi consciousness tries to pull you back into sleep, while you fight to gain consciousness. You sense something is wrong.  Then you hear it! Creak….Creak…

You pull yourself awake.  Your eyes snap open, your head still immersed in your pillow; you notice you are breathing hard; what is happening? You are trying to get things clear.

Is there something wrong?  Was that someone walking in your home?  Are you in danger?  What should you do? Should you get up and check out the house?  You think all these things; you are just not sure.  You tell yourself it is silly and it is nothing.  Several times you decide not to get up; you roll over to try and go back to sleep, but you find yourself listening for footsteps. Is someone there?  Every now and then you think you hear something and your heart races! If you get up, you will find nothing; if you don’t, you will lie there all night, unsure.   

Fear, like the house on the haunted hill, imprisons you. You are trapped by fear into not finding a way out to create the life you want.  In all reality, fears that stop you in life are creaks that you think are there, but when you wake up and check the house, there is nothing to be afraid of.  You have to learn to get up and move past your fear, not lie there scared and paralyzed over noises you think you might have heard.  Remember, fear is False Evidence Appearing Real.

Now there are reasonable fears. If you are in a burning house, that’s scary. We’re not talking about those. We’re talking about fear to go for a new job, go to school,

get out on that date; fear that keeps us from going for the things we want in life. 

Hey, what do ghosts and goblins drink on Halloween?
Ghoul-aid!! 

Learn to laugh at your fear and see it as nothing more than kids dressing up for make believe scary holidays. In the US we have Halloween. Celebrate this week by making a start at facing your fears.  Make an effort to get up; not lie there scared and stuck. This week, choose one thing you have been holding back from going after, and go for it.  As you do, you will find that fear gets smaller and smaller and you will have more in life to laugh about.

"Ha-ha-ha . . .” THUD!  What’s that?
A monster laughing his head off.

Have fun laughing at fear. Have a scary good time…

Devlyn Steele