Episode 286 | When Fear Wears a Mask: Breaking Free from Invisible Barriers | Host: Shanta

Have you ever felt anxious for no clear reason? Or held yourself back from an opportunity that once excited you? In this empowering episode of Authentic Talks, host Shanta Generally dives deep into the hidden faces of fear — and how to finally break free from the invisible barriers that hold you back. Fear shows up in many forms — anxiety, procrastination, perfectionism, or even overthinking — but beneath it all lies an invitation to grow. Shanta explores how fear impacts our daily lives, relationships, parenting, and careers, and she shares practical tools, journal prompts, and mindset shifts to help you reclaim your confidence and peace of mind. In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The difference between healthy and unhealthy fear
• How fear disguises itself as anxiety, perfectionism, or control
• Mindful reflection prompts to uncover what’s really holding you back
• Ways to reprogram fear-based thinking and embrace personal freedom
• A powerful affirmation to help you release fear and step into faith 

Take a deep breath, grab your journal, and get ready for an authentic conversation that will help you face your fears, find inner peace, and live in alignment.

Host:
Instagram: @AuthenticTalks2.0 
Email: [e-mail] 
Website: www.AuthenticTalks2.com 
Facebook: AuthenticTalks2 Youtube: @authentictalkswithshanta7489 
#OvercomingFear
#MindsetShift
#AuthenticTalksPodcast
#FearToFreedom
#PersonalGrowthJourney

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/authentic-talks-2-0-with-shanta--4116672/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, guys, welcome to Authentic Talks. My name Michante Generally,
and I am your host. I'm excited about today's episode.
We're going to be talking about when fear wears a
mask and breaking free from the invisible barriers. I feel
that this is an important topic, and I talked about
evicting fear on my very first podcast episode in twenty nineteen,

(00:24):
and I want to talk about it a little bit
more on this episode and dive a little bit deeper.
Have you ever felt anxious and couldn't pinpoint why, or
maybe your heart would race before a big decision, or
you would find yourself holding back from opportunities that excited you.
What if I told you that behind much of our

(00:47):
anxiety lies fear. Today, we're uncovering what fear really is,
how it shapes our daily lives, and what you can
do to take back your power. You guys, I want
to talk about this topic as it relates to our
personal growth and expansion. We've had a lot going on

(01:09):
here in the United States where fear seems to be
really growing. We recently had events where Charlie Kirk was
unlived and now we have a ton of content creators
becoming private investigators, and everybody wants to know who did it,
pointing the finger at all different sides. This seems to

(01:30):
be creating a large amount of fear and anxiety. I
don't really want to talk about that in the context
of as it relates to politics and as it relates
to anything like that. But I really want to talk
about fear and anxiety, like how much it matters when
it comes to our growth in our personal lives at home,

(01:52):
when it comes to being parents, the relationships that we have,
and how it shows up in the sense of how
we show up at work and how we're able to
grow in those spaces and in our own personal businesses
as well. Before we dive in, though, I do want
to take a moment to welcome each and every last
one of you to Authentic Talks. Thank you so much

(02:12):
for tuning in. I'm excited that you're here. If you
have not had an opportunity to subscribe to the show,
hit that subscribe button. That way you won't miss an episode.
Please share this episode with your family members, your friends,
and anyone that you feel could truly benefit from this
topic we're talking about today. I want to dive in

(02:33):
with talking about what's really behind anxiety. And I want
to talk about this because it is something that most
of us face at some point in our lives. Oftentimes
we're not able to really identify and pinpoint that the
two go in hand in hand when we're thinking about
anxiety and when we're thinking about fear or being afraid

(02:55):
of something. Anxiety often isn't random. It's the body's alarm
system reacting to perceived danger, often emotional or imagined rather
than physical. If talked about every single thing that I
was afraid of or had fear that caused anxiety to

(03:16):
impact my life, we would be here on a week
long podcast. It would be part one, two three, and
every single day I could literally upload a pod snack
for you where I'm outlining those details. I talked a
little bit about it as it related to starting the
podcast and how I had fears centered around a YouTube channel.

(03:37):
I still often deal with not really wanting to be
on camera and just wanting to have authentic talks with
you guys without having to feel like as if I
have to be like with makeup done and different things
like that, and so oftentimes it will prevent me or
not really wanting to be judged in a way that

(03:59):
we often perceive YouTubers or content creators to be, where
we watch these videos and they seem like they are
so perfect, they don't have any mistakes, and they just
appear to be so comfortable in front of the camera.
That is not my area of expertise. Just giving you
an example of a small fear or something that gives

(04:21):
me anxiety, and it's a matter of determining whether or
not it is healthy or unhealthy, and in what ways
will it prevent me from being successful in this particular
area I want to talk with you guys about fear.
Fear is an instinct meant to keep us safe, you guys,
and it helps us when it comes to our fight,

(04:43):
our flight or freeze responses. And modern day fears are
more psychological. Fear of rejection. We have fear of failure,
fear of loss, We even have fear of uncertainty. Whenever
we have it turned on, it manifests as chronic anxiety tension,

(05:07):
and it also manifests itself as overthinking. Fear actually lives
in the future. What I can share with you, for example,
when I was talking about evicting fear in that very
first episode. It was me thinking about all of the
things that could go wrong and all of the reasons
why I should not start it, and like what I

(05:27):
would actually go through, and I literally would send myself
through such great anxiety that I would often say, Nope,
that's not for me, and that's just giving you one example.
There's so many different areas when it comes to anxiety
and fear going hand in hand that I have personally experienced.
Some of them I had to overcome because it was

(05:48):
impacting my ability to find success in certain areas of
my life. When it came to getting my driver's license
and having to drive on a freeway, that was something
that sent me through a great deal of stress. And
having to drive next to eighteen wheelers on the freeway
was another thing for me. For many years that was like,

(06:08):
oh my goodness, I would think of the tires popping
and hitting my window and just all types of things.
I took myself on a journey of unnecessary anxiety and fear,
you know, And it was due to my thoughts the
way how I was thinking. And so fear does live
in the future, while peace is honestly found right here,

(06:31):
right now, in the present. That's when we start thinking
about things like mindful reflection. For those of you who
love journaling, I am going to share several prompts with
you throughout this particular Podsnack, and I want to start
with this very first one. I want you to ask yourself,
what am I truly afraid of right now? And is

(06:54):
this fear protecting me or preventing me? And that's what
you want to ask. Ask yourself questions like that. That
way you'll be able to identify. That's one example of
a question that you want to ask yourself. It is
a mindful reflection prompt where you're asking yourself, what am
I truly afraid of right now? And is this fear

(07:16):
protecting me or preventing me? And you would have to
actually have an authentic conversation or really genuine thoughts with
yourself and answer those questions honestly. Now, there are two
different types of fear important for us to talk about
in this episode. And there is what is known as
healthy fear. And this is like a functional fear. It

(07:39):
keeps you alert when you're crossing the street, for example,
or whenever you're preparing for a presentation. You know, that's
a healthy type of a fear. These fears are both
temporary and they're tied to either real danger like crossing
the street or challenged. For example, when it comes to
your presentation, you want to be successful, and that's what

(08:02):
that fear is all about. When you're crossing the street, naturally,
you know that cars could be dangerous if someone's not
paying attention. You have your extra alert there, and those
are healthy. So fear is something that we're never going
to one hundred percent get rid of. But it's important
to identify what fears are holding us back and what

(08:24):
fears are there that are just considered as healthy fears
and normal. Now let's talk about the unhealthy type fear.
These fears are all about limiting our abilities to be successful.
They paralyze us from taking chances. They paralyze us when
it comes to speaking up or living fully. These fears

(08:45):
are rooted in imagined outcomes. They have a lot to
do with past wounds and often associated with self doubt.
Both fears feel real in the body, but only one
protects you. The other keeps you stuck. Think about what

(09:06):
fears have been coming up for you and be honest
with yourself to determine why you know, and then I
want you to then figure out what is it that
you're just understanding, what is it that you're truly afraid of,
and then go through the steps that we're going to
talk about later on in this episode to figure out
how to overcome those fears and move past it. There

(09:30):
are so many common fears that shape our lives, and
when it comes to those types of fears, I want
to talk about them. There's a fear of failure, there's
fear of rejection, fear of the unknown, we have fear
of loss, fear of loss of control, we have fear

(09:51):
of success, and then there's fear of judgment. There's so
many different fears that could impact our lives. I want
to talk about how some of these will show up,
because if we're not aware of how these various fears
will show up, that we're not going to be able
to take the action steps that we need to help
us overcome them. So, when it comes to fear of failure,

(10:14):
it's going to show up in your life as avoiding
new opportunities, and it often shows up as procrastination. Many
times you may have faced this in your life where
you're afraid of failing, but rather than really thinking about
the fact that you're afraid of failing, you'll often avoid
new opportunities and procrastinate and not move forward with certain

(10:37):
projects or things in your life. Something you can do
here is your action step. You can reframe failure as
feedback and then ask what can I learn here. It's
really important to understand what action step you need to
take in order to be able to overcome it. The

(10:58):
second one that we want to talk talk about is
fear of rejection. And this is where we have people
pleasing coming up and showing up in our life, and
so it's really important to pay attention to that and
another thing that happens it shows up in a way
where we're staying silent and not showing up fully. What

(11:19):
we can do to overcome this is practice self acceptance
and remind yourself that not everyone's approval equals your worth.
That is super important to know. And I would say
write these down. Go ahead and get a pen a
piece of paper, rewind it and pick up those first
two that I've shared, and continue writing from there. The

(11:41):
next one I want to share with you is fear
of the unknown. When we're thinking about fear of the unknown.
This can cause anxiety, and what happens is it shows
up in a way where we start overthinking and then
we have anxiety about chain because we don't know how
are we going to be able to adapt to this?

(12:03):
Is this going to be good for me? And it
can literally send us into a loop where we're thinking
of all these outcomes that may not necessarily be the
way things are going to turn out. But it's our
fear that's really kicking in and telling us that change
is not good and all of the what ifs, And normally,

(12:23):
if you're going through any type of anxiety about it,
it is because you're thinking about the worst outcomes. One
action step that you can take to actually overcome this
would be to ground in the present. You can use
mindful breathing to bring yourself back from that what if thinking.
It's really important to get to know who you are

(12:44):
so you'll know when these different fears are showing up.
Then you can go into action step mode to help
bring yourself back. Another one is fear of loss or control,
and the way that this shows up is to clinging.
You know, we become really clinging, and then perfectionism and micromanaging.

(13:10):
An action stuff that you can take to help to
overcome this would be to trust that release creates space
for better alignment. And then your journal prompt around this
one that you would want to ask yourself is what
am I afraid will happen if I let go? This
is a big question to ask yourself and to spend

(13:33):
time with being able to answer the question and figure
out what is it that you are truly afraid would
happen if you did let go? Are those things? Another
fear you, guys, that I mentioned earlier is fear of success.
What tends to happen when we have a fear of
success is that we will self sabotage and downplay our

(13:54):
wins and not celebrate them, and oftentimes really don't want
to be acknowledged or have attention brought to ourselves, like
in a public setting. Oh it's like skip me, skip me.
You don't need to tell everybody. But yet when you
don't get that acknowledgment, it doesn't help you. It starts
to take its toll. One of the things you can do,

(14:16):
or an action step that you can take to overcome
this would be to explore subsconscious beliefs. You know, are
you afraid of responsibility, are you afraid of visibility? Or
being too much? Just think about that. We oftentimes do
that self sabotaged thing. So it's really important to identify

(14:40):
the fear there so you can go into action to
overcome it. It is so important. Another one could be
fear of judgment. Most of us, most of you tuning in,
have probably experienced this at some point and could still
be experiencing these fears on and off. When it comes
to fear of judgment, it shows up in a way

(15:04):
where you're staying small, you're playing small, and you're avoiding visibility.
One of the action steps that you can take to
overcome this would be too focus on service and not
on yourself. I'm not saying completely get rid of self
care and all of the things that we've been working
on for the last like five years. When I focus

(15:25):
on how you can help other people, and that's one
way that you can overcome it. And then you can
ask yourself, who might be waiting for my voice, my truth,
or my story, and that is one way you can
get out of that fear of judgment or what other
people are going to think of you. Fear disguises itself,

(15:49):
and that is the thing that is just so interesting
about this. It shows up where you will hear people
saying I have anxiety, or I have depression, or I
have a variety of these things. And I'm not saying
that depression is not something that is separate, that all
of it has to do with fear. But when we
are afraid of something and we're feeling the pressure of

(16:12):
having to do that thing, that can create a form
of depression because you feel like you're going to let
yourself down or let other people down. When fear shows up,
you can't recognize it. It is disguising itself and it
wears different masks. And some of those masks will show
up in the form of perfectionism, fear of not being enough.

(16:37):
It can show up in the form of procrastination, fear
of failure or success. It can also show up in
the form of control, where there's fear of uncertainty or
feeling vulnerable. It can show up in the forum again
of overthinking, you know, fear of making the wrong choice.

(16:57):
It can show up in the form of busyness, fear
of stillness, or what we might feel when we're still
here's an awareness practice that you can implement that's going
to help you when it comes to this, When you
notice yourself delaying, controlling, or criticizing, I want you to

(17:18):
just take a moment to pause and ask what fear
is trying to protect me? Right now? That's what you
want to know. Then that way you'll be able to
identify which one of these fears is showing up, and
then you can take the action step that is necessary
to overcome it. I do want to share with you
that we're never going to be perfect in this area.

(17:40):
Fear is going to keep showing up, and it disguises
itself and it looks different every single time. But just
being able to recognize when it's fear or not is
super important. It's going to help you in your life
where you're able to tackle it and say, Nope, fear
does not live here. You better get up out of here,
and you'll be able to evict it and take those

(18:02):
steps that you need. I want to talk to you
right now about how to reprogram fear based thinking. This
is something that we all have. I'm currently working on
wrapping up the last of book four in The Jam
with Me, A Journey to Your Higher Self book series.
I've had to go through over the last year and

(18:25):
a half a series of mindful shifts and practices. I
have not been perfect in being able to implement every
single thing every time, all of the practices, and so
that's why there was a delay on releasing the book,
because I really wanted to test things out and go
through the steps. And I'm still working on this mindful

(18:47):
Shift's journey here you guys, And so one of the
things that I want to share with you, guys is
that you can name it to tame it. Name it
to tame it. And if you're not able to name it,
and you're never going to be able to tame or
control it or overcome it. You have to be able
to identify this fear out loud or in writing. Naming

(19:09):
it actually brings it to light, and then that's when
you're able to really truly take the action steps that
you need to ensure that you are overcoming it and
that you're taking those steps that where you're not stuck
in that fear. I want you to also think about
challenging the story. You have to ask, is this fear

(19:31):
based on fact or a story I've been telling myself
and that is super important for you to be able
to identify. We also have to ground the body doing
deep breathing. I personally love sound therapy, sound healing and
different frequencies of music, and so that's something that is

(19:51):
really a great opportunity. It helps to ground our body.
I also love doing different meditations where I imagine that
I have root coming out of my feet, going into
the core of the earth, and again just doing deep
breathing amazing and calming our bodies down and helping us
to get back into the present moment and just focus,

(20:12):
taking time to focus on your breath. I talk about
various meditations in my book three of the Jam with Me,
a Journey to Your Higher Self book series, and take
you through a walk down all the various types of
meditations and how to get started. I even share with
you in that book how you can introduce this to
children as well. Being able to affirm the opposite is

(20:37):
another thing that you can do when it comes to
mindful shifts. You can replace fear driven thoughts with empowering truths.
An example of that would be I am safe to
be seen, I am capable, I can handle uncertainty, I

(20:58):
am safe to be seen. I am capable. I can
handle uncertainty. So whenever you have that doubt that creeps in,
just being able to reassure yourself through mindful shifts is
something that can truly help. And I want you, guys
to take small, bold steps. You're not going to be

(21:20):
able to go through all of the things and just
magically wake up the next day and say, Okay, fear
is now one hundred percent gone. You're going to have
to walk yourself through these steps to get to a
place where you have confidence in you and where you're
able to trust yourself and know that you've got this.

(21:40):
Whatever it is that you are trying to work out
in your life, you can do it. You actually have
the power. And taking these small steps, these actions weaken
fears grip on you. And if you do one small
thing that moves you forward, that's what growth is all about.
So I take these steps, you guys, and you don't

(22:03):
have to put everything into play all at one time.
Just take one step at a time that's going to
move the needle in the right direction. You know. Now,
I want to share that for me, fear has been
one of my greatest teachers. It has not been an enemy.
It actually shows up where I'm being called to grow,

(22:25):
is what I have found. And I've been able to
analyze these different fears when they come up, and sometimes
there's really hard truths that I've had to face. When
I had to start the podcast, it was a fear
of rejection. It was a fear of people judging me,
a fear of me not being able to pronounce words
properly and people hearing an accent that I have. Fear

(22:49):
of people thinking I was overweight or just didn't look
the part of what they felt the podcasters should look like.
And I know these things may sound silly to a
lot of people, but I'm just enroll with you about
what some of the things were that I faced when
it came to my fears of starting a podcast and
a YouTube channel. There's a lot of different things that

(23:11):
I want to do in this lifetime, and I enjoy
just trying new things and experimenting. Oftentimes, I like to
do them without having to announce to the world that
this is what I'm going to do, because I would
find that if I would share with someone like, oh,
I have this idea, I want to do this, and
they would give me so much of their opinion that

(23:33):
was so far away from how I was thinking that
it would just bring me to a place of overwhelm
because I would feel like I would have to fit
their version of what that looked like along with mine,
and when I couldn't figure out how to align the two,
it would make me feel overwhelmed. And so it took
me some years to recognize this and to finally be

(23:55):
able to identify that underneath all of it was a
fear of reading if I do it my way, they're
going to think that it's not good enough. And so
I don't really like to project what I feel or
believe onto other people. I want people to show up
at the table bringing their own game to the table,
and where I just help them by adding a little

(24:16):
bit of flavor to it. You know. I have to
now look at things in that same way, like where
if someone is sharing something with me, they're helping me
to add in a little bit of flavor and not
necessarily saying like do it my way or it's a highway,
or that their way is the only way type things.
I want to leave you guys with a journal prop

(24:37):
as well as an affirmation and a couple of things
that you can do. I would love to hear from you.
Share with me what did you think about this episode
and the tips? Did you journal it out right about it?
I want to hear from you, I really do. And
just remember that these journal prompts might lead you to

(24:58):
asking additional questions. Just spend some time with you. Oftentimes
we're so busy and we're caught up in day to
day life that we don't take the necessary time to
get to know who we are. We're ever changing and growing,
and it's important for us to just spend even if
you have to do it like one day a week.
I just loved journaling, and all of the things that

(25:20):
I share with you guys are things that I absolutely
love and implement in my own life. I share them
with you because they have worked wonders for me. But
I understand that not everything works for everybody. You know.
Here's your journal prompt that I'm gonna leave you with,
and I want you to write this down and take
some time later on throughout the day or this evening

(25:41):
to answer the question, what fear has been quietly running
your life? And what truth? Are you ready to replace
it with? What fear has been quietly running your life,
and what truth are you ready to replace it with?

(26:03):
I love affirmations. My second book, and that Jam with Me,
A Journey to Your Higher Self, was titled say It
like you mean it. Affirmations really do work. I used
to have them around my computer. I would have them
in my bathroom on my mirror. I share with you
guys in earlier episodes of the podcast how that worked
out for me, and how much fun it was when

(26:24):
I first would tell myself that I loved myself, and
how giddy we were around here in our home some
years ago. Now, an affirmation that is a powerful affirmation
is I am no longer ruled by fear. I am
guided by faith, trust and alignment. This is an affirmation

(26:49):
that I'm extending an invitation for you to write it
out on a couple of sticky notes, and I would
like to challenge and ask you to play one on
your bathroom mirror or one on your computer, one in
your car. So maybe you want to write it out
a few times. You know I am no longer ruled

(27:11):
by fear. I am guided by faith, trust and alignment.
Take some time to journal, meditate, and think about your
biggest takeaway from this episode. If you feel called to
do so, share it with me on social media. Your

(27:33):
challenge for this week is to do one small thing
that your fear has been holding you back from. So
just do one small thing, one small thing, you guys,
sending you all tons of positiive energy, lots of love
and reminding you that fear will visit all of us,
but it doesn't have to unpack and stay the next

(27:55):
time it shows up. I'm asking you to pause, breathe,
and remind yourself that you are safe, you are capable,
and that you are in control of your thoughts. And
just remember that fear is often a messenger showing us
where we're ready to grow. When we listen with compassion
instead of judgment, fear becomes a bridge. It actually leads

(28:16):
us toward our next level of freedom. Until next time,
take a deep breath, stay in your truth, and know
that peace is found in this very moment, not in
the future, not in the past, but right here, right now.
Thank you all so much for tuning in. I'm chante

(28:36):
with authentic Talks