Dealing With Intimidation
Intimidation is real.
But my God is realer (yes, I know that’s not a real word).
Honestly, intimidation is one of those things no one really wants to admit or they don’t know how to really label it in themselves. There’s nothing sexy about it at all. “Hi, I’m a grown adult and I get intimidated at times”. Yeah, okay. But I really had to be honest with myself. Like, Felicia, why do you clam up and not have any words? In social gatherings I would do this if I didn’t know many people there. For the most part, in a one on one interaction, I’m fine, especially when the person is very engaging. I work in retail, so I have to work with people. It has truly helped me grow a lot in this area but I’m in no way perfect at all.
I started to really pay attention to the fact that even in one on one interactions, certain people just made me shrink down a bit. Sometimes women. But most especially men. Men that were with their boys and they all had that nonchalant attitude. Or if they were acting as if they were overly attracted to me. Or most especially men that I found attractive in some type of way.
Eek.
Like, how you embarrass yourself? He doesn’t know you. And the funny thing is, I’m so picky, I don’t even care about looks as a high priority. If you don’t love God, you get the boot real fast! But I still found myself intimidated.
What was I even thinking about? This ladies and gentlemen is how intimidation works!
“Don’t embarrass yourself. Don’t say the wrong thing. Your friends think your jokes are funny but not strangers. They won’t understand. I wonder what he thinks of me. Does he think I’m stupid, that was a slow thing to do”
Sometimes I really wish I could turn my brain off chile! Who comes up with this stuff? So let’s figure out what we are even dealing with first.
Intimidation
intimidated; intimidating
: to make timid or fearful : FRIGHTEN
I had reached a point where I had enough of myself and this shrinking back nonsense once I realized what I was doing. I thought it was just seasonal shyness creeping back in and it was no big deal. But it is a big deal. How can we be completely obedient if we are getting intimidated for no reason at all? How can we be bold and ready to do as we are called if certain people remind us that maybe we aren’t that powerful? So then God reminded me of this verse:
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”
2 Timothy 1:7
I looked it up in different versions. I wrote it down 5 different times back to back. I saved it on my phone’s screen. I repeated it to myself when I woke up. I created affirmations from it. I remembered it and repeated it throughout the day. And I still failed.
But not like before. And the next day was not like before. More and more I realized, I would not overcome this thing overnight. I had trained myself to act this way for so long. now I had to recreate how I saw me in light of these people, of any person really.
I am who I am, because God says I am. It still gets tough. But I’m getting better. So, if you suffer from feeling intimidated, whether it’s from people in general or a specific group of people that provoke that fearful feeling, now is the time to take back control. No more making yourself less than. God called you to stand out. So be the light you are destined to be. And remember that you can because you were made with POWER, LOVE AND SELF DISCIPLINE!