When Fear Wants to Contract You: Creating Vision in Uncertain Times

Written By Connection Matters - Leona Johnson

In a world of rising inequality and global uncertainty, your personal vision isn't a luxury—it's your lifeline.

What do you do when the future feels terrifying?

Yesterday, I watched economist Gary Stevenson describe the world we're heading toward: deep inequality, social instability, the super-rich accumulating wealth while the rest of us stagnate. And for a few hours, I felt myself closing down. Fear crept in, not the dramatic kind, but the quiet contraction that makes you want to pull inward, stop planning, stop believing in anything beyond survival.

Maybe you've felt it too. That heaviness when you read the news. That urge to just focus on your immediate circle and forget about the bigger picture. That voice that whispers: What's the point?

What I remembered in that moment of fear is that: the antidote to contraction is vision. Not positive thinking or spiritual bypassing, but a clear, grounded vision of what you're actually creating with your life, regardless of what's happening around you.

In this post, I'm sharing how I moved through that fear, the practice that brought me back to myself, and the three essential steps you can take to create your own anchor in uncertain times.

1. Feel the Fear—Don't Push It Down

The Breakdown Is Part of the Breakthrough

When I felt that fear yesterday, my first instinct was to shake it off. Get back to work. Stay positive. But I’ve been doing that a lot recently and in that moment I tuned in and remembered something crucial: we are in the thick of transformation.

Joanna Macy called this the Great Turning, the time when old systems break down before new ones can emerge. Science backs this up through systems theory: complex systems often need to destabilise before they can reorganise at a higher level of complexity.

For me, fear looks like feeling down and not wanting to work. It’s stopping believing in the power of the good things. It’s pulling my resources and attention to just my immediate home and family and not wanting to go out or make big plans. But here's what I know about that kind of contraction: it's not creative and its not fun, in fact it’s really lonely. When we focus only inward, we forget that we're part of a bigger interconnected web of life.

My fears are real. As a business owner, I know that when people feel poorer, they stop investing in themselves. When the world becomes more authoritarian, my children have less opportunity. We're already seeing the nationalist flags going up in England, far-right marches growing, division rising between people who should be allies.

Unless you're one of the 260 billionaires in this country who own 15-20% of the national wealth, this affects you too. You're already feeling the strain, the pressure, the uncertainty aren’t you!?.

But here's the thing: feeling that fear is actually essential. It's real. It's valid. And when you let yourself feel it fully, really sit with it instead of pushing it down, you stop spending future energy trying to avoid it.

So next time fear comes up, don't rush to fix it or think your way out of it. Sit with it for just five minutes. Feel it in your body. Where does it live? What does it want you to know? Let it move through you like weather passing through the sky.

2. Remember Your Vision—It Doesn't Depend on External Circumstances

The Vision That Catches You

After I sat with my fear, I did something simple but powerful: I got in the shower. (Yes, really, hot showers are one of my favourite reset rituals, and I'm deeply grateful for that privilege.)

Standing under the water, I remembered my bigger vision. And suddenly, everything shifted.

My vision; is for a world of true freedom and beauty, where we each have the necessary support, skills, understanding, and experience to be truly self-aware and self-actualized. Here we live with reverence for all life and with a deep commitment to connection, healing, community, and love.

This vision is what caught me when I started to feel despair.

This vision does not rely on money. This vision is not controlled by the powers above. This vision includes all of you.

When we fall into fear, everything seems to move one way, toward collapse, toward scarcity, toward survival mode. But when I reconnect to my vision, I remember: there are hundreds, thousands, millions of people who want this too. Who are working toward it in their own ways. Who refuse to give up on beauty and connection and healing.

That's when my mission became clear again: to inspire and empower courageous people, like you, to step into their greatest visions for life, aligned with their values and highest potential for the benefit of all.

This is what gets me up in the morning. This is what makes my life worth living, even when the world feels heavy.

Last weekend, I went to the national march for Palestine with my daughter and some friends. We walked among 100,000 others who feel deeply about the sacredness of life and freedom. It was grounding and inspiring to know that while some people are campaigning and using their power to research and report and resist in ways I can't right now, I can still contribute I can show up and show my resistance with my body and when i can’t do that I can boycott Starbucks, Airbnb, Zara. Small actions, but aligned with my values and aligned with my people, the ones who were there.

When you have a clear vision, you can see opportunities to move toward it everywhere, even in small, everyday choices.

So my invitation here is to ask yourself: What is the world of my longing? Not what you think is realistic or achievable—what do you actually long to see? Write it down. Let yourself be bold, creative, visionary. Start with "My vision is for a world..." and see what wants to come through.

3. Get Clear on Your Values and Mission

Without Vision, Fear Takes Over

Here's my question for you: What is your vision? What is your greater vision for life?

Because without a vision for yourself, you get sucked into a world of fear and destruction. That energy is powerful, hopelessness, apathy, blame, the feeling of powerlessness.

But I believe we are more than that. We are powerful creators, both individually and collectively.

Creating your vision isn't selfish. It's recognition that when we're thriving and moving toward our highest visions, life moves with us. We can't forget those suffering more than us, but we can and should live the best life possible and use our gifts to be beacons of light and support, whether we're bin collectors, teachers, or accountants. We have choice about how we show up and what future we move into.

The Process: Values → Vision → Mission

Step One: Clarify Your Values Give yourself time to outline what matters most. What do you stand for? For me, it's integrity (living by what I say), kindness, and recognising that I'm part of a bigger interconnected web. When I first wrote this clearly, it was so powerful. I knew who I was beneath the stories and fear.

Step Two: Honour Your Values Sit with your non-negotiables. See yourself. Own it. Then tune into the knowing that there are others like you…..millions and billions of others who share your values. When you actually let that in it’s really powerful.

Step Three: Envision the World of Your Longing What would you love to see? Be creative. Have fun. Write it all out, then synthesise it into a clear paragraph. (I used ChatGPT to help refine mine into something that sounded completely like me but clearer.)

Step Four: Find Your Mission Envision yourself in that vision. What gets you up? What's your gift? What are you determined to create? When you journal on this, you'll see a thread that's pulled you forward your whole life, that's your mission. Write it out and its powerful when you do.

My invitation is to spend 30 minutes this week working through these questions. Don't wait for the "perfect time"….what if now is the time, and all the excuses are just keeping you contracted and ungrounded? Give yourself this gift.

Conclusion: Choose Hope, Choose Vision

When fear wants to contract you, your vision calls you to expand.

I'm not talking about toxic positivity or ignoring real problems. I'm talking about consciously choosing what you're creating, even in the midst of chaos. Especially in the midst of chaos.

Because here's the truth: the world needs people who know what they stand for and where they're going. People who refuse to contract. People who hold vision even when it's hard.

Don't succumb to the fear. I am here for you, and I am choosing hope. I believe that with consciousness, connection, and great vision, we can create the worlds of our longing.

Ready to Get Clear?

🎧 Listen to the full podcast episode: [When Fear Wants to Contract You: Creating Vision in Uncertain Times] where I go deeper into this process and share more about my own journey.

📥 Download your free Life Compass Assessment : Get instant access here with all the journal prompts and a step-by-step process for clarifying your compass.

💬 Want to go deeper? I'm offering free discovery calls this week for people who are ready to stop muddling through and create their complete life blueprint. The Life Compass Curriculum gives you the training, community support, and ongoing guidance to step into your highest potential across all eight areas of life. [Apply for a free call here]

🌿 Join me at the Nature Quest in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, a powerful weekend ceremony on the land with like-minded folk to drop into your vision and mission together. Contact me to find out more.

Connect With Me

Drop a comment below and tell me: What came up for you reading this? What's one small step you can take toward your vision today?

Connection Matters - Leona Johnson https://www.leonajohnson.life
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