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Breaking Through Fear with Creativity: How to Move Past the Terror Barrier
- Bre Brown
- Jul 22
- 8 min read
Hello my beautiful souls!
Welcome back to the Modern Manifestation blog. Feel free to listen in to today's topic in the podcast.
Today we are talking about fear—the kind that slams into you the moment you’re about to change your life, making you question the jump. In a previous posts, we talked about what Bob Proctor calls the ‘terror barrier’—and today, I’m going to show you how creativity can help you break through it.
Because in my experience, the best antidote to fear is creativity.
There is an expression often used in the spiritual world—co-creation. To co-create your reality with the Universe.
My hope is that this episode helps you better understand what that collaboration looks like—and how to stay open to the creative nudges that can help you overcome fear and lead you toward the life your soul is craving.
I stumbled upon creativity as an antidote for the terror barrier through synchronicity. I was listening to Bob Proctor’s Born to be Rich program (for the 100th time) to improve my sales experience. Around the same time, I was also reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear to inspire me for the podcast. Though I was using them for different things, there was a reason I was meant to tune into them at the same time.
Their ideas collided in my brain and changed the way I approached fear, forever.
If you’re not familiar with either of them…
Bob Proctor was a renowned business consultant and coach who became popular in the 80s and 90s. He helped introduce the concept of manifestation long before it became mainstream. Elizabeth Gilbert is a bestselling author, most known for Eat, Pray, Love. And if you haven’t read Big Magic yet, I highly recommend it—I’ll drop the link in my show notes.
Summarizing the Terror Barrier
Let’s start with a quick recap of what the terror barrier is: It’s that wall of fear we hit when we start moving toward something new—something outside our comfort zone. It’s the invisible separation between what we know to be true, and what we do not know. That scary Unknown.
The barrier can show up as a lot of things—anxiety, procrastination, doubt, or that sudden desire to just… give up on an idea all together.
The terror barrier is different for all of us because it’s based on your individual paradigm—your subconscious beliefs. It can feel like the part of you that kicks and screams any time you dare to disrupt the status quo, to create change. For one person, the terror barrier might be public speaking at a major event, for someone else it is starting a new job, for another person it’s putting themselves before their partner for the first time. In other words, the barrier is the edge of our comfort zone.
When we’re stuck in our zone of comfort, we’re on autopilot—ruled by old habits and inherited beliefs. The moment a new idea pops into our awareness—something bigger, more aligned—we immediately begin justifying why we shouldn’t do it.
We enter what Bob Proctor calls the reasoning mind—when fear is louder than your desire, and comfort feels safer than change.
And here’s the hard truth:
Our amygdala (that primitive part of the brain) is wired to view anything unfamiliar as a threat—even if that “threat” is actually the dream life you’ve been praying for.
That’s why taking action feels so hard.
That’s why I keep coming back to this concept.
Because when the terror barrier shows up, most people stop. They retreat to the familiar.
But… what if you didn’t?
I used to be most people.
I started breaking through fear when I realized it wasn’t a personal failure—it was biology. My brain was just defaulting to an old, protective setting. Once I understood that, I could override it with conscious thought. And for me, the best override has been creativity.
Creativity as a Tool
Creativity helps me push through fear by making hard tasks feel more enjoyable, giving me momentum to keep going. I use it to shift my energy, make progress feel playful, and rewrite the “rules” that hold me back. Often, I’m not resisting the task itself—I’m resisting the way I think it has to be done.
Personal Example: Cold Calls
For years, I avoided cold calls because I dreaded rejection. What changed everything was turning the process into a game:
How many “no’s” could I get in 30 minutes?
Could I get someone to laugh in 60 seconds?
What if I tracked response rates by day and time?
Could I reward myself for every 25 calls?
Could I make calls while walking, driving, or post-yoga?
One breakthrough moment came when I began batching prospects. I used to over-research, trying to know everything about each company. Each prospect could easily take me 20-30 minutes of research. But I realized I just needed one good reason to call—something they all had in common. Things like building locations, lease expirations, rapid hiring, closing Series A, B, and C funding rounds. Batching saved me time and cut through my perfectionism.
I didn’t have to have ALL of the information before I called. I just needed a few nuggets to start a meaningful conversation that was likely to resonate. Progress is more important than perfection.
Another shift occurred when I asked, “Do I really have to sit at a desk to make these calls?” I found sitting at a desk draining and I’m sure my prospects could feel that. Instead, I gave myself permission to call from wherever I wanted. Walking outdoors boosted my energy, made it more fun, and also helped humanize me to my audience—never once did a prospect complain about birds or background noise because I wasn’t sitting at some call center hitting the phones. I was on a walk and chose to call them.
At the end of the day, many of the rules I thought were “required” were just imaginary barriers. I decided that the rules of cold calling simply didn’t apply to me, and I gave my permission to make it fit better into my life and how I like to go about my day. By creatively rewriting them, I took back control—and took more action.
Arbitrary rules were a part of my barrier, so I’ve given myself creative license to make my own instead.
This kind of playful thinking is creativity in action. You don’t need to be an artist to be creative. You just need to be willing to experiment.
What If I’m Not Creative?
You might be thinking, ‘That’s great for you—but I’m not creative.’ If that’s where your head is at, this part is for you.
Creativity isn’t the same as originality. Being inspired by someone else’s idea doesn’t make you less creative.
In fact, I believe every person is creative. Creativity is simply problem-solving—and we do it every single day. We just express it differently.
An accountant might express creativity through spreadsheets. A chemist through curiosity and experimentation. A historian through how they tell the stories of the past.
So if you’re alive and thinking—you’re creative. And that creativity can help pull you out of the fear spiral. Fear often accompanies great ideas, and we can use creativity to inspire us to choose curiosity over comfort.
Because you were never meant to stay safe. You were meant to be free.
Creativity—Shifting out of Fight or Flight and into Flow
Creativity is one of the most powerful tools we have to calm our fear and rewire our minds.
When you engage in creative practices—like journaling, sketching, daydreaming—you activate your prefrontal cortex.
That’s the part of your brain that makes thoughtful decisions and regulates emotion. The prefrontal cortex also helps inhibit your amygdala—your fear center.
So creativity doesn’t just feel good—it literally helps shift your brain out of fight-or-flight and into flow. It lowers stress hormones, boosts feel-good chemicals, and gives you the mental space to see fear differently.
When you choose creativity, you’re not just expressing yourself—you’re healing. You’re taking your power back. You’re co-creating.
This is why the saying “thinking out of the box” is so powerful. It shifts the way you look at something, so you can find a way to make it work for you.
What if the terror barrier wasn’t a warning—it was an invitation?
When we follow our creative spark, we help our brain move through fear. We open ourselves to new ideas and new possibilities.
Liz Gilbert defines a creative life as “a life driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.”
Maybe that wall of resistance isn’t a sign to turn back—maybe it’s an invitation to shift perspective.
So how do we use creativity to get through the fear? Here are five powerful ways you can start today:
Reframing fear as curiosity
Shift from “this is scary” to “what can I learn here?”
Engaging in play
Let go of perfect. Try something just for fun. Make up challenges—like getting five “no’s” or saying something unexpected. When it’s a game, fear loses power. Creation is a process—not a destination.
Creating a list of micro-goals
Break big steps into tiny actions. The smaller the step, the easier it feels to cross the barrier. One email. One call. One conversation. That’s how momentum begins.
Visualizing your outcome
Picture your dream life like it’s already happening. This calms your fear center and teaches your brain that your dream life is safe.
Change the Rules
Change the rules to make the task feel lighter—like making calls on a walk or throwing away outdated advice that doesn’t work for you.
Creativity helps us retrain the brain to approach challenges with flexibility instead of rigidity.
Because change isn’t the enemy—resistance is.
And the antidote to resistance is creativity.
Final Thoughts
Manifestation is about finding your peace, resilience, and courage.
It’s about creating a version of you that is willing to walk through the terror barrier—even when it sucks—because it’s aligned with what you really want.
Lean on your creativity to help you cross your mental barriers. Let it guide you through.
I invite you to sit with discomfort.
Experience fear without labeling it as failure.
Stay curious longer than you stay scared.
On the other side of the Terror Barrier is not just the life you’re dreaming of—it’s you, unfiltered, and free.
A version of you who’s no longer waiting for permission to exist.
And that? That’s the most magnetic energy you can carry.
As we close, I want to leave you with this quote from Big Magic:
“You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures.”
This is the work. To show up. To move forward. To create at all costs. To let fear ride shotgun—but never drive.
This week, get curious about your fear. Create something small. Reframe a challenge. Let your creativity lead the way.
That’s where your next breakthrough lives.
You were born to manifest big things, my friend.
Thank you for hanging out with me today. I will catch you in the next post!
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