Fear is a feeling that everybody is trying to avoid. Do not be ashamed of Fear. All beings in existence feel it. If you are trying to find a way to eliminate it, you are wasting your time. There is no such thing. Do not get mislead by the fearless characters you see in the movies. Just this knowledge alone (that every person on this earth is having it) should be a huge relief to you.
Fear is the opposite of love as we leave in a world of duality where everything is in pairs.
Fear can either be real or imaginary
- Real Fear
Example: When we stand in front of a lion, ready to attack us or whatever else is right in front of us that can harm our physical body - Imaginary Fear
It is an illusion, created from images coming directly from your mind. Fear is not real even though your body is treating as such.
• Negative Fear examples:
You go into the future and start making different scenarios in your head according to your past experiences. In other words your fears of the future are actually fears from your past that you are trying to avoid, feeling them again. That is why babies do not feel any fear in airplane turbulence, falling down stairs etc because babies did not have any of those experiences yet stored in their memories. Even though your body is treating this fear as real and gives you the impression that you have no control and you will die, Fear is just a sensation you feel in your body created by the mind. It should be emphasized here, that whatever feelings are coming up and felt on your body are coming through your mind. In other words if you change whatever is playing in your head automatically your feelings on your body will change. Try it.
• Positive Fear examples:
On the other hand fear is part of our internal guidance system helping us to expand and keep us safe. Examples
Fear is alerting/ warning that you are not prepared for an upcoming event. I.e. Test exam, Speech etc
Fear is alerting/ warning you for an upcoming danger. Truck will hit you
So the next time fear comes up, just do a reality check.
Is this fear real or imaginary?
If the fear is real and is live right in front of your eyes, at that instant, at that moment then you take the appropriate action. If on the other hand it is not, then it means that this fear is coming from your thoughts/ memory, even though you might not remember/ notice it. Since all things coming from memory are stored events that happened in the past and are not happening at that instant, then this is a clear indication that all these are coming directly from inside of you. Who is doing it? You are doing it to yourself.
Do not say “I am afraid” – Say “I feel afraid”. There is a big difference. Saying “I am afraid” you feel trapped because you feel that “you are the fear itself” while saying “I feel afraid”, you brain interpret it as just a feeling which has a possibility to be controlled. You are NOT your emotions.
Who are you then? You are
• the one who is aware of your body,
• the one who is aware of your thoughts and
• the one who is aware of your emotions.
You are simply an awareness. Do not just read it, check it out. Experiential knowledge is an absolute must
The only times I believe that these traumas start emerging/ coming up is when you are ready to face them because you are strong enough, and have all the tools necessary to enable you to release them. That is all that is required “Releasing” the emotional fear.
How do you release the feeling of fear?
You have to understand that No amount of positive focus will make Fear go away because this is called resistance (trying to avoid or push it away). What makes the pain worse is not the fear itself but your resistance you have to this perceived fear. The more resistance the worse the pain it becomes. The only way for fear to go away is to allow yourself to feel it fully or dive into the fear and not to run away. How do you do it? After you locate where this fear is expressed as a sensation on your physical body (in the stomach area) you place your awareness on your body and move towards the center of this sensation so as to give it some space to escape (DO NOT use your logic, thoughts/ memory, USE ONLY YOUR FEELINGS). You might be asking “What are you talking about?”. If so far you were using your approach and you had none or very little success why not try something new. What do you have to lose? I know it is scary but I assure it works.
Start paying more attention to the sensations in your body. For Example tightness in your chess and solar plexus is Anger, while pain at the bottom of the stomach is Fear etc. after a while you will begin to distinguish the different sensation which one is which. Doing this will also help your internal guidance system called intuition. You will feel and understand the message the same way you feel and understand your thirst, hunger or bowel movement.
Here are some nice definition for fear from different people
F.E.A.R. False Evidence Appearing Real
F.E.A.R. Forget Everything And Run
F.E.A.R. Face Everything And Rise