Over the past week I have found myself sharing some 'tips' on how to manage your fear, five quick ways for fear to subside. After posting a few times on this something major felt out of alignment for me. The truth is, there is nothing about fear to be avoided or escaped. This is apart of you as much as a limb or your breath, you can't cut it out of your life as much as you can't cut out your heart. It is apart of your heart, apart of your being and what really landed for me this week is that it is apart of our wisdom if we are able to change our relationship with it and drop into its wisdom.
The Familiarity of Fear
Firstly what does fear feel like in your body? We so often assume it will feel the same in our body as it does in others. I want to invite you to really tap into it, is it fear that you are feeling? When it comes what do you do? Where do you go?
For me it's a feeling in my Solar Plexus (the energy point just below your sternum), when it begins to creep in its a feeling of emptiness and pain, my breath becomes shorter and my mind begins to go into overdrive. This is the point where old mechanisms the brain has used to avoid feeling pain (or even joy at times) kicks in. The stories we create and tell ourselves to keep us safe, safe meaning familiar, and by familiar I mean not feeling pain or anything that remotely reminds us of an old wound or trauma in our lives.
So here is the question, how familiar does your fear feel, when you really look inward and listen to it.
The Wisdom in Fear
What is the fear you feel inviting you to look at? The relationship we have with fear is that it is a warning, what if it's an invitation? And invitation to look inward, a window to go even deeper. What we do and have been programmed to do is to avoid it, run, physically and in our minds, away from rise of it.
The truth is that fear has a knowing even deeper than what we give it credit for, it knows our deepest secrets, it knows what needs to be healed, it know where home is.
The invitation from fear is to know it, to listen, to go inward and to embrace it like you would an old friend. Within it lies the way through the pain, grief, anxiety. Within it lies you.
Being Still Enough To Listen
When fear rises my loves, rethink and re-feel your relationship with it. Can you listen? Here are some ways:
Create safety in yourself- Breathe into the lower parts of the body (Kidneys and womb). Long deep breaths. It may feel unsafe at first, go slowly and with compassion. This is where your safety lies.
Feel your feet on the ground- Walk slowly in nature. Look at your feet as you walk and allow the earth to pass through
Solitude- Yes, use this as an excuse to get some alone time, all you need is 20 minutes. Find some space to be completely alone and allow your body to come back into itself, out of the cortisol that is produced by the body and back into your heart.
You are safe- Hold yourself by touching your body where you feel the fear and tell yourself ' I am here, I am safe'.
Listen- Journal on these questions and follow what your intuition is showing you: What is the fear showing you? How old is this fear? How often have you felt this in your life? What story is your mind finding safety in (mine is always that I'm not enough)? How true is this? What do you need right now?
Gratitude- as a way to come through fear and allow yourself to find some rest in your heart, give gratitude for what you have.Most of all, know you are whole and enough right where you are.Sending love and light always,Ash xGratitude- as a way to come through fear and allow yourself to find some rest in your heart, give gratitude for what you have.
Most of all, know you are whole and enough right where you are.
Sending love and light always,
Ash x