Fear is Your Friend

Everyone wants to be comfortable, safe, and enjoy life. Yet most people spend a lot of time struggling with worry, anxiety and uncertainty. These are all forms of fear, which create stress. Yoga offers many tools like posture, breath and meditation to calm the body, mind, and emotions. But you can go beyond just managing stress to resolving it at its source, by simply sitting down and talking to your fear.

As uncomfortable as tense muscles and churning thoughts can be, they are not the problem. Anxiety is a wise friend, simply bringing your attention to the problem. Ignoring anxiety or just living with it keep you from seeing whatever it is that has disturbed your well-being. Whether that is immediate physical danger, the threat of a past trauma, or the anticipation of future harm, fear gives you access to the wisdom and inner-guidance needed to bring you to peace.

So spend some quality time in the counsel of this friend.

-Sit still and breathe deeply.

-Let all bothersome worries and concerns come forth. Calmly feel it all.

-Ask the feelings what the exact threat is. Ask again until it is specific and clear.

-Then ask this inner wisdom what will take care of this for you.

This simple way of working with your fear usually brings immediate relief, just by paying attention to the sensations. Try it regularly as a form of meditation, or as part of your practice.

You may discover stress-releasing truths such as, “I see that actually everything is just fine right now”; the fear was leftover or habitual. Permanent peace requires remembering and using this “updated” information.

Other times you may see something that needs to be said or done to regain or remain in your comfort zone. Take action on that valuable information, then your fear will leave you alone until it is needed again.  In this way you will one-at-a-time clear up all the accumulated disturbing situations in your life. When they are clear, you experience a deep peace called Soul.

Human life will always bring challenge and change. Consciously use your natural fear response as a message to come back to inner peace. It will help you solve all the small stuff. And from the vast perspective of Soul, IT’S ALL SMALL STUFF!
