3 Simple Steps to Release Fear
by Paula Muran

Every day we are confronted with some type of fear from the dentist’s office, driving, evening news, the job, with our children and spouses and generally all around us.

What is fear?  Fear is it a built-in survival (flight or flee) mechanism.  Even as babies, we possess the survival instincts necessary to respond when we sense danger.  Fear is a reaction that involves both the mind and body and triggers brain responses that cause the heart rate, and blood pressure to increase.  Each time we experience a reaction from fear we loose a part of our self in fear.  The bodily tension of gripping and tightness, in our solar plexus and abdomen along with heart palpitations is where we feel the most fear in our bodies.  

In Buddhism, the Buddha referred to fear as a ‘delusion’ a distorted way of looking at life.  In Hinduism fear represents the need to detach from the object creating the upset.  In these spiritual philosophies there is a need to release the ‘strong-hold’ fear plays in our life.

Most often we respond to fears from past childhood experiences.  Now as an adult, subconscious fear triggers a bodily response to those forgotten experiences and we react.  Not all fear is bad though; there is healthy and unhealthy fear.

To tackle the unhealthy fear we want to look fear right into its eye and take back our power.  The first step is to feel the fear and not push it away. Don’t be afraid of fear—it is not more powerful than you. Step two is to relax the body especially the solar plexus and abdomen area.  Breathe deeply into tight areas.  The third step is to dialogue with the fear.   Ask questions like, “What am I afraid of or what is so scary?”  “What am I learning from this experience?”  “Does this feeling remind me of something from the past?”  Once these questions are answered, we can move forward.  Fear then becomes less scary.

When we embrace fear as a friend, we start to diffuse its power over us and have an opportunity to change.  The bodily constriction of fear creates more fear and once we become conscious of the tension, relax, breathe and dialogue, we change the energy associated with the experience and move forward detaching from the object (s) of upset.