Archive for fear
Hidden Stressors-Part Three
Posted by: | CommentsIn Part Two in this series on Hidden Stressors, I talked about trauma.
How there are no “little t” traumas. Traumas have to do with how the nervous system responded to an event that was overwhelming at the time. Some people, especially highly sensitive people, may have more finely-tuned nervous systems that take in more information—hence, may be more susceptible to trauma.
I just finished watching hours of the Trauma Superconference 3 that aired the replays recently. It made me realize that a lot of us are carrying around unhealed, even unknown trauma in our nervous systems.
These traumas may be triggered by the recent (and current) collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Especially the trauma of unmet needs. Read More→
What is Fear–Really?
Posted by: | Comments“We have nothing to fear but fear itself–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance,” President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously said in his inaugural speech in 1933, as he faced his first term of serving a Depression-battered country.
Yes, fear can derail you, paralyze you, block you from realizing your dreams. It can wreck your health if you are in a chronic state of unconscious fear.
You may have heard that FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. That’s OK as far as it goes. Many of our fears are really not based in reality. They exist only in our head.
But what if the fear is based on reality? What if the cancer you thought you had beaten came back? Or the marriage you worked so hard to salvage fell apart anyway, and things are devolving beyond your worst imaginings? What if someone sues you for something you never did, and your life is derailed?
What if you’re in the middle of a very real storm–like, for instance, a worldwide pandemic?
Fear that something may get worse is not always unfounded. Such fear can alert us to actions to take the prevent bad things from happening. (For instance, I found a powerful image of a boat in the storm from the Huffington Post. However, fearful that it might be copyrighted, I did not use it. Healthy fear!)
For the fears that are based in reality, I prefer a different rendering of FEAR: Forgetting Every Available Resource. Read More→
From Fear to Peace
Posted by: | CommentsThere’s a lot of fear out there these days.
I have noticed with clients that their own fears have been triggered by what’s going on in the world. The Highly Sensitive among us are especially susceptible to picking up on fear from others, adding to their own fears.
Back in 1933, the U.S. was facing another fearful time: the Great Depression. In President Frnaklin Delano Roosevelt’s Inaugural speech, he uttered the famous words, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” While one may quibble with that sentiment, there is truth, I think, to the idea that fear is a force that itself can bring on no good thing.
As mentioned in The Healing Code, the fear or stress response dumbs us down; makes us sick; drains our energy; suppresses our immune system; increases our pain; raises our blood pressure; destroys relationships; causes anger, depression, shame, and worth and identity issues; and causes us to do everything from a negative perspective.
So how do you resist fear without sticking your head in the sand? Here are my suggestions. Read More→
