Cleaning House by Dissolving Old Fears
A practical look at and approach to dealing with these relics!
What if…
Fear is sustained by the artifacts collected in the memories from your past?
Think about that for a moment...
Then consider this…
These historical artifacts that you naturally carry with you are not just facts about things that happened in the past. For you they are real and they have meaning!
But this isn’t your average philosophical meaning, oh no...
This meaning brings about emotional and biological implications relative to your experience of Life!
In other words, the meaning we carry along with these artifacts causes emotional stress, creating chemical reactions in the body.
It’s an endless cycle of illogical thinking spurned on by outdated emotions, potentially leading to health challenges. What? Health challenges? Yes! Todays science tells us clearly that these challenges stem from the biological reactions you have when re-enacting these old memories! Your body keeps on reliving the old fears, and this has very real consequences.
This is not about things you logically think about that “scare” you.
So if you are saying “I don’t have those fears…”, think again.
You will only find these fears in the recesses of your behavior…
Which takes a fair amount of reflection, inspection and introspection to get to.
Most of us operate with these sorts of historical artifacts in the background...
A natural and innate subconscious and emotionally driven level of thinking/behaving.
To explore a little further, let’s delve into this natural history that you are carrying...
Most of the relics you carry were adopted at a young age, and...
Are almost completely free of logical inspection by your adult mind.
In other words - you didn’t choose many of your fears...
You adopted and adapted to them at a young age when your ability to reason was Very Limited!
Despite that fact…
You still believe in them because of the very real chemical reactions that were set on fire in your body when they were formed - causing that moment, and the associated fears, to be etched into your long term memory.
These chemical reactions are so deeply tied to these fear-based emotions, and associated with specific external memories, that they conveniently keep you from exploring the source of your fears. Who wants to look in the direction of something that scared you that much when you were a child??? It’s just not comfortable.
But, now that you are an adult, why not face these ancient dragons! Especially since they aren’t really dragons - they are OLD memories - and your inner child is patiently waiting for you to come to the rescue!
Once you understand and can move past the chemical reactions that keep these fears alive your world will open up!
Well, OK, it takes some work, but it is COMPLETELY worth it!
Once you see that the chemistry of fear and stress is tied to the uninspected parts of yourself that often carry illogically meaning…
YOU will undo their meaning and be able to rewire your brain so it stops causing those particular chemical reactions.
And it is, quite naturally, a powerful journey that can completely reshape every aspect of your Life in exactly the way that you want!
Your fears only have real power to impact you when they are still uninspected.
IT IS QUITE LITERALLY YOUR CHOICE!
You can continue ignoring the backdrop of your behaviors, or…
You can take a look around and see what’s really going on!
If you take the time to understand...
The mechanics of your thoughts,
The particular artifacts you carry,
The meaning you are making,
The emotional pull that these artifacts cause, and…
The chemistry your body creates in reaction to this process...
You can, quite literally, transform these fears, and in so doing, transform your entire experience of Life!
What I can say from experience is this: breaking through these olds fears creates a new level of awe and wonder in your Life! You will feel as if a huge weight was lifted from your shoulders as you gaze out onto the new landscape of potential you always knew was waiting for you!
NOTE: This process is more daunting to start doing than to actually do. In other words, the hard part is simply choosing to review why you are reacting to one specific instance of an emotional challenge in your life. Once you have chosen to take a look at what is going on, the actual work of reviewing and sorting out what's real and what’s not is, relatively speaking, easy to do! Once you have pushed through one old fear - discovering that you had a choice all along - moving on to the next is something you can do more easily, especially since you now know it is completely worth pushing through!
#Enjoy #Life
Try This On
Activities for engaging the ideas in this post!
There are so many practical ways you an approach the exploration of these fears from our childhood!
Believe it or not, both exercise and a mindfulness practice are great ways to support your efforts in this arena. Both are proven to provide real and measurable benefits when working with old fears, and simply stress.
But to get more specific I am sharing with you two articles written by Savvy Psychologist Dr. Monica Johnson, which provide excellent reading along with some specific actions you can take to help unearth old fears and release the grip they hold on your life!
Kid Fears in Adults: Separation Anxiety
Kid Fears in Adults: The Dark and Other Phobias
Here is a quick summary of the exercises.
Note, I am just providing the headings for each section, please open the articles for the details on each of these, the writing is simple, practical, and will work for basic exploration of this topic.
Separation Anxiety - Tips:
Tip #1: Get really specific
Tip #2: Answer the question
Tip #3: Shift from “What could happen?” to “What’s happening right now?”
Tip #4: Stop asking your anxiety if you’re OK
Tip #5: Of course, practice being by yourself
The Dark and Other Phobias - Tips:
Tip #1: Don’t beat yourself up
Tip #2: It’s not a blow to your character
Tip #3: Start slowly
Tip #4: Don’t just wait for it to be over
Disclaimer: This is not meant to be a substitute for clinical diagnosis or medical information, this is only meant to be educational. Please consult a licensed therapist or psychologist to provide support that is tailored to your specific needs.
Life Quote
What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.
BOOK SUGGESTION
This book is powerful and practical for this post. Although it looks like it is for navigating your way to success in life, what Susan David deals with in her book has everything to do with the “artifacts” of our past!
Quoting the description from this book:
“The way we respond to these internal experiences drives our actions, careers, relationships, happiness, health—everything that matters in our lives. As humans, we are all prone to common hooks—things like self-doubt, shame, sadness, fear, or anger—that can too easily steer us in the wrong direction. Emotionally agile people are not immune to stresses and setbacks. The key difference is that they know how to adapt, aligning their actions with their values and making small but powerful changes that lead to a lifetime of growth. Emotional agility is not about ignoring difficult emotions and thoughts; it’s about holding them loosely, facing them courageously and compassionately, and then moving past them to bring the best of yourself forward.”
The above describes exactly what this exploration can and should be - a means of finding the courage to examine and release those old ideas that keep us from our own greatness. But what’s more, she gives specific and practical ways to engage these ideas. Creating new behavior starts with engaging new action, which is the only course that move you beyond your past!
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