Can mindfulness break the cycle of fear?

Welcome here, to my first blog on this new website.

I trust that you will be able to open your heart as you read on through my thoughts and feelings, ideas and beliefs.

If you have any comments, I would love to hear from you.

Carrying fear is exhausting, troubling and perhaps doesn’t give your mind/body space to have the best life you could have. Fear can prevent you from finding your full potential. When you are in a fear state you can feel separated from your body like your life is happening to someone else. When you are in a fear state you need to protect yourself which makes it very hard to be in the present moment.

“What if that car suddenly stopped in front of me?”
“What if I get bad news at the Drs?”
“What if I have a panic attack in front of everyone”?
“What if someone notices my hands shaking?”

These are all thoughts into the future.

Mark Twain once said, “My life has been filled with terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened.”

Our imaginations are incredibly powerful, they can be used positively or negatively. Some peoples’ minds are wired a bit more towards fear and anger. Their systems are tuned in differently to the world, perhaps a different frequency. Many things can cause this e.g., childhood trauma or traumatic events or because they are born that way, perhaps with epigenetics or genetics as a backdrop.

I wonder what would happen if you acknowledged your fear.

Sit back. Say hi to it. Pay homage. It is there a reason for it showing up.?
What story is it telling you?
How does your body feel it?
Where does it feel it?

The big question is….

Are the stories true?

How do you know if they are true or if they are not?

Allow yourself to feel whatever comes with loving awareness.

Whatever you are feeling is normal for you.

Often, we want to run away from our fear. They are powerful feelings and can seem overwhelming at times.

Be curious, stay curious. Fear is a part of the normality of life not to be pushed away but to   be held with regard in a mindful way. It doesn’t mean your fear will go away, but you can make it your friend and know that the sum of you is much bigger than your fear.

We often crave certainty which we often believe to be an antidote for fear. As Jack Cornfield has said, “We are a river of change, and if we try to hold on, what we end up getting is rope burn. It’s a kind of recipe for suffering.”

Imagine accepting that everything changes, that we can float or coast rather than stopping the fear waves. We can become more in tune with fear rather than trying to fight it.

Back to the original question. Can mindfulness break the cycle of fear?

Yes definitely, for some people that is the case.

For others, the answer would be that there are many things that contribute to breaking the cycle of fear.