The Hazy Ghost of Fear

We are all afraid, and sometimes we are aware–shirking in terror; other times its subconscious. The body is the best barometer. Some say it is our subconscious. That tenseness in your shoulders or stomach are telling you that you are afraid of something. But what? We often label it generalized "anxiety" and forget to get to the heart of what caused it–a past traumatic event that stays encoded in our nervous system, forming a corresponding belief that all things x is dangerous. If you were a child, you didn't have the skills to cope with it, and if you were an adult when the fear began, perhaps you didn't have time or help to fully process it. That’s what can make it feel so amorphous, so hazy, so ghost-like, especially if we’ve been living with it our whole life.

The truth is we all wrestle with fear—fear of the unknown, of change, or being vulnerable, of rejection, of greater forces that could change our life. We are nervous creatures, with a nervous system, and often over stimulated in our culture, whether we are aware of it or not.

The truth is, we can't release what we can't see.

So, can you name it? Can you peel back the onion, layer by layer, question by question and figure out what exactly you are afraid of? And why? Often it is from childhood. We were programmed.

Soul-Prompt: What is my nervous system especially reactive to? What am I afraid of? Why?