Working With Your Fears
One of my mentors once said, “don’t allow yourself to be led by fears”. The statement did resonate with me, but not sure I really understood it until last night’s session in which we unpacked the concept of fear.
Dana Zamir has been researching the unconscious connection between body and mind for many years. She’s a Theta Healing therapist and a WaveMakers alumna, so we had the honor of having her on stage at WaveMakers Connect, sharing her special perspective with our community.
At the beginning of the session, Dana asked us to think of a specific fear we were facing and imagine where in our body this fear could be located. Difficult exercise for me, as I have a hard time sitting still, not to mention meditation. However, this body-mind awareness is crucial, because fear can manifest itself in various ways. Sometimes we don’t see the (unconscious) connection between our bodies and minds, but it does impact our daily lives. Perhaps you have experienced cold sweat, a lump in your throat, or rushing to the bathroom. These are short-term reactions of our bodies, but there are more subtle, long-term consequences, too.
Amongst other techniques, we learned to reconnect with our true selves and listen to what truly matters: our heart. Dana told us that it’s her favorite technique because, during the exercise, we allow ourselves to focus on thoughts and feelings which we tend to neglect in our busy everyday lives. Emotions usually last for just 90 seconds and if we allow ourselves to truly feel them, we can also choose to move on afterward. This way, we learn to control the direction of our thoughts, while maintaining a deep connection with our emotions.
This level of awareness can help us locate fears in our bodies and acknowledge them, but choose not to give them the power to control us. Instead, we learn to befriend our fears and put them back in their place. In other words: not allowing ourselves to be led by fear. I get it. :-)
Thanks, Dana for sharing your wisdom with us! Here’s a 90-sec video about the mindfulness technique of reconnecting with your heart:
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