I have heard from my spiritual teachers that there are only two states of being: love and fear. When we are in the state of love, there is no place for fear. In the same way as when we switch on the light in the dark room – it expels the darkness. It may sound like an abstract concept, but when we become conscious of it and start paying attention to the way we behave and feel, then we begin to notice that this is true. Presumably, only truly enlightened people can live constantly in the state of love. But we all can experience it at moments – in our daily life. And we can work to make these moments last longer.
There is also a theory that what we are actually afraid of is our hidden powers. Quoting Marianne Williamson:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a Child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
(A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles,” Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3.)
There are various techniques and approaches to dealing with fear. In her book Feel The Fear and Do it Anyway, Susan Jeffers urges us to tackle the fear by facing it and doing the very thing that frightens us. It really works, because when we just imagine the thing, our fear puffs it up into a bloated monster, and augments it beyond all proportion. Once we move to action and our attention shifts to practicalities the monster deflates and the thing that we were so afraid of turns out to be well within our limits and abilities.
What happens sometimes, however, is that our fear may be so big that it prevents us from going into action, paralyses us. Here EFT proves invaluable. If the fear is very big you can start by tapping on it without going into details – to take off the edge. After that you can get more specific. From my experience, even a few rounds of daily tapping can create a significant difference. Safety, of course, comes first, and if your fear is too great so that there might be a risk that you feel overwhelmed, it is better to work with a therapist.
