Meeting Fear With Love

Fear is the number-one ingredient of any form of self-sabotage. And fear is a blessing.
Fear is unconsciousness. And fear may be a wonderful gateway for conscious living.

How do these seeming paradoxes fit together? Well, it all depends on how you approach and experience fear. It also depends on how actively aware you are of your fear at each moment that it holds you in its grip.

Each time fear rises up within us, we are given a choice. We can choose to be controlled and dominated by it or we can face it, feel it, acknowledge it and allow it to dissolve. However, when we are letting fear control us, we are mostly not aware of having that choice, at least not at that moment.

Fear itself is an expression of resistance and unconsciousness. We are always afraid of what is not known to us, what we cannot control and get hold of. And we feel fear, because we sense a potential threat and danger to our survival. That´s what fear is all about and those are its origins. Fear is an emotional reaction that is linked to our survival mechanisms. Its basic purpose is to protect us and to prevent damage to our physical and emotional well-being.

However, most of our fears are not based on real threats, but only on what we perceive and imagine to be threats. And most of the time, it´s not even us consciously perceiving these threats, but reactions from our unconscious minds. Not many of us were brought up in complete allowance to be who we truly are and in the knowing that this journey on earth is not about submitting to one "correct" way of living and being, but a unique and magical journey for each and everyone of us.

Not many of us were brought up in the acceptance of our true core nature, which is love. Most of us were conditioned into believing that love is something we have to earn and strive for, something that is based on conditions of some kind. But love is completely beyond any condition or requirement. Love cannot be truly defined as it is all-inclusive. Inclusive of everything we are and experience. Inclusive as well of any fears we might experience.

And here it becomes interesting: Fear dominates our experience when we are out of alignment with the love we truly are. In simple terms, we can either be in a place of love, or in a place of fear. But is fear love´s opposite? Well, this is a way of viewing fear through the lense of fear. Through the lense of love, fear is nothing but an energy that is part of the human experience. There is nothing wrong with feeling fear and ironically, fear could never exert power and control over us if we didn´t have a problem feeling it.

We will feel fear each time we move out of our comfort zone, take a risk, show vulnerability, dare to fully be who we are and act out of intuition and inner guidance. Fear will always be there when we open up to painful feelings, speak our truth, help someone in danger, move out of our habits of surviving and functioning into truly being joyful and alive. Fear wants to keep you where you are, even if this is a place of pain and suffering.

So bowing to your fear, subdueing to it, is one way of dealing with fear. Though it may sound surprising, the more you resist your fear, the more you are actually bowing to it. Because what you´re doing is buying into the lies of unconscious living, which is synonymous to viewing the world through the lense of fear, synonymous to disempowerment.

Welcoming your fear without resisting it, is actually very empowering. It means you´re experiencing fear from a place of love, you´re experiencing it as nothing but the energy it truly is, running through your body and system. You´re allowing it the space to transform and dissolve. And it does! Fear that is fully received transforms into empowerment. It may give you feelings of excitement, open up your creativity, inspire you in new and unknown ways.

Feeling, welcoming your fear does not mean to subdue to it. It does not mean to buy into its lies. It does not mean to allow it to hold you back and to paralyze you. It does not mean to let it define you.

All it means is letting it be there without giving it any meaning whatsoever. All it means is to fully accept it and be free of it at the same time. That´s when fear turns into a blessing and becomes the gateway for true empowerment.