We have nothing to fear . . .
But fear itself!” pronounced Winston Churchill. Indeed, fear is scary.
And lately it’s grabbed me. Why now?
1. As I mentioned last month, in Indian traditional medicine, fall is dominated by the air element. Air moves constantly, unpredictably, and in all directions. Air can be energizing: Here in the Northeast, autumn’s brisk winds stir us to walk faster. We may find ourselves motivated to tackle new projects. But air can also leave us ungrounded, unplugged, anxious. The simultaneous return to work or school of course piles anxieties on top of the seasonal shift.
2. Life events also generate what’s called “situational” anxiety. My mom’s failing health—she’s 94 and my remaining parent—has seized my gut as well as my heart. Of the three dark emotions (sorrow, anger, and fear), I did not expect fear to dominate. While all of my emotions are currently at a pitch, I’ve had some fear spikes that feel akin to panic attacks: flushed skin, racing heartrate, sense of impending doom, all triggered by ordinary daily upsets that usually wouldn’t phase me.
FEAR: FRIEND OR FOE?
I advise you to listen to your fears. Fear keeps us alive. It tells us not to step off the curb into oncoming traffic, to get that suspicious lump checked by a doctor, to set aside funds for retirement.
But fear also cripples us. It provokes us to act (or react) in potentially harmful ways:
- Fear can lead us to fight, stirring up destructive and often needless confrontations with those around us. Then we have to clean up the mess or live with the fallout.
- Fear can make us run away (physical flight from a predator) or “flee”—check out—emotionally, when we most need to be present. It can spook our minds into making bad decisions.
- At its extreme, fear can paralyze us: Rather than fight or flee, we freeze, unable to do anything.
What’s a person gripped by fear to do?
As always, yoga offers tools to manage our inner and navigate our outer bogeymen—in this case, practices that help us get through the day when beset by fear.
As anyone knows who’s ever chased the dragon of an addiction, compulsion, or obsession—pretty much all of us!—fear tells us that we have to have that substance, that person, that result to be okay. Rather than running toward a gratification, you can easily see how such behaviors arise from running away from something we fear: most commonly being alone, being abandoned, being banished, or just being overwhelmed by our feelings.
A therapist once opined that people caught in addictive/compulsive cycles share two traits:
- Low self-esteem: They don’t think can address life head on, or they don’t think they’re worth fighting for, or both
- Absence of a calming mechanism. When fear arises, which it will to all mortals, they can’t ratchet down.
I discussed low self-esteem in my September Yoga News. As for the “calming mechanism,” yoga offers abundant strategies. Indeed, yoga was arguably created specifically to address fear: Stress is not a modern problem! Yogis centuries ago were humans too, facing the existential vulnerability of inhabiting mortal bodies in an indifferent universe. Here are a few tried and true techniques to dispel your biggest and smallest worries:
YOGIC FEAR BUSTERS
1. Pranayama: Our breathing affects our nervous system and vice versa. Yoga’s many breathing practices channel the breath (or prana, life force, energy) in specific ways to calm us down, lift us up, or find the place of balance in between.
2. Repetitive movement: Sometimes when fear strikes, we’re so agitated we can’t sit still. Best to work here from the outside in: Lull your body with consistent movement like sun salutations, walking, running, or swimming. The motion will soothe frayed nerves.
3. Transcendent meditation. Mindfulness meditation is in vogue these days, but that approach can backfire when you’re in a state of high alert. I’ll do a whole blog on this in the future, but for now try a contemplation that helps you exit the present moment and your individual identity. This allows immediate anxieties to melt into the expansive whole and dissipates their power. Indeed, you may even realize that your worries are illusions—that everything is in fact just fine!
4. Chakra meditation: The first chakra governs our survival instincts. Contemplating this chakra awakening can restore our sense that we are stronger than we realize and that no one every died from a feeling, even fear!
5. Stabilizing practices: As with repetitive movement, anything we do consistently can help us self-regulate. Certain yoga poses are more effective than others in overcoming fear’s agitation: Standing poses, balancing poses, and seated forward bends and hip openers top the list.
6. Karma yoga (selfless service): Go out and be useful to others. Getting out of ourselves is key; doing good also reminds us of our innate power.
7. Ayurveda (Indian traditional medicine) offers myriad ways to soothe, from sesame oil massage to 14-day pancha karma
AND SOME MODERN HACKS
Along with these yogic techniques, modern-day sages have pointed out the value of:
- Gratitude lists: Write down three (or five, or more!) things for which you are grateful in your life today, just as it is. The sense of abundance this elicits can calm the most uncertain heart.
- Spend time in nature: Doctors have discovered that autistic children respond to spending time out on the ground, away from carpeting, wood floors, and other barriers that suspend us away from the earth. Out East, people know to go stare at the ocean when life gets out of hand. And anyone can look up at the sky!
Try any of these tools before you reach for a prescription or gummy bears. There’s often no need to go outside for help. Body, mind, and heart are all linked to the nervous system: Yoga’s genius was to discover the link. By reorganizing breath and posture, redirecting prana (energy), the early yogis devised ways to settle nerves, clarify thinking, and open hearts.
It’s working for me! When I settle, I realize it’s okay to be sad. It’s okay to pre-grieve as I anticipate my mom’s passing. I can even gaze eyes wide open into the truth of this human existence: Everything ends.
When you’re back on beam, try this advice from a wise friend:
Accept in advance everything that’s going to happen.
You’ll be surprised how fear drops away when confronted with this simple decision!