Fear
Yesterday I went rock climbing and abseiling at Avon Gorge, which was a fun and exhilarating experience.
However, at one point I’d climbed most the way up the rock face, when I reached a particularly challenging part. It was incredibly high, there was a huge overhanging rock above my head, and I couldn’t see anything to hold onto on the smooth freezing rock face. I literally couldn’t see a way forward. Suddenly my body was gripped with fear - I couldn’t move! My mind was racing and every worse case scenario ran through my head. I couldn’t think what to do next - I just wanted to get down!
…But then I realised that it was all in my mind. My negative beliefs about what could go wrong that were keeping me trapped there, clinging to that rock! I knew I didn’t want to give up. So I had to change my way of thinking, refocus my mind and use all the courage and strength I had to find a way forward. When I reached the top it I was so pleased with myself, and it felt like an amazing achievement.
It got me thinking how fear can keep us stuck, and can prevent us from moving forward in life.
The brain is the control centre for everything that happens in your life, the way you look at things and the way you think about things. And your mind is clever; it wants to protect you and keep you safe. But sometimes it isn’t working in your best interest.
The primitive part of your brain is called the limbic system. As anxiety levels rise, you lose intellectual control, and that’s when the primitive brain steps in to try and help, believing that you’re in some kind of crisis, emergency or danger.
Fear usually stems from an event that happened in your childhood. The very first time you felt the intense emotion of fear in your lifetime, there would have been some kind of trauma involved. The event probably happened to you at a young age, and at that time you didn’t have the support or environment to release the emotion. You didn’t feel safe enough to express your emotions of fear, terror, anger, upset or hurt, or just didn’t know how to. That emotional trauma could have potentially shattered your psyche, so instead you held it in your body and suppressed and repressed it.
At the same time neural pathways were formed in the brain, and you also created a set of beliefs about yourself that were planted deep in your subconscious mind. This in turn may have set up a lifetime of patterns of behaviour. At that moment in time, your mind believed it was not safe, and the conclusions and beliefs that you formulated were prevalent. The heart was vacated due to the intense fear, and instead the mind was left in charge. It was a perfect ‘flight or flight’ reaction.
The problem is however that the mind doesn’t know the difference between real and perceived fear. And at this time it may well have made the wrong conclusions about life. That life is unsafe and you have to be fearful. The mind is also an intellect that loves to understand and analyse things - but when left in charge it automatically defaults to fear, anxiety, worry, stress and overwhelm with the aim to keep you safe and save you from experiencing that pain ever again. Your mind is in constant protection mode!
The mind is also very obsessive and constantly refers to previous patterns of behaviour. If you did something yesterday and survived, it will encourage you to do it again – even if it’s not for your highest good. This means that you often end up repeating the patterns of behaviour and the same thought patterns!
These may not always be positive though and may show up in your life as compulsive or habitual behaviour, self-harm, eating disorders, drug / alcohol abuse, being stuck in a rut, procrastination, or panic attacks. Even so, you still feel compelled to repeat the same behaviour, because at least you know the result. You are safe even if you aren’t happy! If you have high anxiety levels, over a period of time, the more your brain will interpret things around you as sources of danger and will stop you taking any risks, making any changes or moving forward.
But it’s your interpretation of events, not the actual event itself that is keeping you stuck. The primitive brain is negative, it will negatively forecast the future…that you’ll never get that job, you’ll never be able to afford something, you’ll never have a good relationship…In your mind you imagine the worst possible outcome of the event over and over, and create anxiety by negatively predicting the future. Your mind can also be negatively introspective about the past.
If you’re finding that you are fearful and have a specific area of your life where you’re not achieving the results that you want, whether it’s with regards to your situation with money, relationships, career or your health – then it’s usually because you have some kind of programming that’s holding you back from being able to create success in that area.
During my treatments I explore the root cause of your issue, and clear repeating patterns, perceptions and beliefs that may have been formed on a subconscious level as a result of past experiences. They can therefore help release blockages, aid the healing process and encourage you to move forward in your life.
Book an appointment now at info@silverbirchtherapies.co.uk
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