Is Fear Itself The Only Thing To Fear?

Written by Royce Morales, Perfect Life Awakening

A renowned trailblazer, creator of an innovative, spiritually based approach to inner transformation. Her program, Perfect Life Awakening, emerged from a lifetime of frustration searching for inner work that worked.

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As a human, especially lately, anxiety might be the one constant you can count on 24/7. With an endless list of responsibilities, personal and professional challenges, along with the unprecedented rollercoaster ride of events going on in the world, your anxiety might be through the roof. Or beyond. 

Perhaps you’re spending time curled up in a fetal position binge-watching Netflix. Maybe you’re participating in various numbing strategies, attempting to soothe your gut-wrenching, perpetual angst. Or have you mastered droning lalalalala with fingers inserted firmly in your ears?

Do any of those tactics work for more than a short while? Probably not.  

Anxiety is something all people grapple with, to various degrees, every single day. It’s labeled in different ways: Concern, nervousness, apprehension, panic, alarm, hysteria, apprehension, timidity, dread, trepidation, worry, terror. 

This collective human experience has us squirming is an uncomfortable, front row seat waiting to see what might happen next.

And one thing is certain: Humans loath uncertainty. Yet, at the same time, we crave excitement — an “odd couple” that does not pair well. Predictability feels safer, yet drama provokes excitement. We struggle for inner peace yet crank up hip-hop on our daily commute. 

Yes, we are creatures of contradiction.  

Fear of fear

So, let’s cut to the chase. 

Alternative labels for anxiety are just euphemisms for fear. And fear is what you are actually feeling no matter what you choose to call it. Those code words make fear sound more palatable, since admitting you are afraid might be terrifying to fess up to. 

Why? 

As a child you may have received recurring messages that gave fear a bad rap. Were you told that feeling fear makes you a sissy? Or mocked that only cowards are afraid. Were you advised to ignore those persistent butterflies flapping about in your stomach and just do it? Reprimanded to not be silly since fear is irrational? 

Those lessons became your personal rules as to how you deal with (or don’t deal with) fear. You learned that fear is to be resisted, disregarded, judged and conquered. That only logic should be listened to. 

Most importantly, you started believing that there was something wrong with you for being afraid. 

The underlying message was that fear is bad and should be run from. Those notions were instilled by people who had mastered ways to suppress and deny their own fear. They were under the spell of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s commandment that “The only thing to fear is fear itself.” 

What is fear?

Your fear response arrives with you the minute you inhabit a body. It’s a primitive program imprinted on your hard drive, designed to make sure your physical body survives. Automatic default reactions of defend, withdraw and shock (AKA fight, flight, freeze) get triggered no matter how rational you train yourself to be. 

Fear’s role came in handy back in cave-dwelling times. But with fewer dinosaurs to be concerned with, you’re probably not faced with as many blatant, life-threatening situations. 

However, that doesn’t matter to your fear-based, Inner Operating System. It has its own definition of threat, whether physical, emotional or mental. In fact, anything that triggers you, big or small, is defined as a threat. An offhanded comment; a parent too busy to instantly change a wet diaper; a jealous sibling that runs off with your toy; a teacher that gives you a “C-” You get the point.

Adding to those triggers is instant access to alarming things going on all over the world. In fact, these past few years of planetary commotion are causing your survival mechanism to be in hyperdrive, perceiving danger everywhere.

Your challenge: To not surrender to the power of fear when it stops you from pursuing what’s meaningful and important. 

Know that although fear provides a pretense of safety, it’s what is killing your aliveness. And buying into fear will be the biggest regret you will have at the completion of your time here.

Feeling fear

The truth is fear is not the problem. It may sound contradictory, but attempting to suppress, deny and numb fear only gives it more power over you. 

Since you are probably well stocked with fears of fear, it’s vital to allow yourself to get in touch with it rather than cowering in the corner trying to ignore it. Recognizing fear, noticing how it feels in your body, observing your judgments about it, and seeing what it’s really about can neutralize its power.   

Learning to embrace and understand fear as a signal that something deeper has been triggered is a discipline that will change your life. Encourage yourself to honor fear as a wise instructor to help you learn important lessons about the origins of your triggers.  

Here are some suggestions to help with that:

1. Recognize, observe and feel fear, knowing that all negative emotions are fear in disguise. Simultaneously, be the compassionate adult with your frightened inner child. Don’t judge, berate or belittle it for being afraid. It just wants you to recognize how scared it is without trying to rescue it. Treat yourself with as much compassion and kindness as you would someone you truly care about who is just afraid.

2. Notice your various tactics to suppress fear. Acting-as-if (“Look at me, I’m so happy!”), using spiritual bypass clichés (“Everything happens for a reason; it’s all good!"), or dulling it (“Another martini, please!”) are common techniques. Choose to be with your fear in a mindful way -- you might be surprised at how fast it dissipates. 

3. Determine what it’s really about. Was a false, negative belief triggered? Were you blindly obeying a parental order from long ago? Listen to the messages from your body; ask what this fear symbolizes to you. Identifying it in that way helps alleviate some of its oomph and gives you ways to speak to it. Once you look under the rug to discover what’s hiding there, you can make other, wiser, calmer choices. 

4. Give yourself permission to acknowledge the “worst case scenario.” Without editing yourself, you might notice some ridiculous fears that will never manifest and discover the deeper message behind those false beliefs.

5. It’s all a wake-up call. The turmoil going on far and wide is showing you a trigger of something unhealed from your past. By feeling and understanding what it’s pointing out, you are brought into the present moment and can receive wise lessons and intuitive guidance. Not only for yourself, but for the planet. You chose to be here at this moment in history to learn, evolve, and manifest your empowered, empowering, True Purpose in being.

1. Responsibly express fear. Find someone who will listen compassionately, not try to fix you, save you, or tell you not to feel that way. Be authentic. Ask yourself: How would a child describe this feeling. Doing this instantly releases that angsty energy of fear since it just wants to be recognized and heard.   

2. Don’t believe fear as truth. Repeat this mantra: It’s just fear, False Evidence Appearing Real. Remember: Fear is your primitive survival mechanism temporarily running your show. Unacknowledged fear can turn into despair, which is not an option during these extraordinary times. 

So, be grateful for your fear. Maybe even love it. It’s often a gift from your soul to awaken your unique life purpose, to help usher in global transformation from fear to love.  

Remember: Uncertainty is where possibility lives.

Read more from Royce Morales

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Royce Morales, Perfect Life Awakening

Royce Morales is a renowned trailblazer, creator of an innovative, spiritually based approach to inner transformation. Her program, Perfect Life Awakening, emerged from a lifetime of frustration searching for inner work that worked. She discovered that revealing specific subconscious origins of self-sabotage, removing its persistent influence, life can shift.

She developed a clearing technique that releases programmed, false beliefs from this as well as previous lives. Negative patterns and hidden fears resolve so paralyzing issues lose their impact. This exclusive, time-tested work takes students from triggered to empowered, uncovering their authentic, purpose-driven life.

PLA also provides applicable tools to navigate daily life – ways to rapidly shift from anger to calm, fear to acceptance, judgement to connection. The work emphasizes awareness of, trusting and following one’s innate intuitive wisdom, then taking bold, inspired, real-world action.

The Perfect Life Awakening courses take place remotely and are presented in small groups to provide individual attention. Royce offers private inner discovery sessions to facilitate deeper work, utilizing her proprietary spiritual clearing technique called Spiritual Cognition Integration.

Royce is the author of three books about her teachings: Want – True Love, Past Lives and Other Complications; Know: A Spiritual Wake-up Call and Back: Rebirth After Stroke, all available on Amazon.

Go to Royce’s YouTube channel where she shares enlightening information about her teachings. She posts weekly blogs and writes articles for several other publications.