The Fear Tree
Fear is both an emotion and a physiological response. An environmental stimulus triggers the fear response, and brings a stored subconscious belief to the forefront. The example I most often use is of a child who suffered a dog bite at a young age. This child may not remember, in later years, why he or she is afraid of dogs. In fact, in many instances, the fear is masked as dislike or aversion. But every time a dog comes into the picture, a subconscious fear response is triggered. And many times this fear will grow.
Yes, fear can grow over the years. One small seed can grow into an enormous tree.
For example, the fear of dogs may develop an association with four legged creatures, furry things, or even fence holes. Over the years the branches grow more branches.
Just like a tree, though, the fear is fragile in some ways. A large tree, just like a large fear, can be put to rest in an instant, with the right tools.
The tree of fear can also be a collective experience. There are things that most people are afraid of such as death, that can widely trigger a population all at once. Unfortunately, there are many industries, people, and groups that prey on the fear of others. Some are even willing to add branches to your tree in order to make money. The good news is that they cannot do that without your consent.
How Fear Affects Your Health
That being said, extreme fear is an all encompassing response. It takes over the bodily functions. The heart beats faster, the chemicals start flowing, and it’s hard to tell which came first, the emotion or the response. The fear response limits the ability to think, digest, fight off disease, grow, heal, rationalize, and sometimes, to move.
The chemicals produced in a fear response can be extremely harmful to our health. All of those deaths that we, as a society, attribute to “stress,” are actually due to fear. Consider the stress of a job, for example. Why does someone keep a job that causes them to be unhappy and poses a health risk? They do it out of fear. Being afraid could relate to being ostracized by community (fear of not being loved; belief- I am not lovable), or possibly of not having shelter and food (fear of death; belief – I am not safe). Once you deal with that base belief (I am not safe, or I am not loved) then perhaps one could move onto a purposeful life that they actually enjoy.
Is the fear response really necessary? Actually, humans are outgrowing the need for the kind of fear that used to be necessary due to predators. Sometimes we must help evolution along by weakening the strength of a response, or even getting rid of a particular response that no longer serves a purpose for us. In this case, being afraid would seem to still have relevance in our lives, but not in the same way. No longer are we running from hungry tigers! So perhaps a lesser response would promote longer life.
The Gift of Being Afraid
When it comes right down to it, fear is actually a gift. It reveals our weakness, allowing us to understand and clear them. Fearful is the opposite of confident or self assured. In any instance of negative and positive polarities in our lives, the goal is to neutralize, or come to a balance. Just how we come to a balance is another subject. Not every fear remedy is equal in its purpose and effectiveness. We can use “face your fears,” as our example.
Is Facing your Fears the Solution?
Many people recommend “facing your fears.” It is the practice of doing something that makes you uncomfortable, or fearful, in order to quell that fear. But the act of doing that one task only makes you impervious to doing that one task. It does not mean the root at the bottom of the tree of fear, say of losing your life, has been quelled. You cannot quell your fear of losing your life by going bungee jumping if you are afraid of heights. You can, however, desensitize yourself from the fear associated with that one specific activity, which is equivalent to cutting off a branch on the tree of fear. This is not to imply that this method is inferior, merely that we must weigh the chemical system response, and its affect on our health, against gain we will receive, to make sure it is worth it.
When is Fear a Healthy Response?
Should you let fear stop you from doing things? Well, few of us have occasion to walk into a cage full of hungry lions, but that would be an instance when being afraid would serve us well. The question lies in the level of fear. When we are looking at the cage of hungry lions, the question we should be asking ourselves as we seek our internal wisdom, is what emotion is coming up? Is it panic, intuition, terror, or just, perhaps, aversion? Panic and terror tell us we have something going on in our subconscious belief system that may need to be investigated, while aversion and intuition, which still allow us to think, are simply “letting us know” something we need to know.
How to get Through Fear
This brings us to two questions:
- How do we get through our instances of panic and terror in major fear responses, and,
- Once through them, how do we find the root of that tree so that we can put that belief to rest?
I’ll get right back to the answers. As a bridge to them, let’s discuss an extreme example.
Some people quell their large fear trees by hiding. Agoraphobia is an example. Agoraphobics have such a large tree of fear that it is impossible for them to even go outside of their home without being triggered into a panic, terror, or major anxiety response. The good news is that they can put that tree to rest by finding the underlying belief, or root, and all the branches of the tree then die as well. They do have to find, however, the temporary state of mind and sheer courage through will, to embark on that journey.
The Answers
Which brings us to the answer to our first question. How do we get through a major fear response so we can calm down and look for the roots of the tree? The answer is that it begins with an exercise in will and training. A fraction of a second, or even seconds before the response occurs, there is a small window. In that small window one must comprehend that a fear response is about to occur, and then counter it. This means using deep breathing techniques, visualization techniques and/or or some NLP or eye movement therapy. You can learn these techniques fairly easily!
Finding those comprehensive moments before the response kicks in is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, things to do in life. The default response is just giving into the fear and going where it takes you. It is like a rushing, deep, powerful, river current that wants to take you downstream. Those bumpy rocks are going to be painful if you go! You must find a branch or rock you can grab onto, to hold you steady until the river begins to calm. After that you can swim to shore.
The Tools
When you are calm once again, you can perform exercises that will allow you to uncover the root of the tree, or the belief at the base of your fear. The process may be slow going, and you may need assistance, but it is well worth the effort!
This is where hypnosis, NLP, eye movement therapy, story telling, and other techniques come into the picture. This is also where faith in the higher self and higher power come in. A mere human, individual ego and body, cannot do this alone. It requires a connection to the greater part of ourselves. How that connection is found, and exactly what that connection is, is completely individual. But it is necessary.
For more tools check out my website and youtube channel or contact me for a free consultation.
Namaste!
by Tammie Mohn
Empowered Beyond Belief
