Fear Meditation

Meditating on fear is a relaxing and rewarding practice. Without being aware of ourselves, we often meditate less productively. This involves physical exercise, chatting, scribbling or rolling around in bed. The main part to understanding fear is to comprehend the source of fears. People are visual, auditory or kinesthetic learners; therefore, a person should identify a beneficial method to realize the source of fear in a logical manner.

The objective during meditation is to open the subconscious to thoughts or situations. These issues may involve not wanting to be like your parents because they lack close friends; wanting to be like your parents, yet feel lacking intelligence or personality; overcoming irrational fears, and dwelling in the past.

Find a quiet space free of distractions, a place that feels safe or produces a sense of belonging. Have a snack before beginning to set the mood. The process of constructing something opens with a thought. Write, scribble or sculpt your fear. Look at it later, store it or throw it away. Talk openly about your fears into a recording device. Listen to it, store it or delete it. Next make a finger painting or sculpt the fear. Touch it, store it, or throw it away.

Surround yourself with objects related to the fear or lay in bed to reflect on the experience. Each step allows the mind to open up in a different way. At first, a person wants to store the creation. Later on when looking, hearing or touching it they realize this is part of themselves they want to project out to the world. It is ugly to the person, because fear is ugly. Fear stems from past experiences which resulted in personal injury.

Often the most difficult medium to accept is the one expressed in our learning style; therefore, store it for a later time or throw it away. A person may find this odd, yet it insights the fear response; therefore, delays progress in healing. Meditation is about logically probing deeper into the psyche so prefer the method with less impact. When planning, think about life in general and hopeful topics while utilizing the medium associated to your learning style.

After identifying a medium work with it when alone, feeling in control or separate from an ongoing situation. Relax and think about negative thoughts or fears. Buddhists call it the samsara, an instinctual level of thoughts where life happens without thought or control. It is the material world based on cause and effect with everyone acting without reason and lacking control. Write, draw, paint, talk, or sculpt the fear and look at it. Think about what it is saying and isolate that thought. Expand on a specific issue with intensity.

Let the mind wonder into all areas. What you think of it? Why it is there? What does it stem from? How can you approach it differently? Does it make sense? Does it only make sense in particular situations? Does it make you angry? Does it make you sad? Does it embarrass you? Is it good or bad? Are there contradictions disproving the ideas behind the fear? Eventually, a person comes to accept it for what it is and it no longer controls them. Even when fear persists, either through proactive actions to counter the fear or lingering feels of inadequacy, it no longer controls a person through an instinctual fear reaction, because it no longer exists primarily in the subconscious. It is what it is. It will always be what it is.

In acceptance a person moves forward. Perhaps keep the meditation object to examine it further to find another issue. Follow the meditation again, letting the mind explore all areas of the fear. People often believe a person gains enlightenment when shedding attachments to the physical world and become happy forever. This is not true. There is a sense of relief when finding answers to questions or experiencing an epiphany; however, the process is like wearing several coats in the summer. Wearing so many coats becomes normal, no longer noticing the heat and heaviness until removing one coat. It feels wonderful compared to the previous experience. They feel cool and light though still wearing several coats in the summer.

Everything is always changing. The world changes and individuals change when meditating. A change has occurred, so eventually new issues emerge and demand a new conduit to better understand the source of fear.

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