Overcoming Fear
Overcoming fear. Did anyone else read the news about the long and winding road out of lockdown and feel a visceral reaction in the belly? When we feel anxious and overwhelmed, the way that we think changes. We develop a kind of tunnel vision that stops us from seeing the big picture. Instead of observing the whole forest, we narrow in on a single tree. It's an evolutionary mechanism from cavewoman days: Back then, when we needed to escape from something scary, our brain refocused attention to deal with the threat at hand. We became hyper-alert to the current danger. The part of our brain that appreciates music, art and cuddles shut down in order for us to survive. This worked brilliantly when the danger was acute.
These days the threats are usually wild thoughts, not wild animals. They are harder to outrun and often they stay in our head. Yet this evolutionary tunnel thinking response remains.
Remember cosy Sunday nights watching a nature documentaries where the lion chase a gazelle across the savananah? Gosh we love Mr sotto voice, David Attenbourough. If the gazelle was lucky enough to escape being lunch, she rolled around in the grass. She literally shook off the experience and reset her nervous system. As mammals, we are similarly wired. Yet instead of a decent grass roll we hold the experience inward. We remain anxious and scared.
This creates a chronic stress responses in the body and the mind. Overwhelm may become our constant companion. At a physical level we develop tension patterns which manifest in pain, an inability to sleep soundly and tightness in the body.
Yogic science has proven strategies to help us to to rewire our brain using techniques that work with our own physiology to induce calm. So we simply feel better. We cannot change our current external circumstances through lockdown, but we can find ways to respond that induces a little more clarity and ease. Let's explore new ways to hit the reset button on our hard drive.
Here are some practices to help:
1 Digital Detox: Take a break from your devices and rune into your own inner landscape. As yourself if it would be helpful to limit your digital exposure to a timed daily dose of news? Perhaps you could allow yourself just ten minutes each day to read the headlines? Set a timer so that you are not sucked down the rabbit hole into an endlessly spinning vortex of bad new stories. Alice, do you really need to check the COVID numbers several times each day? I didn’t think so.
2. Gratitude Practices: Scientists have been trying to quantify the conditions for happiness with EEG and randomised controlled trials for just a couple of decades. Yogis and others from Eastern cultures have known for millennia that gratitude practices are one of the keys to the happiness kingdom. Gratitude allows us to reframe our experiences to find the silver lining. When we are grateful, we focus on what we’ve got, not on what we don’t so it is the most healing emotion of all [Speaking of silver linings, my friend Stephanie reminded me that lindt chocolate has a silver lining.]
Cultivating a gratitude is deceptively simple: Just start or finish each day by quietly contemplating three things you are grateful for. The first things that come into your mind. You can write them down on paper, or write them on your heart. The effect is the same: We internally soften, we remember what is important and sometimes a tiny miracle happens…without even trying, the corners of our mouth turn up into a little smile.
3. Spend time in Nature: Spring is here, it's the perfect time to head outdoors to a place of beauty and observe a period of silence. Slow down to examine the blossom, the new leaves and emerging flowers. Look up at the vast sky above the tree tops. You are like the sky, and behind every cloud is expansive blue. Smile at the over enthusiastic dogs chasing balls at the dog park and the little girls on their Barbie pink bikes with a unicorn basket. Notice life in all its forms. Observe Lila, the Sanskrit word for the great cosmic play, the dance of life.
Toasters have an earthing wire, and you, as a bundle of electrickery do too. Finding time to be in nature is more than fresh air and sunshine, it’s also about connecting with the grounding nature of the earth beneath your feet.
Consider taking off your shoes and wriggling your toes in the wet grass. Notice how enlivened you feel. No one ever regretted going for a walk. Anything that gives you time and space to appreciate the life that’s happening around you will fill you with inspiration, energy, and light.
4. Breathing Practices: Breath has the power to subtly shift mood. It is the breadcrumb trail that can take you back to the source of life, light and energy within. Breath practices, called pranayama, can be energising and vitalising or soft and gentle. They are capable of creating powerful shifts in mood and attitude.
5. Shaking: You can also try shaking your way to vibrant energy and creativity. Stay with me here. Shaking has been practiced in the Qigong tradition for centuries. Qigong shaking won’t make you sweaty or tired. Instead, you’ll feel relaxed and energised after a single session of this simple, ancient exercise. How? Simply shake your body gently, from the wrists, to your neck, to your knees. Bounce up and down on the balls of your feet, bringing your heels to the ground. Shake slowly. This should feel good, not like you’re freezing in an icy lake. Practice this for a full minute, then three, then five. Notice how sparkly you feel afterwards
6. Dancing: put on your favourite song and move. For me, it's Abba's Dancing Queen. Don't judge. As Neitzsche said: Those who were dancing were thought insane by those who could not hear the music.
And finally: Today’s world offers endless enticements and makes implicit cultural demands to work hard and play hard. Even now. The beeping-flashing-ringing technologies and bad news cycles can overwhelm and inundate our subtle digestive capacities.
When we’re overstimulated, we experience the same problems emotionally and neurologically that we do if we overeat—we get filled beyond our capacity, to the point of weakening the entire system.
Whether you turn off the TV, heal a relationship, learn a new skill, or commit more time to just doing nothing, commit to create more positive space in your life. Ultimately, that will increase the flow of prana and you’ll not succumb to fear. You will feel healthier and lighter and (soonish….) ready to spring into out of this pandemic.