Most of us are aware of at least some of our fears. They have been living inside of us for a very long time. Some come to the surface from time to time and prevent us from doing things we wish we could do. Others have been unknowingly stuffed deep inside of our psyches, and at some point we may have even forgotten they exist.

Fear is not always immediately recognizable as fear. It may be disguised as anger, dislike,  jealousy, or some other emotion. But at the root of it all, most negative emotions stem from some sort of fear.

The fact is that our souls are here to evolve. Life is designed that way. So as time passes, the fears we have not dealt with will begin to come to the surface. They will interrupt our normal daily functioning in some way. If not acknowledged and addressed at this point, they could take ultimate control of our lives by causing us physical or psychological imbalance.

Many people have said that fear is the opposite of love and on some level this is probably true. When you are feeling fear it is difficult to experience authentic love, and when you are totally in a space of love, fear is not usually on your radar.

 However, it is natural to be fearful when we are in real physical danger, and this type of fear may even alert us to avoid that danger. But a lot of fears are counterproductive and will prevent us from moving forward in our evolutionary process.

So then, what exactly is fear?  Well, it is an emotional response that releases chemicals in our bodies. When we are fearful, we go into what is called the fight or flight response: usually our heart begins to race, our muscles constrict, and our breathing becomes accelerated or shallow.

 I will not go further into the physiology of it. Suffice it to say that fear is never pleasant. But the good news, as the wise ones teach us, is that we are not our emotions. And if we can realize this on a very deep level and learn how to get into the “witness state” where we can observe our fears rather than identifying with them, we will be on the road to conquering fear!