The last article was on Fear, and how a habit to fear is formed since childhood, and then turned into the most trusted affair of a lifetime! Tell a person not to fear, and he thinks he is being asked to live in a fairyland.
His elders taught him to fear, he saw his elders fear and imbibed it, his experiences taught him to fear, and then he got better at imagining more fears. After having lived a few decades, he is probably made of more fears than blood itself.
Can he ever hope to get rid of even a few of these fears he carries in his mind, in the burdened muscles of his shoulders, in his oft-broken heart, in the fat that keeps coming back to his frame despite his exercise-diet regimen, in his hips that are unable to perform well in bed despite the handy new-age sexual props, and in the feet that carry the weight of his fear personified frame?
We learned to sit at a place. We learned to focus at a point. In order to deal with fears, we will focus our attention on the base of the spine. We will imagine a Chakra/Wheel spinning there, left to right, left to right. And we will try to be true and forthright to ourselves, for a change. Ask yourself, what is the fear that I am most bothered about presently? It could be a project report that you may have to submit, or fear of losing job in a bad economy, or fear of breaking a marriage over an affair that got out of hand, or fear of not being enough for your partner, etc etc.
Next ask yourself, what can you do about it—explore the origins, measures and solutions. If you can do something about it, decide how to do that, and if things are out of your hand, commit it to God/ Divine/ Universe. This is when a little bit faith comes in handy. But if you are an atheist, you know that sometimes things have a way of working themselves around; trust that probability. And then say to that fear—You burden me, leaving me without energy. I give you to God/Universe or I reject you or I am letting you go (say the words that feel most powerful to your story, and help you let go of what you have no control over). Reject that fear that has you under its spell. Unburden yourself. Continue to focus on the spinning wheel at the base of the spine. Continue to let it move, left to right. Continue to focus on that point. Continue to do away with what serves you no more. Continue to face yourself. Continue. Because this takes courage.
Give it ten minutes and then shift on to life-long fears. It could be as small as crossing the road, fear of lizards, or perhaps ghosts. But ask a person who has to cross a really busy road everyday in a country where traffic rules are not followed, what it means to cross that road with this debilitating fear. Once again, remember that the base of the spine, which is considered the seat of innocence in the Indian Spiritual Chakra System, has been blocked by fears, and that is where you must focus, while imagining a wheel spinning, as you go back to the source, the origin of this fear. Go back to your childhood, ask the whys and hows, relive the circumstances that instilled that fear in the first place, relive thoroughly, and find ways to deal with it. And what you find incapable of dealing with, give it in the hands of the Universe.
‘You burden me, leaving me without energy, and thus I am letting you go.’
You may do this with one fear for months, before it loosens it’s grip over you, while you may just have to do it for a few days with another fear. Thus one by one you can start dealing with your fears. But as you continue to give it your fifteen minutes, the real challenge comes in the basic—-sitting at a place, focussing on that one point at the base of the spine, and asking yourself that question—what do I fear?
Facing oneself with a calm mind is one of the toughest things on earth. There is no one to blame here. There are no crutches to hold. And if you continue to lie to yourself, the exercise has no meaning.
New fears arise daily. As you get rid of one, another may start bothering you. But if you get into this practice, your system learns that you can let go, and that you are powerful, because you determine what burdens you.
And that life-long habit of fearing is broken.
She has acted in films and series like Saheb, biwi aur gangster, Rabindranath Tagore stories by Anurag Basu, etc.
Instagram - @shreyanarayanchronicles
YouTube Channel - Let'sTalk@shreyanarayanchronicles.
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