Dancing with Change, Overcoming Fear

By Jon Terrell, M.A.

Change can bring both elation and fear. We long for positive change. But at the same time change brings uncertainty, and that can be scary. We can experience fear and anxiety for many reasons. Just reading the headlines can be scary.  

We can easily get stuck in a limiting story, buying into the collective narrative the media presents as fact. That story can take us on a wild, uncomfortable ride.

How can we dance between two extremes, excitement/elation and panic/dread? Can we learn how to overcome fear?

I help people navigate through change in my roles as a meditation teacher, psychotherapist, and retreat leader. This work helps clients find their internal compass and inner resources to move with clarity when appropriate or "stand steady" as needed.

It's all about freeing ourselves from these hypnotic stories we tell ourselves and learning to live in the spaciousness of the present moment.

We can easily get caught in the story all around us and lose ourselves. And we can lose ourselves just as easily in the soaring heights of joy and elation as in the muddy waters of a scary story.

You might find the following guidelines valuable to awaken from these stories:

5 KEYS TO HELP WITH CHANGE

1. Take a break from the story in your head. Pausing and taking a few deep breaths can often break the trance and stop you from buying into the story. To really free up your awareness, learn to meditate. My own work, called Inner LightFire Meditation, is an accelerated form of meditation that combines awareness and energy techniques.

2. Search for the bigger story. Psychological fear and anxiety can lock us into a very small, limited world. These storylines, often from our childhoods, are seductive and familiar, but they steal our power by shrinking us and placing it outside ourselves. There is always a larger, more expansive story than the one our uncomfortable feelings tell. Look for it. 

3. Turn off the TV, Internet, and print media news. Take a break, or check it much less frequently. Fear sells, and the media knows how to exploit us to sell what they want. (Do we really need "clinical strength" deodorant?)

4. Get a massage, bodywork, or energy healing. A good session with a skilled practitioner will clear uncomfortable feelings from your body and ground you. You need to be grounded to take appropriate action once you've released it.

5. Pay attention to when you find yourself soaring too high. The "New Age" may be dawning, but we still have to do the step-by-step work of bringing change to earth. Otherwise, you may find yourself unexpectedly crashing down, like Icarus when he flew too close to the sun. Stay grounded.

Breaking Free from the Old Story

I believe our emotions hold great treasures. But we often miss out because we are afraid of our feelings. We're afraid we'll get stuck in them.

We deal with uncomfortable emotions by suppressing or manipulating them in various ways. See the Emotions Page for more information.

A better way is to transform these dark feelings and reveal their gifts. We do this at our Grief and Difficult Emotions Retreats.

If you have a question and wish to contact me, use the form below.

Go from Overcoming Fear Page to Emotions page

Go to Anxiety Page

Go to Fear of Intimacy

Go To Awakenment Wellness Home Page

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