Shadow Work Practice
Embracing Fear through Breathwork and Self-Realisation
During childhood, if you experienced fear, the ego immediately tried to find the best possible solution to resolve the sense of threat. Fear is felt in the body and can move rapidly to thoughts within the thinking mind, but the roots of fear remain in the body.
Understanding the Origins of Fear: Childhood Imprints
How Early Experiences Shape Our Adult Fears
For many, whenever fear is felt, instead of being able to be with the uncomfortable sensations in the body, the mind takes over. This develops a pattern that persists over time and into adulthood. This can result in dismissing and overriding the initial feeling, leading to a sense of dread in regard to various aspects of life.
There are strategies that can support you in moving towards understanding your fear, learning how to feel it in the body, and shifting past it to uncover its true root. By feeling it in the body you can begin to loosen the grip it has on you, heavy sensations in the body (such as the chest and belly) will lighten, ultimately freeing you to act in accordance with your desire in the moment rather than being stuck, frozen, or making misaligned choices.
Harness the Power of Breath: Moving Beyond Fear
Breathwork Techniques to Release Deep-Seated Fear
Below, you will find a simple shadow work practice that can help you look at, and relate to, your fears in a new way. It allows you to feel the fear in the body before it is driven up into the mind where it becomes anxiety.
This practice asks you to acknowledge your fear and where you feel it in your body, to bravely become familiar with it. It helps you to reconnect with your emotional centre and the energy felt in the body, rather than relying on endless patterns of trying to “think” away emotions and sensations.
Reflection
I used to be perpetually caught up in the theatre of the mind, constantly trying to find a specific cognitive reason for why I felt sadness or dread. This meant that on some mornings, I would wake up with a heavy feeling in my body, and rather than sitting with the emotional sensation, I would get lost in my thoughts. I discovered that once you’re in your mind trying to find a logical solution for a feeling of fear in your body, the dread persists. Sometimes, this debilitating dread would last for weeks or even months.
A Personal Journey: Overcoming Dread Through Self-Realization
Transforming Persistent Dread into Moments of Peace
As I became more intimate with these feelings, I learned to recognise the onset of fear in my bodily sensations, notice the trigger that activated it, and then let it go. This practice allowed me to feel the dread and fear in my body, acknowledge the trigger and release it, sometimes within minutes. Previously, these feelings could have caused me suffering for months.
This practice became the foundation of the shadow work technique I am sharing with you below, and it has helped many of my clients get free too. For example, Karen from Fareham shared, “I’m able to navigate and release fears and anxieties that crop up frequently in work and life.”
Part One: Understanding Fear
Step 1. Name the Fear
Identify the fear and become familiar with it. Notice the story you tell yourself about it. For example, “I’m scared of being alone; loneliness feels painful because my parents were never around for me.”
Step 2. Explore the Roots
Delve into the patterned or external roots of the fear. In this example, it may have been that a parent or caregiver always needed you close to soothe “them”. So, when you weren’t with them you didn’t feel in balance.
Step 3. Connect with the Fear
Deepen your connection to the fear and allow it to be a part of you, which you observe and feel. Maybe for the first time, you experience an embodied feeling of the emotion itself, i.e. sensations in your system as you feel the fear.
Fears come in many types. Some of us have phobias, which cause massive aversion and can dominate our lives. Acknowledge that you are not alone in this; there is solidarity between you and other human beings. Claire from Southsea noted, “I feel much less lonely and have a better relationship with my partner for it. I realised where I was looking for something outside me which I was able to fill myself with.”
Fear can also stem from our species’ ancestral experiences, leading to catastrophising because our minds are so busy. Fear is closely related to anger. Notice if it brings up anger about holding these imprinted patterns from the past. Acknowledge that they no longer need to protect you in the present moment.
This practice involves feeling the fear in your body in any given moment and then allowing it to pass after feeling the initial trigger.
You can step into a courageous way of being. Courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to feel it in the body, breathe, and take the next aligned or required action in the present moment.
Creating a Safe Space: The First Step to Conquering Fear
Finding Serenity: Embracing Fear with Compassion
Step 1. Find a Calm Space
Find a place to sit calmly, close your eyes, and breathe in and out through your nose.
Step 2. Name the Fear Out Loud
Start with the name of the fear and say it out loud. Then bring your hands to your body where you feel it. Example: “I feel lonely.” Whilst the fear of being alone is common, when we explore deeper all of my clients say they enjoy moments of being alone and on their own!
Step 3. Focus on the Feeling
If your mind starts to create a story about the origins of the fear, imagine your mind filling with a soothing and clarifying light as you breathe in and out through your nose. Focus on feeling the emotion in your bodily sensations, not on the narrative in your mind.
Step 4. Embrace the Inner Child
Acknowledge that unfounded fear is a creation from your childhood. Bring compassion, love, and your presence to that little child within you, feeling it in the body rather than being drawn into the stories of your thoughts.
As part of ongoing development and change, you can bring your awareness to your fears in this way. When you do, any triggers you experience in life that create a feeling of fear in the body can be felt in the moment for a couple of minutes and then released, rather than turning into prolonged suffering.
This is one of the deeper practices you can do as part of Holistic Shadow Work, allowing you to step into a new way of being and live your fullest life.
Are you ready to go deeper?
Do you want direct one-to-one support releasing fear?
