Naturally, fear and anxiety will be present for many of us numerous times in our lives. Especially now, given what’s been happening in the world over the past couple of years. While it’s extremely important to have a clear idea of what’s going on in the world, it’s also important not to get overwhelmed and consumed by everything that’s happening – easier said than done I know! In this blog, I’ll explain why it is important to remain calm where possible and what fear does to us.
We know that laughter is contagious, well so is fear, and it can create a pattern that we can get stuck in. Fear creates stress hormones which in turn shut down the immune system. The World Health Organisation shared that “Stress is the health epidemic of the 21st century”.
As Dr. Lipton also writes in his book, The Biology of Belief:
“Stress is responsible for up to 90% of illness, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes.”
Your unique vibration is your energetic frequency and our goal is to keep this in harmony. When in disharmony we can feel unbalanced, deflated, stagnant or at dis-ease within ourselves.
Fear is one the lowest vibrations. Remaining at this frequency long-term can harm the immune system and bring about various negative physical symptoms. Therefore, watching the news for example, which is mainly filled with fear, will intensify the feelings you may already be experiencing and keep contributing to the feeling of ungroundedness and heaviness in your body.
Focusing on a more positive note, can you think back to a time when you felt full of love or joy - how did it make you feel? Maybe more open, expansive, lighter, more relaxed. Resonating feelings of love and joy come from the heart and in this state we are able to cultivate resilience and have the strength to overcome hurdles easier.
The heart resonates at a high frequency, so if we can harness and tap into the heart, it will boost and strengthen our immune system. If we start to emanate feelings of love and joy, not only will we support ourselves, but others too as happiness is contagious.
Looking at what we can control, rather than focussing on what we can’t
We can’t always control our situation, what’s happening outside of us and what others might do or say to us. Therefore, we must try and focus our attention on what we can control to support our mental and physical wellbeing.
What we can control are things like:
Our thoughts and intentions
Our use of language
What we eat
How long we sleep for
What we do with our time
The people we choose to spend our time with
Our exercise routine
How we treat our bodies
How compassionate we are to ourselves
How kind we are to the people around us
All of these have a huge impact on how we feel on a daily basis and are completely within our control if we choose to bring our awareness to these areas of our lives.
Growing from Fear
Dr. Joe Dispenza teaches, wherever you place your focus of attention, your energy flows. So if you want your energy to flow somewhere positive then you need to work on finding things in your life that make you feel positive.
Dr. Dispenza held an experiment where 120 participants completed test studies for 10 minutes, three times a day, where they replaced thoughts of resentment, frustration and fear, for gratitude, meditation, positive thinking and appreciation. After this their immune responses and the chemical Immunoglobulin A (IgA) were measured, these are the body’s primary defence against bacteria and viruses. Their values increased by 50% in just 4 days, a huge improvement and better than a flu shot!
Dr. Dispenza says “when you are frustrated or fearful the immune system dials down because you’re in an emergency. There’s no energy in your inner world for growth and repair.”
Growth and repair can only happen when our parasympathetic nervous system is activated. The parasympathetic nervous system is our ‘rest and digest’, it allows us to slow down and relax. It helps us to metabolise, enables the functioning of our reproductive system and is essential for our health. Living in our ‘fight or flight’ response, our sympathetic nervous system and fear state, our bodies will not be able to repair or replenish themselves therefore weakening the immune system and making us more susceptible to illness.
Both states are necessary, however hopefully you can see the importance of reducing the amount of fear and stress in our lives, unless you are being chased by a tiger of course then fear is absolutely necessary!
To conclude, can you try to focus your attention on what you can control in your life, rather than the things that are out of our control?
And can you try to replace feelings of fear with feelings of gratitude?
For those times when life might feel chaotic, check out my ‘5 tips to Keep Your Calm’, or why not join a Transformational Retreat, entering a state of pure calm and bliss!