I started to write this article for my blog about 3 months ago when we were just entering the lockdown. I spent many hours writing a few paragraphs, but could never finish. Looking back, I recognize that I had too much fear inside me at that time. I never finished the article. I worked on my fears instead. Today, I was asked to be interviewed about using hypnosis to overcome fears. Suddenly, the words just poured out of me, ready to be on the paper. So here it is. Fears Through the Lense of Hypnosis.
Today, the emotion of fear is in the air. Almost everybody on the planet has been feeling at least some amount of fear over the course of the last couple of months. I am a sensitive empath, living in the age of global fear is challenging for me. Especially since fear is an emotion that I feel often. Once, in a class, I was asked to list all the fears and phobias I currently have. At that time I had about 40. It has been over three years since then. I have shortened this list to about 30 now.
Fear is an interesting emotion. On the one hand, fear warns us of danger and saves our life. On the other hand, in modern life, we are rarely threatened by something that puts our life in jeopardy. Often, fear is a sign that an old wounding, a trauma, is getting triggered by circumstances. This wounding originates from a situation in the past that our psyche could not process. For example, a mother leaves a child with a new caregiver in order to go to work. The child is little, she does not understand that her mom will be back. She feels scared. Her psyche could not reconcile with the fact that her mother is not there. She gets afraid every time mother is coming close to the door or a new person comes into the house. When she grows up, she feels intense fear when her husband has to travel on business or her child goes to school by himself. The injured part of her psyche remains in the subconscious, often completely blocked from the conscious awareness. When something happens that reminds the subconscious of the trauma, the old feelings come to the surface and the person experiences fear.
Fear is a strong negative emotion that fully grabs our attention. Such a strong feeling brings us into a state of “negative” trance, that is, into a state of hypnosis. Our attention is directed inwards, we do not particularly care about what is happening outside of us. Our body contracts, muscles get tense, breathing gets shallow, the pulse is more frequent. An enormous amount of energy goes into feeling the emotion of fear.
Hypnosis helps the subconscious to release the old trauma and heal the wound. The most often used technique is regression to the time of the original wounding, desensitization, and release of the negative emotional charge associated with the trauma. Since the negative energy associated with the trauma is gone, the feeling of fear disappears.
For example, I have been afraid all my life when people are angry, especially if they are taller than me and speak in a loud voice. In hypnosis, I was regressed into an event in my childhood when my mother was angry with me. During this session, I was able to make peace with the situation as an adult. I realized that it was not my fault that my mother got angry. She was tired, she had a lot to do and I was not an easy child. Regressed in this event, my adult psyche could understand it and release the negative charge associated with it. As a result, I was able to strike this fear off my list.
Today, for many of us, the fears come on the surface. Many of us have the fear of contagion, fear of disease, fear of dying from the virus, fear of losing our assets, our jobs, fear of societal unrest, fear of forceful medical treatment, etc. Bert Hellinger, the creator of family constellations said that “the problem is usually solved at its peak.” The more intense the problem, the easier it is to resolve it if we are ready to work on it and let it go. It is the right time to work on our fears.
Our reality is defined by our own feelings and emotions. If we feel fear, our reality is dangerous. As we overcome our wounding, our fears recede, we move into a happier reality. Life becomes happier, easier, we become more creative. The energy that was used before to hold on to the fear, can now be used for building the life we would like to have.