Hi, and welcome back to

your Daily Mindfulness.

In today's session, we're going

to talk about working with fear.

Fear is something we've all experienced.

It's a very normal and

primal part of being human.

And it's something that can keep us safe

and protected from harm by helping us

focus on things that could potentially go

wrong so that we prepare and take action.

And it's also something that

can get in the way of living our

lives as fully as we want to.

Despite the many ways, fear can

be frustrating, I've really come

to appreciate this emotion of fear

and the loving intention behind it.

It's trying to protect us.

It's trying to serve us in some way.

Even though it may be misguided at times,

it, it wants you to be happy, which

in its mind is to help you survive.

So I think simply starting by appreciating

fear helps us have less of an oppositional

relationship to it so that it there's an

opportunity, at least for it to become

more of an ally rather than an enemy.

The thing about fear though, is that

just because it's, there doesn't mean we

can't do the thing that we're fearful of.

I'm sure you've had many examples

of that in your own life.

So I'm going to share four simple steps

that you can use when fear arises so

that it doesn't have to overwhelm you

and prevent you from living a full life.

The first step is just to feel it.

This may feel simple, but a

lot of times with difficult

emotions, we try to suppress them

or pretend they're not there.

But this actually causes them

to subconsciously influence

us in a negative way.

And so when we bring the emotion into our

awareness, when we bring fear into our

awareness, acknowledging its presence,

letting ourselves feel it, this actually

takes away a lot of its power because

you can now work with it rather than

be subconsciously manipulated by it.

So the first step is

just simply to feel it.

The next step is to name it.

So once you feel it, just say, Oh,

Hey fear, good to see you again.

There's a lot of research that shows

naming an emotion, reduces its control

over us and it's emotional charge.

So, we feel then we name it.

And by doing that, it's no longer this

mysterious thing in the background.

We know it for what it is.

We've brought it into our awareness.

The third step is to reground

and you can think of this as

like being a lightning rod.

The fear is coming through you activating

your body, but then rooting you down

into the ground, moving through you.

This helps you not deny the fear by

letting it move through you, and then also

ground yourself simultaneously through it.

So we feel it, we name it.

We ground ourselves into it,

ground ourselves through it.

And the fourth step is just to go.

This is to take the step in the

direction toward whatever it is

you want to do in that moment.

This might feel simple again,

but it's an important reminder

that you can still move forward.

Fear is just an emotion.

It's just an energy in your body, and

it's important to retrain yourself

to not move away from the fear, but

to move into it and then through it.

Condition action in response to fear,

let it be your trigger to move forward.

And the more you do this,

the easier it will be.

So again, the first

step is just to feel it.

Second step is to name it.

Third step is to ground yourself into it.

And then the fourth, the

fourth step is to go.

Try this out the next time you're

experiencing some fear, then I

think you'll find it helps you

take action and not have to be

controlled by the fear itself.

Thanks so much for your practice and

let's settle in for today's meditation.