Fearlessness

By DEBORAH CHANDLER Ph.D.
Posted 6/2/21

Fearlessness seems so grandiose.  Who exists on this planet without fears of failure, illness, or death. 

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Fearlessness

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Fearlessness seems so grandiose.  Who exists on this planet without fears of failure, illness, or death.  I experience fear as being engulfed by uncertainty.  Am I okay?  Did I make the right choice?  Suddenly, I’ve lost confidence and focus.

We use psychotherapy to explore these fears.  We examine our history, plunging into our inner depths to find the experiences waiting to have words.  We begin to articulate old abandonments, regrets, guilts.  

We personify these old fears as the experiences of our inner child.  Once we locate the inner child, we experience our on-going disconnection and lack of trust for this inner child.  We experience this child as not loveable, having failed to capture unconditional adoration.  Our inner child assumes guilt for all the moments when life failed to satisfy us.

The healing process involves reconciling the child’s fearful separateness with our innate goodness.  In therapy, we gradually dissolve the distrust of the inner child and embrace our whole self.  This inner integration also allows the spiritual energy to flow.

Our spiritual energy resides within us, separate from our personal history.  Our spiritual component reveals itself when fear steps aside.  This energy is seamless with everything.  This energy has no boundaries.  Once we know this energy within ourselves, we begin to recognize this energy in everything around us.  

Sometimes, when I gaze at trees, I seek out our connection.  Does this magnificent manifestation of nature share the same energetic source with me?  

One of my best friends growing up was an old, elegant elm tree.  This tree was reliably there for me when a needed reassurance that I would survive our latest family drama.  I raked the leaves in fall.  Just as I would finish, a new lawn-full would float down.  We were always connected.  The bark was rough with hunks of layered chunks.  I could not get my arms around the wide girth but leaned in to feel the solid sturdiness.  So reassuring.  This was my first experience of joining with nature, transcending my body.

Later I immersed myself in dance.  In the energy and discipline of ballet I found another access to this energy.  I loved the abandonment of spinning.  Raised up on the pointe of one toe shoe, I would pirouette three times, blissful and poised in space. Fearless. When I retired from ballet, I missed this access to my spiritual self.

Then I was introduced to meditation.  Let me tell you, this was no easy ride.  My mind went into overdrive.  My breath clutched.  My inner child cringed in fear.  This was a new confrontation with my history.  Over the years my mind has calmed, my breath has expanded, and my inner child has learned to be trusting and happy.  

Fearlessness is a process and its own path to inner knowledge. 

Click here for more from "The Art of Being."

Art of Being, Deborah Chandler, Ph.D., Fearlessness

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