At the most basic level, fear is a spirit guide that teaches, warns, and reveals things that you need to learn about yourself to grow.

Here are some reasons why it’s essential to learn how to face your fears:

Fear causes mental, physical and spiritual disturbances

If your mind is frantic with fear, you will attract more of it

You may experience debilitating anxiety and depression

Not taking appropriate action may spiritually paralyze you

Fear causes stress, worry, and suffering

Fear is an unpleasant, often strong emotion; it’s the body’s way of anticipating and avoiding pain or danger.

Most people hope for a leisurely ride through life. We want to quickly and easily move forward through our routines, work, and relationships, unhindered by obstructions or difficulties that slow us down. We’ve developed a notion of friction as a negative force.

Friction means, “to rub,” and it generally means a force that opposes relative motion between two objects. Rubbing in opposition to something sounds like an undesirable experience—a disagreement, a fight, or a struggle—and over time, we’ve come to imply friction with negativity. 

But rubbing things together creates, not destroys. Friction gives us heat and fire, it moves mountains and creates the pearl inside of an oyster. Friction is a positive force, and everything in creation needs friction to grow and to change in order to perfect itself. It’s a fundamental property of nature, and nothing grows without it. It’s when we’re in opposition to something that we learn how to move forward. Without friction, we stagnate. We need to challenge and be challenged to progress.

Life is a place where we learn things, and fear is fundamental—because life is fundamental. Tests will always come, and many times, they are accompanied by fear. But our tests and trials come to point things out to us. It’s our spiritual responsibility to learn what they are pointing out to us because these are our spiritual lessons for our soul’s evolution.

The two main ways all animals react to fear is fight or flight; the adrenaline goes into the system, and we either stand up to what’s causing us fear, or we run away from it. But the Yogi’s and Great Ones don’t have to run or fight because they have gained mastery and learned how to overcome it. We have an opportunity to learn from these masters on how to overcome our fears.

My guru, Paramahansa Yogananda was a Great Yogi who teaches us how to conquer fear through mental endurance and self-discipline, so our minds become impervious to all unpleasant circumstances. In his book “Living Fearlessly—Bringing Out Your Inner Soul Strength,” he says, “Fear is constantly haunting you. Cessation of fear comes with the contact of God, nothing else. Through yoga, you can have that communion with Him…. If you commune with God, His truth will flow to you. You will know that you are the imperishable soul.” He also expresses that fear comes from the heart, and if your heart is calm, you cannot feel fear. The moment you feel fear, inhale slowly, deeply, and rhythmically to calm the heart down. Then do the following exercise.

Yogic Technique for removing fear from the heart by Paramahansa Yogananda:

“Whenever you feel afraid, put your hand over your heart, next to the skin; rub from left to right, and say, ‘Father, I am free. Tune out this fear from my heart radio.’ Just as you tune out static on an ordinary radio, so if you continuously rub the heart from left to right, and continuously concentrate on the thought that you want to tune out fear from your heart, it will go; and the joy of God will be perceived.”

If you find yourself in a fearful state, do your best to remove the fear from your mind by doing something creative, so you’re not worrying about it and creating more fear. The mind tends to blow things way out of proportion, so calm your mind and ask for guidance for the best steps to take. Then face them by taking action to resolve the difficulty confronting you. Be courageous in meeting the challenges instead of running away from them. Courage is having the ability to do what you need to do with what’s right in front of you. Know that each challenge is an opportunity to teach you the lessons you couldn’t learn any other way. They are not your enemy, but they come to help you develop your strength.

Don’t allow the fear of failure to stop you from living your dreams and following your bliss. Success is not measured by what you have or what you do, but who you are. Know that you are a dynamic immortal soul, and have confidence of this truth! 

The polar bear offers a message to have strength, confidence and dignity during times of emotional or physical transition. Reflect to the polar bear’s ability to trust life, while moving with grace, dignity and present moment awareness. You have an inner knowing that it’s time to make some changes in your life. Whether these changes are big or small, they all require you to step into your power to create movement. You know exactly what changes are needed in order to make you feel more balanced. You are now ready to move forward with intention, conviction, strength and action in creatively creating these changes.

As you step into your power and express your truth, you are on your way to freedom! This is an exciting time for you because changes are now occurring so quickly.  As long as you stay connected to Source and remain completely focused on your dreams, goals and visions, all fears and doubts naturally dissolve and you naturally achieve success. 

The environment around you seems to be intensely offering you clear signals indicating the areas in need of change. All of this energy may appear a bit frightening or may feel a bit intimidating and may bring up some inner hidden fears. Fear destroys and distorts all seeing. It breeds illusion and keeps your mind dull and if you don’t do anything about it, it will destroy your dignity. The best ways to move past fear is to acknowledge it, accept it, and then take action to wash it away. When you place more energy on what you wish to accomplish instead of using useless energy towards fearing it, the fear will abolish. Don’t let fear remain with you, and don’t find excuses for it. Go into it with determination and wisdom to shift the energy. Fear is in the mind, and is supported by beliefs. You can choose to feed it or starve it by taking action. It exists when you are disconnected from realizing your true nature as Spirit.

It’s your time to hold yourself accountable with integrity and wisdom, even if this means to be completely vulnerable. You are moving into a new direction, a higher state of consciousness. You desire clarity and absolute truth as you move from one phase of your life to another. You know it’s time to end any old patterns and programming keeping you from your fullest expression. New beginnings, new ideas and new chapters of your life are unfolding within you as the outer world is eager to meet your request. You feel an inner excitement in your soul as you feel new passion beginning to emerge. Faith, courage and the ability to live fearlessly are necessary, as you become clear in creating your vision and your dreams.

You can read the entire message from fearless in the Exploration Guidebook for Self-Discovery. 

Don’t worry—everything is eventually temporary.

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