The Keys to Freedom:

Transforming Fear to Excitement

 

Seeing through the “Eyes of Fear” By Maryann Castellanos

As a young twenty year old Bioenergetic Therapist and meridian balancer, I had the great pleasure of observing my emotions endlessly and constantly. What was present for me most often in those days (30 years ago) was fear. For me, fear was all consuming and ever present. I didn't know myself without it. I would describe myself as completely shut down except for a very strong curiosity and knowing that I had my gripping laser awareness on a crack in my armor and I was getting stronger by the day.

One thing that I was able to notice through my constant fear was my posture. I realized that when I caved my heart for protection, I felt very alone and separated. I observed that when I lifted my head and began to breath, that I felt better, more connected and more exhilarated. I noticed lots of activity regarding one of the acupuncture points, Kidney 27, which is located right under the collar bones. (in this figure, it is the top one.)

I realized that when I let myself sink, that somehow, the precious levels of my stability were being challenged. It was if, that place in my shoulder, KI 27 was like a glass of water. When I tipped forward, the precious energy of my being was spilled causing me to create an experience of fear. All I did to correct this was to sit up straight. This caused me to reconnect my heart with the world again and suddenly, I no longer felt separate, or afraid. I felt exhilarated and excited. I realized that I couldn't afford the luxury of my slouching posture. It was spilling my life force somehow.

Sunken posture/straightened posture Tipped glass/KI27 Untipped glass/KI27 =

felt fear felt excitement felt fear felt excitement

Somehow dropping my breast bone created a spilling of energy and made fear.

I taught my yoga students to relax when they were in situations of panic and fear, that they could breathe and adjust their posture and their attitude would adjust along with it. From that day on, stories would come to me often about how my students were in panic situations and did their [yoga breathing] . They were successful to bring themselves around by doing these small adjustments.

So let's try it. When I help people with this, I don't go into military style standing at attention. That is too dramatic and wakes up too many other postural memories. Rather, I simply focus on one thing, the breast bone. It has, or should have lots of mobility from puffed up and out of position to completely caved in. I ask the person to find the normal position by taking a full breath of air. I assume that this is a good position. The lungs are full and there is no strain.

Once you have a concept of a good optimal position let it drop back into your normal probably oppressed position. Observe where it ends up. How is if? Now that you are watching, is this what you want for yourself? Chances are good that you don't naturally hold the optimal position and would not think that this is acceptable, yet you have been living this way. Do you think that they way you have been holding your rib case is significant enough that you could be effecting your physical, mental and emotional state? I do.

Spend some time noticing the difference between your optimal position and how you really carry yourself. When I am collapsed forward, I do not enjoy adding weight onto my shoulders, it makes me feel like I am going to capsize. Yet, when my breast bone in a good place, my shoulders fall back, and I can easily carry more responsibility. When my breath is full, my neck is straight, my head tilts well and my lungs are available for full extension. All this is optimal for more energy!

When my lungs fully extended that means I can expand more of them and that translates into more oxygen, optimal air movement, less pressure on the structures, arteries and heart. It looks like a much more optimal function than with all my organs and veins hunched forward and my head thrown back. Further, the lungs exhale a waste in the form of catabolic acid. If you remember, our whole thrust to balance our Ph comes down to releasing acid. Breathing fully is one of the most important ways that this can improve metabolic acidosis. It has been well documented that a good Ph is essential for optimal function of many body systems. You now have better posture, more oxygen, better heart/lung exchange, and a more comfortable way to strattle responsibility.

There is no doubt that lifting my breast bone with a full lung position opens up KI 27 but there is so much more that this area does. I am suggesting that this meridian acts as a sort of sensor. The area allows the kidneys to observe what direction the individual is headed and it anticipates the chemical needs of the body allowing it to be prepared for what is about to happen.

The quantum physics mathematicians when they see no difference (mathematically) in perceiving the past and perceiving the future. Perhaps somewhere in our conscious awareness we have either forgotten how to perceive or never fully developed our abilities to perceive the future. I believe that by imagining what tomorrow will bring, we can anticipate and plan for as much as possible and so we can be somewhat prepared. Do you think it might be possible for our bodies to perceive the future and begin to interact with it?

Our kidneys need to be “with” us and not looking at the floor in order to prepare what we need ahead of the time so that it is ready when it is needed. So you might want to begin consciously creating your great day by including your Kidney 27 area in all of your endeavors . To do this, simply continue to be aware of the lift of your breast bone and how you are handling it. With your posture and Kidney 27 in position, it makes sense to me to make sure that your lungs are getting maximum breathing capacity.

Lessons about low self-esteem

When I was working at an office, every day I would completely loose my focus at about 1 PM or so. I would start feeling very insecure, I would check email to see if anyone had emailed me, I would begin checking my home messages and feel terrible that no one had called me while I was away at work! Every day, I was in a terrible fit of low self-esteem. This ignited my curiosity.

I finally realized that my loss of self-esteem had something to do with two things. Firstly, digestion takes energy and even though I was eating lightly, I still used lots of energy to digest my food. Secondly, I had stopped breathing and was lacking oxygen. Lastly, I had an office job, in a lawyer's office where all day I processed legal paperwork and according to the Chinese meridian clock, my small intestine meridian was on call and starting to peak its abilities at one PM.

The remedy that I found to get me through this period was – oxygen. In this case, oxygen is energy. I started to anticipate my dip in energy. Every day at ten minutes to one, I would get up from my desk, go to the stair case to the parking structure below and walk briskly up and down several flights of stairs. Then I would have a large glass of water and start to breath energy into my body. This therapy completely cleared up my self-esteem issues and my work went very smoothly each afternoon.

Processing Feelings and Thoughts

Due to the nature of fight or flight, we have the ability to delay things such as digestion and unnecessary body processes. As a result, this mechanism has been abused and pushed to every single limit you can imagine. Yet, it is a simple and elegant system that is really very easy to manage with the right attitude.

Very often, we are involved in painful emotional situations or we might experience mental anguish. When these feelings and thoughts are near, we get extremely anxious until we decide how we are going to deal with them. Once that has been established and the difficulty has been delivered, most people have a tendency to avoid, repress or slow down experiencing and processing of this stress.

I am suggesting that this is an unnatural and an unhealthy thing to do. Emotions and thoughts are full of energy and our body just like a computer has a limited capacity. We have a tendency to repress our feelings before we process them. It is a much better idea to process them because then they are complete, the file is transferred into easy to manage archive memory mode and the body is free for the next situation.

However, the body is not as simple as a computer that says, “You have no more capacity, your document cannot be saved”. Our body will warn us and it is up to us to tend to what has been repressed. More often than not, the body will make a short term decision to inconvenience itself on your behalf expecting you to come back to process the situation and straighten it out.

A very important lesson about turning fear into excitement is your ability to be responsive to your own needs. If you table things and never get back to them, you are doing a disservice to yourself. It is essential that we process our feelings and thoughts. Enjoy ourselves requires that we are willing to encounter any emotional or mental angst that could happen and accept it. It is important to be prepared for it. What was once fearful will become exciting when you are willing to breathe and get your belly processing those feelings and brain processing those anguishing thoughts as soon as they come forward. (this takes practice)

So now we are breathing, our postures are open, and we have agreed to process what comes up, are we ready to play? Not yet. The last thing we have to do to consistently turn fear into excitement is to fill up our tanks with energy. Imagine that your body is a big biological tank that acts more like a sponge. If you can imagine every cell in your body soaking up love, you might image that there is energy in every cells like a living web of energy and it can be filled in or out depending on whether you are making it or using it. When we describe some one as “glowing” don't we mean that they are very full of love?

I don't know about you but for me, the energy that flows into me is a mixture of joy, enthusiasm, love, peace, inspiration, happiness, caring and more. When I fill myself up I feel very happy. My body acts like a battery and my cells brim with life. I also see people who are really happy giving this energy away to spouses, children, work, animals, plants, etc. It is beautiful to see an exceptionally loving family where the loved ones give it back.

So before we can turn fear into excitement, we have to make sure that you have a positive “cash flow” of loving energy. So let's take a quick inventory.

1. Do you have enough living love right now?
1. Yes/no
2. What behaviors can you use to increase your energy? (keep a list)
1. Candle light bubble baths.
2. Walks on the beach or on nature paths through the woods
3. Listening to music
4. Laughter
5. Having someone who loves you pay attention to you.
3. What behaviors drain your energy?
1. Being afraid of judgment
2. Giving to people who don't give back
3. Not getting enough exchange for my output.
4. Begin to manage your exchange of energy so that you are not giving more than you are getting.
1. Identify holes in your day that drain energy. Do less of that.
2. Identify really nurturing projects where you gain energy. Do more of that.

Taking really good care of myself

About 15 years ago I decided that I had found a universal antidote for any bind that I could think of. There wasn't one situation that didn't respond to this one solution and every day I understand this global key more. If you are in a bind, whether it be health, wealth, or happiness, the way out is to take really good care of yourself. Pamper yourself, nurture yourself, do great things for yourself and you will start pulling into a more stable position.

There is a catch. . . you have to keep going. Depending on the severity of your bind, there is another catch. . . if it is serious, use every morsel of energy you have generated to recover your energy. Continue to apply love to the issue and keep nurturing yourself. Don't make the mistake of using your newly regained energy without regarding it as precious . Spend your energy carefully to put you in a position to recover even more. This would be akin to saying, use your money to make more money. That sounds basic but to an oppressed person who isn't thinking, an expensive holiday may come first. It comes down to how much you want to get ahead.

So in summary the Keys to Transforming Fear to Excitement are:

1. Keep an open body posture
1. To encourage KI27 to be open to anticipate needs
2. So your heart and lungs can work efficiently
3. So you don't spill life force that creates fear experience
2. Make sure to power-breath and support yourself
3. Watch low energy spots during the same time each day. By anticipating them and increasing oxygen you can get through the period
4. Stay open and accepting to processing thoughts and feeling on the spot.
5. Don't keep work undone, on the back burner. Resolve things asap.
6. Stay energized.
7. Keep positive love energy in yourself like a sponge
8. Respond to your own needs
9. Watch your energy exchange and make sure you are compensated fully.
10. Take really good care of yourself
11. Once you have built your resources, use them to move ahead to have more.
12. Your energy is precious.
13. Make building energy a long term plan – a way of life.

Lastly I would like to quote some references to dealing with fear.

I read The Course in Miracles, from 1979 to about 1987. In this book it teaches that fear isn't real and that only love is real. “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.” This book did a lot for me to build my energy. I struggled to hold my consciousness steady enough to read it. I seemed to always fall asleep. It was years of reading it before it started to sink in and the lessons had enough energy to flow and connect with my experience. This experience prepared me for things to come.

I therefore suggest that you look at the process of building energy and awareness as a long term project that will always have many facets and interests for you in your life. I am encouraging you to make being energized a way of life rather a nice idea or an exercise of the moment.

Another helpful quote about fear may bring you some comfort:

“Do not avoid areas of discomfort, areas in which you feel confused.  On the contrary, check out those areas to determine what it is that may confuse or frighten you.  You don't have to jump into them and feel confused or afraid;

just objectively check them out within you. 

Write down what you think you don't know, and ask for clarity.  Ask whom?  The knower within you.  You may be surprised to find the answers coming forth and freeing you from fears and limitations. 

- John-Roger

(From: Wealth & Higher Consciousness, p. 36-37)

Expansion Exercise:

Excitement Journal - Follow John-Roger's practical suggestion that he offered in the above quote.

1. Keep daily journals where you can note what you recall about feeling fearful or being confusing.

1. At the end of the entry, consult your inner knower, “the knower within you” and ask for clarity. Write down the answers.

1. Determine if this exercise was helpful by noting after the completion of the written exercise above, if you received value. Rate the value you received on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest.

1. At the end of the week, review your lessons and the value you perceived that you received. If you found the exercise useful, helpful and of value, then you may want to re-commit to continuing the practice.

1. If your goal is to move from fear to excitement, then you might want to add a rating for your fear/excitement level for the day. I recommend always focusing on the positive side of the scale, so I would measure excitement.

Insist on the Loving - Pay very close attention to the environment that you are living in. Be a police man and begin to “clean up” your own neighborhood of any behaviors that might create, promote or allow fear. Instead, you would like to promote love, safety and cooperation.

1. List some behaviors that you observe yourself doing that do not demonstrate love. Do you do things that actually promotes your own fear?

1. Create a way to monitor your behavior daily and determine how to extinguish your unwanted behavior.

1. Pay attention to what the perceived pay-off is for any fear provoking behavior. Insist on the loving.

Fears to be addressed – Fears are not always rational and they can be coming from previous conditioning from the subconscious. Therefore it is always wise to identify any programming that doesn't serve you and redirect the signaling danger energy, once you have looked into it, into something more useful and creative. Below are some common fears that clients have about practitioners.

Rate the following statements as they impact your fear reaction with this program. Rate them from 1-10 with 10 being the highest and most fear and zero being the lowest.

1. The fear of the unknown.

Lowest 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 Highest Fear

Lowest 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 Highest Fear

Lowest 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 Highest Fear

Lowest 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 Highest Fear

Lowest 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 Highest Fear

Lowest 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 Highest Fear

Lowest 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 Highest Fear

Lowest 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 Highest Fear

Lowest 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 Highest Fear

Lowest 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 Highest Fear

Lowest 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 Highest Fear

Lowest 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 Highest Fear

Lowest 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 Highest Fear

Lowest 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 Highest Fear

The above listed fears are more like sub-conscious objections or barriers.

Rather than thinking that you understand the first level of the message, allow yourself to simply relax without drawing conclusions. You might want to let yourself go to a time when you had that feeling before. Allow yourself to bring into your awareness and then your understanding any information that might be helpful to completely understanding the puzzle from the subconscious. See if you can observe where this puzzle piece is coming from and evaluate if the fear is still relevant.

If the fear is relevant, bring it to your inner knower for clarification in the above example.

If the fear is no longer relevant to your situation, you might want to consider thanking you for the alarm and giving it a more useful and relevant job such as alerting you to something that is a real threat to you.

One thing that I tend to do that you may or may not be able to do, I will “register” the resonance of the one who is reminding me so that when I hear them again, I will first check the relevance and then help me to remember exactly what that one was doing so I can more quickly get to what they are warning me about.

I hope this information has been helpful, useful and valuable to you. Please go to our [Energy is Life Forum] and post your comments and suggestions. As always, if something works for you, we would love to hear about it from you.