Letting Go Of Fear

This recording will help you let go of fear in your life. Fear of the future is a disease that hurts your life today. I'll present you with simple antidotes that will bring back your peace of mind and sense of freedom.

Transcript

Hi,

This is Brooks and it's good to be here with you.

This talk is going to be about letting go of fear.

And it's an experiential talk so you'll get a chance to really experience what it is like to let go of fear in your life.

And this is very timely because right now there's a lot of fear out there in the world with the coronavirus.

And if you watch the news for a little while it's very easy to start to get scared.

And your imagination and your mind take over.

And you can easily imagine worst case scenarios happening to you and the people that you love.

And so that's hard on us to live with that fear.

There's this great quote from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt from the 1930s where he said the only thing to fear is fear itself.

And I always thought that was a really profound statement.

The only thing to fear is fear itself.

And that's the power of fear.

Fear of the future.

What's going to happen to me?

And it grows like a virus it grows within us and it spreads to others.

And just like a disease,

Fear is insidious.

And so I figured we'll take a curious look at it today and we'll see its effects and then we'll see how to let it go.

How to let it go from our lives.

So I want to start by saying that there's two kinds of fear.

There's the fear,

The immediate fear of something happening right now.

Let's say you're out for a walk and this dog jumps from behind the bushes and starts barking at you.

And it's a natural fear.

It's like oh my god,

What do I need to do?

Run away.

It's something right there in the moment.

And I can be affected by this.

I am being affected by this.

What do I have to do?

And so you make a decision in that moment.

Take care of yourself.

And that's a natural fear.

It's built into the body.

We get adrenaline.

There's an intensity in us so that we can deal with whatever's happening in front of us.

That's one kind of fear.

And the other kind of fear is fear of the future.

And that's an imagined fear.

It's not actually happening to us.

We believe it's going to happen to us.

But it's a fantasy.

Because it actually isn't occurring.

Now that fear can be really powerful.

And you can feel like no,

This is true.

Even though it's not happening.

This horrible thing is going to happen to me.

Whatever it is based on whatever your imagination is taking over.

And so you can question it and like no,

This feels real.

This is real.

But it's really important to call that into question.

It's very important.

We're not going to give a free pass to fear.

I'm going to say is this true?

Is what I'm afraid of happening right now?

Is there something I can do right now because of this thing that I'm afraid of?

And see what comes up when you ask that question.

And you may feel resistance.

You may feel like no,

I don't want to question this.

This is real.

But notice the feeling of the fear of the future.

How it feels in your body.

There's a great tension that comes with it.

And it reduces,

Greatly narrows your awareness.

So your attention is on the adrenaline.

It's on the tension.

It's on the imagined fantasies of what could happen.

Now that doesn't mean to feel bad about towards yourself because you're having those fears.

You know it's like a lot of us have been trained to live that way.

To have a fear of the future.

Comes from our parents perhaps.

Comes from teachers.

Comes from others that we learn from each other.

We're social creatures.

And so while if other people are afraid of this,

Then I need to be afraid of this.

And that's how it spreads like a disease.

There's no doubt that fear is a disease that spreads.

So what can we do about that?

Sure I understand intellectually but what can I do about that?

And the first thing you do is take a breath.

And you let out that breath.

And you take another breath.

And you let out that breath.

And you take another breath.

And you let go of the fear.

Maybe you're already starting to feel relaxed.

Just by focusing on your breath,

By taking some deep breaths.

You know when we're afraid our breathing becomes very shallow and we don't get enough oxygen we can't think very clearly.

So when we focus on breathing in and breathing out,

You can feel that relaxation.

Do you notice it?

As we're taking deep breaths here.

And as you breathe,

Look around at your immediate environment.

Look and see what's there.

I'm looking down right now,

Looking at the desk that my microphone is sitting on.

And there it is,

There's the wooden desk.

And this desk is innocent.

It doesn't include any fear whatsoever.

It's a real simple basic desk.

And it's a helpful desk.

It's supporting me right now.

It's allowing me to have this conversation,

This talk with you.

So look around your environment,

Notice things that are there.

Maybe the chair you're sitting on.

Shirt you're wearing.

Maybe hear sound in the other room.

Sound outside.

And as you look around,

And as you notice,

And as you breathe,

Notice these things that don't include fear.

They're basic things sitting out there.

Part of your world.

They're actually there.

Part of your room.

Part of your life.

Right now I'm looking out the window.

And I'm looking at the blue sky.

So blue.

I don't even see any clouds.

Oh,

There's some way over there.

Those clouds are really beautiful.

There's no fear in the sky.

No fear in the clouds.

Maybe you can hear that airplane going over.

The sound of the airplane.

Another thing that doesn't include fear.

So you focus on your breath.

And you look around.

You look around at your life unfolding around you.

Maybe you're feeling relaxed.

Maybe you're starting to feel relaxed from doing this.

From following these real simple little things that you can do.

Breathing in.

Breathing out.

Noticing looking around.

I'm looking at my hand.

What an incredible piece of machinery.

There's the palm so I can hold something in my hand.

There's the fingers so I can pick things up.

And the thumb that allows me to grip with my hands and fingers and palm.

I can move my fingers around.

So much goes on just to allow these things to happen.

The bones and the muscles and the tendons in there,

The skin,

The fingernails.

A number of many multitudes of things that don't include fear.

Real simple and basic.

Maybe you can notice your hand.

See what it's like.

The nice thing about this is you can take this little technique wherever you go.

Wherever you are,

Whatever you're doing.

If you start to notice those symptoms of that disease of fear in you,

Wherever it is that you hold it,

Maybe there's tension in your chest or your stomach or in your neck.

You discover,

You become aware,

I'm thinking a lot of fearful thoughts.

Or are any of those things actually happening right now?

The things that I'm imagining,

Are they real?

No,

They're not actually happening.

Okay.

But then the mind might go,

Yeah,

But,

But,

But,

But,

But,

But,

But maybe,

Maybe,

You know,

It's going to happen.

Okay,

Is it happening?

No.

Breathing in and out and looking around.

Here's a little Hot Wheels car.

I love Hot Wheels,

Ever since I was a kid.

I've got this blue Hot Wheels car.

And it's just such a delight.

I love holding it.

I'm holding it right now and running my fingers along the wheels.

It's very relaxing for me to look at this.

It's shiny and blue.

And it's another thing that doesn't include fear.

It's a real wonderful little item here.

Maybe you've got some of those around you.

Breathing in.

Breathing out.

And noticing.

So I wish you the best with this.

I think this could really help during these times.

And often the simplest things are really the most helpful.

And you may forget we talked about this and then it may come back to you later when you most need it.

So I wish you the best.

Take care.

Reviews

simple yet profound
breathe🌺

Absolutely wonderful! Thank you!

And I wish you the very best also! ♡ Thank you for your calm words and energy! You're a gift!

Love this!! Focus on the breath and pay attention to the now--what a simple yet effective way to release stress, tension, anxiety--they are all fear-based emotions. Thank you so much for this reminder.

Thank you for this. Very helpful today.

I see you and the light within you. Be well, Brooks. 🤲🏻❤️🤲🏻