Courage To Face Your Fears

Drawing from cognitive-behavioral therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction, this meditation takes an unexpected stance by encouraging the practitioner to welcome fear, explore it, and move forward without the need to extinguish it. Enjoy this paradoxical and mind-opening experience in only 7 minutes.

Transcript

Welcome.

I'm Ellen Hendrickson.

Let's safely and mindfully face your fear.

Let's begin by dropping into the breath.

Allow yourself a long,

Slow inhale and a long,

Slow exhale.

And as you continue to breathe,

Search inside yourself and find the fear.

Find the resistance,

The anxiety,

Wherever it may be.

Acknowledge the urge to extinguish the fear,

To make it go away.

Acknowledge the urge to run,

To hide,

To avoid.

But this time,

Rather than holding up your hand to stop the fear,

Extend it in welcome.

Instead of saying,

Go away,

Invite your fear and anxiety to come along.

As you move forward through this challenge,

Through this journey,

Invite the fear along with you.

You do not have to extinguish it before moving ahead.

You can bring it along,

And then something magical will happen.

As you grow,

The fear will shrink.

As you move forward,

It recedes.

As you stretch,

It releases.

Now,

Look inside at your anxiety again.

Examine it with playful curiosity,

Like a kitten explores a toy.

Peel back the fear,

The anxiety,

And find hidden beneath it a twinge of courage,

A streak of bravery,

Perhaps even a glimmer of excitement to face this challenge.

And let that courage,

That bravery,

Those tiny vibrating molecules of excitement,

Beckon you forward.

Step forward with purpose.

Step forward and discover what you are truly capable of.

How courageous you are.

How capable.

How brave.

Breathe in the courage and feel it flow through your lungs,

Feel it pump through your heart,

And out through your limbs,

To the tips of your fingers and toes.

Breathe in a long,

Slow inhale,

And out a long,

Slow exhale.

And when you're ready,

Open your eyes and step forward in your journey.

Reviews

This was what I needed to hear. I realized in the middle of listening that I have been so focused on being the perfect person, not realizing that it was impossible. Bring my fear and anxiety with me, invite them along, fighting them is making me lose myself.

Thank you for helping me feel grounded at a time when I am trying to manage a huge surge of stress and anxiety. I feel very grateful to have found your comforting work. 🎉❤️💪🏻

Good session. three minutes into it, I was having good thoughts and my anxiety was better from the deep breath. However, when the session said face my fear I couldn’t do that. My anxiety came back strong, and I almost ran from the session, but I didn’t words of bravery, entered my thoughts, as suggested by your calm voice, and I began to experience the calm and feel empowered and glad I completed this motivational session. Thanks.🙏

Hundreds of meditations and there's something about your voice and your word choice that feels so safe to me as a fawn/fight responsive person. I like the anxiety one a whole lot. If you released these both exactly the same but 2x longer and just increased the space between when you said things I would love and and enjoy that so much. Thank you for your medicine!

This helped me find more courage to testify in a trial this afternoon.

Thank you. I'm struggling but taking the steps to move through this fear. 🙏

fear is the path to the dark side.
being afraid of your fear is powerful. there is no courage without fear.

This provided a much needed reset. Thank you 🙏🏼

Thank you for this calming and soothing practice. Namaste

I felt a sense of release when I invited the fear to come along with me. I see that the resistance is what wears me out. Thank you for showing me a new way of thinking. 💙

Thank you for such a strong powerful message to start my day!

Thank you for sharing this calming meditation a good stat to the day. 🙏🏾☺️

Thank you.I found the courage and know I can do this. A firm favourite
🙏🏽🧡🙏🏽

A wonderful, reliable and solid track that I come back to, again and again. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.

Beautiful guidance El!! Thank you so much for these encouraging words! Namaste! 🙌🏼✨

Straightforward, encouraging, inspiring. Thank you!

Thank you so muc for making my morning easy and simple .. have a lovely day 💙

This is a very quick and effective guide to face something fearful.

Wonderful morning meditation for facing your inner fears and anxieties. Thank you!

I keep coming back to this meditation- so helpful and empowering. Thank you!