Find a comfortable position and take three breaths.
Inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth.
Inhale new energy.
Exhale tension.
And then gently close the eyes and breathe normally through the nose.
Relax the face,
The jaw,
The shoulders.
Notice sounds around you.
Simply let them come and go.
Notice sensations in the body,
For example,
The points of contact between the body and your seat.
Clothes on the skin.
The movement of the breath in the body.
Any smell?
Any taste?
Notice the field of view with your eyes closed.
Notice how it's not pitch black.
You can still see something.
And now call to mind something that scares you.
Something that it's not too overwhelming,
That terrorizes you,
But something that evokes fear.
Something that you are worried about.
Maybe several things come to mind,
That's fine,
Just pick one.
And notice what's that.
Is that a mental picture that you are seeing,
Maybe a video that you see in the field of view with your eyes closed?
Is that maybe a phrase that you can hear?
In other words,
Notice how you are bringing to mind this thing that scares you.
Is that a mental picture or is that a phrase that you can hear?
And notice the reaction in the body to this thought.
For example,
In my case,
Fear appears as coldness in the chest,
Almost as having a piece of ice throbbing in the chest.
And my limbs get tense almost as my body is shrinking and tensing.
Notice what are the sensations.
How do you know from the body that there is fear?
And be curious,
Almost as though you are studying an animal in the forest,
You are walking and you see this beautiful,
Interesting animal and you stop.
You watch.
It's the same quality of attention,
Really kind and open.
Notice the sensations.
So now you know what fear is.
This emotion is just a cluster of sensations.
Fear is just sensations in the body.
It can't hurt you.
And also,
Notice how it appears in response to thoughts,
To mental pictures or phrases.
It's nothing more than that,
Just sensations.
And notice what happens if you simply pay attention and you are simply welcoming these sensations without going back to thoughts.
Just feel the sensations and notice what happens.
The sensations disappear after a while.
Physiologically speaking,
Sensations can't stay here any longer than a few seconds unless we go back to feeding the sensation with thoughts.
Which means that you are free.
You are free from fear.
It's just sensations and they come and go.
If you don't feed fear with thoughts,
The sensations just come and go.
There is no need to push it away.
You are free already.
And in the last moments of this practice,
Simply open to everything.
Open up your attention to sounds,
The field of view and thoughts that might appear there.
Sensations just rest and receive everything.
Let's take a deep in-breath and out-breath.
You can have a stretch and gently open the eyes.
I encourage you to try and practice this exercise many more times because this allows you to have the experience of seeing what emotions are.
Fear is just sensations.
You don't have to push it away or you don't have to act on it.
It comes and goes.
And sometimes it's really useful to feel fear.
If you see a lion,
It's better if you feel fear and if you run away.
But now you can choose,
Do I want to constantly live in a state of fear or can I just let it go when it's needed?
And you can,
Just by being curious about the sensations and not feeding them with thoughts,
You just see how both thoughts and sensations come and go.
You're free.
How much empowering there is in this seeing clearly.
You're free.
