Haunted Houses – Dealing With Fear

The time has come for dealing with fear. So…

What are you afraid of? Dealing With Fear

Can you recall the scariest place you’ve been to?  It’s that time of year, after all, where all around us are frightful costumes, lawn decorations, and a variety of spooky activities to scare, thrill, and even delight us into the spirit of a holiday that celebrates our deepest fears.  I find it funny how on every 31st of October, in festive fashion, we purposely seek out haunted houses and hayrides to bring ourselves to experience the darkest depths of human emotion.  But what if I told you that subconsciously we commit ourselves to haunted houses all the time?

Fear is a primal human emotion

Born with the fears of falling and loud noises, we continue to add fears to our psyche like beads on a silk thread as we move through life’s experiences.  Some of our fears are “programmed” by those closest to us, while others we pick up on life’s journey.  Over time, they subtly settle into our physical and emotional bodies as the unexamined ghosts of our past experiences.

They rattle in the closets and hide under the beds.

Their chilling voices constantly remind us of their presence and build in us a false sense of ourselves and our circumstances.  We hide from them, frozen in time and space.  Unable to escape, we are locked into a haunted house of our own making because rather than dealing with fear, we just ignore it.  Sounds scary, doesn’t it?

Learning To Recognise Fear

Learning to identify and confront our fears is one of the most challenging components of the human experience.  Why?  Because fear begets fear.  We are afraid to see or become enlightened to what scares us.  Fear’s low vibrational frequency causes energetic blocks that impede our mobility, stifle our creativity, and stunt our emotional and spiritual development.  We don’t “live” in fear, but rather exist in a state of inertia, hiding from our ghosts.

Have you ever had the feeling of being “stuck”? That’s fear.  Or the feeling that, no matter what you do, you cannot achieve your desired goal?  That’s fear.  Have you felt despair within a relationship?  Fear.  Desperation, weakness, loneliness?  Feeling like a victim?  Yup, all fear; peeking out from behind the curtains and popping up in the mirror.

What I find most interesting about fears is that they are scarier in the dark.  This is where we hide from them, erroneously believing we are protecting ourselves.  Choosing to confront our fears would force us out of hiding and expose us to the light, and then what?

As in the case of the haunted house, we hide to escape the scary unknown.  And the less we see, the more afraid we are.

Time To Turn On The Lights

What if the lights were turned on by our spiritual practice and we carefully and mindfully developed the courage to meet our fears?  What if we bravely opened every door and window, and let the brilliant sunshine beam in?  Would the ghosts still be as scary, or merely props in a staged show?  Imagine if YOU dug deep within yourself and met your fears with love, compassion, wisdom, and the inherent understanding of your own gifts and unlimited potential, would the chance of failure trump your desire to take a chance?  Would the fear of losing a lifestyle keep you in a loveless marriage?  Would the fear of rejection seem as great if you knew how much you had to offer to the world?

How would you present yourself?  Who would you be?

I’ve done a lot of soul searching of late. This year, instead of dressing up as the ghost of my former self, or the zombie that was buried in darkness, I will choose to be the spiritual warrior; faithful, clear and confident that when one resides in the light, everything is possible.