Fear

[Cirrus]

Hello. I wonder if any of you have tips or suggestions of how I can let go of, or work on fear in meditation practise? I’m in a a period of change at the moment, and fear is big factor. I want to protect my mental health as much as possible through the current challenges. Thank you, and peace to you all.

[raushan]

You can't let go fear until you see it closely. When fear comes face it, don't try t block it. Don't want it to go away. When you will see that is it really necessary to have fear? or is just irrational fear? Then you will automatically let it go..

[stillpointdancer]

Hello. I wonder if any of you have tips or suggestions of how I can let go of, or work on fear in meditation practise? I’m in a a period of change at the moment, and fear is big factor. I want to protect my mental health as much as possible through the current challenges. Thank you, and peace to you all.

Most advice would be to leave off meditation for a while and go back to it after the period of change has ended, but your question goes deeper and asks if it is possible to tackle individual emotional responses to situations using meditation practice.

It is possible to work on fear, although usually it is about fear arising from the practice itself. For this, some schools of meditation go with developing a safe-place defense where you spend some time constructing a visualisation of a safe place to be. You then go there in your mind when you feel unsafe during a meditation.

My personal favourite is a white-mist or light visualisation, where you can visualise everything turning into white mist. After all, how can mist hurt you? The last thing is to turn yourself into the mist too. I stay with this until the fear has passed, then carry on with the meditation.

 The nearest traditional thing  I have read for your particular problem is 'The Warrior Koans' by Trevor Leggett, designed many years ago for Samuri who lived very short lives. Their practice was designed to shorten the length of time it takes to come to terms with their particular fears, as the next battle could be their last.

Which is a bit extreme, so for such problems these days Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy seems to be the best bet. It has developed from Buddhist mindfulness practice and the best of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and is well worth a look. I'd especially look at  Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness-based stress reduction program, and, although not his, this is a free online version: https://palousemindfulness.com/

[Cirrus]

Thank you Raishan and stillpointdancer.
I find both comments interesting, challenging in a positive way, and helpful.
Fear is both helpful and unhelpful, I see that it depends on whether I accept it and continue onwards with it, or allow myself to be bound by it.
I will definitely look at the mindful CBT, stillpointdancer, thanks for the link. I’m happy that you’ve found comfort with it. I also love the safe place, I have experienced strange sensations during practise and it will be a comfort to know I have refuge.