“By the time we are women, fear is as familiar to us as air. It is our element. We live in it, we inhale it, we exhale it, and most of the time, we do not even notice it. Instead of ‘I am afraid,’ we say, ‘I don’t want to,’ or ‘I don’t know how,’ or ‘I can’t.’”

-- Andrea Dworkin

Fear can be a habit. …Of course, there are times when fear has a useful purpose. Like when you feel a moment of panic as you swerve to avoid an oncoming car. In cases like this, a momentary feeling of alarm triggers a useful, sometimes life-saving, response. But when fear in certain situations is habitual, that is a signal that we are sabotaging ourselves and only doing ourselves harm. The more we listen to the voice of fear, the more we constrict our lives.

So how do you let go of fear? There are thousands of books and recommendations on this issue. I will confine myself to just one, that is very powerful. It’s about learning to release yourself from fear by changing the way it feels in your body.

Have you ever noticed that fear is always a physical sensation? It may involve a tightening in your chest or gut, palpations, sweating, tightening in your neck, or other sensations. If you can get rid of the sensation, you will no longer have the fear.

Another way of saying this is that you become afraid when you have certain physical sensations, and that you let go of the fear when those sensations dissipate. As a result, if you can train yourself to recognize what the sensations of fear are for you, and if you can then practice letting them go, you will go a long way toward letting go of fear altogether.

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~ Ingrid Bacci

“Women have to summon up courage to fulfill dormant dreams.”

-- Alice Walker

To learn more about effortless living, visit Ingrid’s website.