Written by: Carla Atherton, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
There are many motivational factors in life, and all of them are emotional. Inspiration, joy, pain, empathy, love, shame, guilt, hope, and fear. Each of these emotions simultaneously triggers brain and body responses and can be the symphony to which we dance throughout life. Some of those dances are slow, graceful, and luxurious, with every movement felt and experienced, and some of those dances are disjointed, frenzied, thoughtless, and exhausting. Fear is one of the latter.
It is common practice in the medical model and in the fields of psychology and psychiatry to categorize any strife, uncomfortable emotion, or challenging behaviour into “mental health” pathologies or diagnoses. And when diving deep, you will inevitably experience all kinds of emotion, none of them bad, but some certainly less pleasant and even deeply painful.
In the medical model, emotions and states of being such as depression and anxiety are pathologized. Behaviors such as addiction and phobias act as shields from perceived danger. Labels such as narcissism and borderline personality disorder frighten us. Medications are the standard of care, dampening both the difficult emotions but also the potential for growth and discovery.
These states of being, the struggle, the painful emotions, and the unhealthy behaviours, are very real and can be highly destructive, fragmenting relationships and even the self, yet what is missed is the reason for the disharmony, the fact that these difficult and sometimes dark experiences are not a metaphorical dark night of the soul, but very real ones. They are the very paths we need to walk while on our varying Hero’s Journeys until we return home stronger, wiser, forever changed, tattooed with maps of our lives, with “every lesson learned a line upon your beautiful face” (Get Out the Map by the Indigo Girls).
This perspective on mental and emotional wellness that I am describing is not one of judgment or pathology but of a recognition that strife and emotional pain are symptoms. They are messages from the body, mind, spirit, from the universe that there is something that is in need of balancing. It is a calling to become conscious and to consciously make the change, transmute, transcend, and transform, even those things that exist on the subconscious level, such as trapped emotion, trauma, and ancestral issues passed on energetically. And they are not to be feared.
When I first began my studies in the early 90s, the conventional discipline of psychology involved mainly talk therapy as well as pathologizing and categorizing mental and emotional dis-ease. The same was reflected in the medical establishment in relation to the body and how we view and address dis-ease. We were taught to turn the symptoms down or off rather than leaning into them, categorizing the pleasant ones as “good” and the unpleasant ones as “bad.”
We have currently seen an explosion of understanding in all disciplines, including not only the mind but also the physical brain and body, our environment and lifestyle inputs, epigenetics, and how the nervous system and vagus nerve dictate not only mental and emotional wellness or onset of dis-ease but also our physical conditions, as well. This is one way to demonstrate how this plays out in our material bodies:
Toxicity and Deficiency (in all aspects of the self)
Nervous System (safe/not safe)
Repair System (harmony/dis-ease)
Together, all three of these systems, which aren’t really separate systems at all but only parts of one system we call our very being, involve stressors, which either encourage or threaten our survival and catalyze the downstream response of fear, metabolic and emotional responses, and the need for repair and resolution, which we sometimes call healing.
Therefore, stress isn’t a bad thing—it is, in essence, what keeps us alive and can make us stronger, yet it is almost always accompanied by fear. It is when fear is unfounded, when we are unable to move through fear, or if we become stuck in past traumas or experiences that create perpetual, debilitating states of fear that fear becomes problematic. Let me explain. First, the science…
The Physiology of Stress
The physiology of stress is a fascinating process designed to ensure our survival.
The stress response is mitigated by the nervous system, namely the arm of the nervous system called the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is responsible for our two responses to the stimuli we encounter in life—the parasympathetic response and the sympathetic response—by regulating the hormones and chemical messengers needed to respond appropriately.
When we are in a state of ease, repair, and rest, we are in a parasympathetic state. This state is often called the “rest and digest” state or “breed and feed” because there is no need to get all keyed up about survival when there is no danger. At these times, there is lots of energy available to digest our food, sleep, rest, and procreate. We are meant to be in this state most of the time.
When we are under attack and need to mount a counter-attack to protect ourselves from threat (fear, fear, fear!), we move into the sympathetic state, often called the “fight, flight, flee, or faint” response. We are on hyper-alert and are only meant to be in this state when there is imminent danger.
In order to muster all of the strength needed to deal with the impending threat, our bodies release epinephrine and cortisol. When our bodies are in this state of fight, flight, flee, or freeze, all energy is used to deal with the threat (hearts pump fast and send oxygen to the extremities in preparation for flight, for example) and is diverted away from other bodily functions such as digestion and repair. The body doesn’t differentiate whether this stress is caused by physical injury or infection, a life or death encounter with a bear or a mad dash to a soccer game that started 15 minutes ago!
During this process, the catabolic hormone cortisol is overproduced to the detriment of the other essential steroidal hormones. Catabolic hormones break down molecules to release energy, which is good when needed, but when in overdrive, the process is exhausting to many parts of the body, including the adrenal glands and the brain. When overproduced, cortisol can break down healthy muscle, tissue, and bone and interfere with healthy digestion, mental function, and repair response.
The adrenal glands, where cortisol is produced, become fatigued and, over time, can become unable to adapt to the demands placed on them. This can be detrimental to overall health as the results of cortisol dysregulation will lead to a wide array of dis-ease states, including fatigue, allergies, depression, anxiety, headaches, insomnia, and more. All of this is uncomfortable but is not dysfunction as we are so often taught. It is how we stay alive in the short term! Our bodies are brilliant!
However, although the fight, flight, flee, or faint response is vital for survival, we are not meant to be in a state of chronic stress. Health cannot be sustained in a state of imbalance and with the pedal to the metal constantly battling a barrage of stressors. Battling through life in a state of perpetual fear is not enjoyable or sustainable.
So, again: fear-inducing chronic stress or, conversely, stress that causes reactivity and fear is toxic, debilitating, and limiting. It shuts down systems, causes imbalances in hormones and other chemicals in the body, disrupts sleep and cognitive function, and exhausts the adrenals. To be in a perpetual state of fight or flight is hard on every part of the body as the sympathetic nervous system, when in control much of the time, moves our energy away from our healing, rest, repair, digestion, and sense of calm and relaxation.
Therefore, stressed people do not digest and assimilate the nutrients in food properly, nutrients needed to survive and thrive and give energy and nourishment to the body. Stress also impairs the body’s ability to detoxify, can cause the body to respond by way of allergies and sensitivities, and inflammation is the natural result of the repair from stress (and not the enemy) but is by no means comfortable.
Excessive fear and stress can cause all manner of psychological and emotional dis-ease, detract from the beauty of life, and stunt personal growth.
Overwhelm, anxiety, depression, discontent, high stress, trauma, addictions, and chronic physical health conditions have become modern-day “norms,” and there is limited healing until we understand this and hone the life skills, grace, and wisdom to navigate through the human experience of evolution. And this takes understanding our fears and moving through them.
Here are some causes of fear-based stress:
Mental/Emotional Stress
Traumatic Events
Negative Thought Processes and Patterns
Physical Stress
Cell Danger Response
Chemicals, Metals, and Biotoxins
Lack of Sleep and Rest
Reactive Diet
Agitating Sensory Inputs
When we are chronically afraid and stressed, we experience:
Fight, Flee, Freeze, Response (reactivity)
Faint Response (shut down, disengagement)
Isolation and Mistrust
Chronic Illness
Mental, Emotional, and Mood Problems
Poor Physical Health
Catabolized Cells for Energy
Overtaxed and Reactive Repair System
GI and Reproductive Shut Down
Lower Fertility
Imbalanced Neurochemicals
Imbalanced Hormones
Inflammation and Pain
Loss of Connection
Effects of Fear-Based Bad Decision-Making Etcetera…
Is All This Fear Necessary?
So, what if there is no imminent danger, but we are stressed and fearful anyway? Why are so many of us struggling with generalized and constant levels of fear, depression, and anxiety?
Aside from the toxins in our environment and unhealthy lifestyle practices that put stress on our bodies, there is a lot to contend with in our environments that relate to the emotional state of fear. We are immersed in a culture largely reliant on technology, disconnected from our inner wisdom, nature, and each other.
According to the polyvagal theory, we are wired to feel safe when we are with our tribes, so when we are disconnected and then exposed to fear or stress-inducing stimuli and messages, our sympathetic nervous system sets in. Not safe. Time to fight, flee, freeze, or get ready for death.
What Causes an Excessive Pattern of Fear?
1. Media
Messages from the media (with overexposure to the media) found in the news both on television and the internet), social media, and advertisements.
We absorb messages not only consciously but also subconsciously through the images we see and the stories we are told in our modern media, which are often unhealthy, focused on tragedy, and designed to instigate action by purposely inducing fear. This is the age of capitalism where we are constantly being manipulated by advertising and told that we are not good enough, that we don’t know enough, that we are broken, and there is something we can buy or believe that will fix us. We do not need to be paranoid about this but simply aware enough to shut it off and to know when.
2. Past Experience and Traumas
Since our systems are designed to protect us, it is completely reasonable that in order to keep us safe from physical and/or mental/emotional harm, memories of difficult and sometimes traumatic past events will trigger fear when anticipating possible future events. If you burned your hand on a hot stove, the fear of that pain and avoidance of experiencing it again would keep you from touching a hot stove again. Yet, as we know, an inability to let go of the emotional response to that memory or energetic baggage can create states of generalized anxiety and even PTSD, addictions, and chronic physical conditions when we are unable to move through and past those experiences. The key is to learn from them but no longer experience the emotional pain they caused.
3. Disbelief in Self; Over-Reliance on Others
We cannot move into a state of safety, healing, and inspired wellness if we don’t think we can. Disempowerment will hold us back from even the possibility and will keep us in a state of fear due to our reliance on the frightening world to dictate our survival for us.
4. Fear of the Unknown
One of the lessons I learned in my training, experience, and exploration of yoga that I “practice” every day is to live in the present, to know that the past is over and that we cannot predict the future. We can learn from the past and have it become part of our growing body of wisdom, yet we must not live as if it is still happening, and this takes a great deal of letting go. Additionally, we must not live in the future because we have no clue as to what that might hold.
A natural reaction to the unknown is to fear it, to project what-if scenarios that we think keep us safe but actually keep us stuck, unhappy, limited, and unwell because instead of living in the present moment, we create the present moment out of fearing what is not actually happening. We fear future pain, discomfort, dis-ease, loss, and death. But ironically, our expectations of suffering become the reality we are choosing to experience. See the problem there?
Fear is not the enemy; it is not brokenness or weakness. It serves us in that it keeps us safe. It is a natural component of our range of human emotions, a signal, a sign, a point of discovery. And we all do and should feel it. It is when we let it overwhelm us, when it is unfounded, when it becomes our default response in life, or when we let it take over the controls of the plane that it becomes problematic.
How Do We Transmute Fear?
Sometimes when we struggle or when we feel and/or exhibit behaviours and emotions we don't like, that repulse us and others, that we deem in our modern culture to be weak or destructive or shameful, we can shy away from them, burry them, bottle them up in an internal volcano where the pressure doesn't create diamonds but lava ready to erupt.
We all have the capacity for pain, rage, depression, frustration. We all want to survive and will fight what threatens us; sometimes that is others, and sometimes that is ourselves. It is how we survive.
But it also can disconnect us, create more pain, more shame, and the need for defensive armor. It can stunt us and hold us back from who and what we truly are. It can cloud how others see and understand us and how we see ourselves.
But once we move out of fear and observe rather than react, we take back our power. We can observe these darker emotions, understand our need to be safe, and find more constructive ways to not only survive but transcend. We can have compassion and forgive ourselves for our previous actions and do better in the future. We can look at the totality of what we are with courage and let the old stuff burn like kindling, cleaning out the landscape, laying fertile soil, making room for something new. We can become the phoenix rising from the ashes.
So, how do we become the alchemist and not the frightened rabbit?
Know that we are not broken.
Know that we do not need anything or anyone to fix us.
Observe our thoughts and choose which ones we want to believe.
Examine our beliefs.
Think critically about what we are being told.
Reawaken our inner voice.
Turn off the noise of the media, internet, and social media.
Turn to true mentors and elders in our family systems and communities.
Become mentors and elders, ourselves.
Cultivate resilience.
Let go of past trauma.
Move out of unconscious behaviours and ways of being into becoming conscious (aware) and uncovering the subconscious.
Find healing in the process of simply becoming aware, listening to our symptoms, and unearthing the causes with the intent of letting them go.
Train our body and mind to respond rather than react.
Plant seeds of hope, nurture the seedling and grow roots.
Shift from an anti-dying perspective to a pro-living perspective.
Turn fear into a deep curiosity and desire to heal and evolve.
Ask: what is my experience teaching me? What is it that I am supposed to pay attention to? Then listen.
Stop living a life focused on painful what-ifs.
Know when we need to assess or be curious or when to let something be.
Enjoy your current experience of life. Cultivate Courage.
Practices to Move Out of Stress and Fear
Stress Management
Breathing and Brearthwork
Meditation and Mindfulness
Meditative Movement (Yoga and Qigong)
Sleep and Rest
Gentle Diet
Calming Sensory Inputs
Critical Thought
Accepting What Is
Gratitude
Seeking Good Information Finding Mentors
Make these shifts!
Fear into Curiosity
Anxiety into Exhilaration
Paranoia into Preparation
Hindsight into Foresight
Panic into Passion
Once the nervous system is in balance and we have shifted our perspective, and re-membered our agency and our true power in our life, our body and mind move into an upgrade, improving the very physiology, chemistry, and physical state of each and every cell. In order to move into an empowered state of health less dictated by fear and more informed by possibility, we must unravel or flip the switch on old patterns of ill health to illuminate and open the space for something new.
Instead of shrinking, we grow. We live boldly and out loud and dance to the soundtrack of life, even the quietest among us. We expand and evolve and have a shitload of fun doing it.
“Take a look at me now
I am the wild wind in the night
I am the letting go of the reigns” ‒ Ayla Nereo
Big Shifts for Today
Shift Fear into Curiosity
Shift Anxiety into Exhilaration
Shift Paranoia into Preparation
Shift Hindsight into Foresight
Shift Panic into Passion
Check back for the next installment of this series: Shifting from Dis-ease into
Kick-ass Health Empowerment
Session 4: Loving What Is
Back up to Session 1: Shift into Healing
Back up to Session 2: Are You the Spider or the Fly?
Carla Atherton, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Carla Atherton, MA, FDN-P, is the Director of the Healthy Family Formula and the HFF Practitioner Training Academy, Host and Producer of the Children's Health Summit, Author of Family Health Revolution, Host of the Family Health Revolution Podcast, Health Empowerment Coach, Holistic Family Health Consultant, Yoga Instructor and Mind/Body Facilitator, and Children's Health Advocate. Spurred on by the love for her three glorious and grown children and her husband, Carla's mission is to support people to achieve their best health through information, guidance, and empowerment.
Carla lives on an acreage in rural Saskatchewan, Canada, where she works from a home office. In addition to empowerment and health coaching, teaching others this skill through her academy, and leading “Hero’s Journey” creative writing workshops, Carla also works with families from all over the world on the reversal of conditions such as Autoimmunity: Type 1 Diabetes, PANDAS/PANS/Autoimmune Encephalitis, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Celiac Disease and Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity; Asthma, Allergies, Eczema, and Reactivity; ADHD, Autism, Sensory Processing Disorder, Learning Disabilities; Depression, Anxiety, Mental Health Disorders, Eating Disorders, ODD; Other Neurological Conditions; Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and Metabolic Disorders; Untangling Mystery Symptoms, Complex Cases, and Co-Morbidities (having more than one condition); Mold Illness; Multiple Chemical Sensitivity; Lyme; Other Infection; and Addictions. Carla is on a revolutionary mission to empower families to transcend our new normal of ill health and chronic dis-ease.
