Through travelling the path of yoga, I’ve come to believe that our human nature is that of bliss (Ananda) and health. From this blissful existence, it is the basic human need to be calm and peaceful, to be aware of ourselves and others, to be compassionate and collaborative in enriching others, to be fully present in each moment. This state happens only when we are at peace with our Being.
Everybody aspires to be in a state of inner peace because it is our true nature; after all we arrived on planet earth in a state of peace. But as we grow older, the outer world conditioning of fear and greed makes us gradually lose this inner peace. Recently, I had the fortune of receiving a deeper understanding on the mystery of fear and inner peace and experienced this subtle truth. I realized that unless we bring subtle understanding about acceptance of death, transcending the energy of fear, how insecurity gets created, the truth about integrity and authenticity, we will not be able to experience this peace.
Let me share a few understanding about energy centers (chakras), Being center (Swadhistana chakra) and Fear:
- Seven Chakras. There are 7 psycho-energetic centers (also known as chakras) located along the axis of the human body. These energy centers are vortices of psychic, or pranic energy, experienced or visualized moving at various rates of vibration. The chakras, when stimulated, they generate latent forces which awaken the power to conquer fear, desire, worries, disease, decay and even death.
- Swadhistana Chakra. The emotions of fear and insecurity are related to the second chakra (Swadhistana – means “where your Being is established”) which is located at the tailbone or coccyx. This is the energy center of our Being, it is also the center of rejuvenation. It is the storehouse of all experiences and tendencies. When there is a constant hangover of fear and insecurities in the Swadhistana, our Swadisthana collapses and blocks the energy flow which causes diseases near this part of body.
- Fear is natural. Fear is actually life energy which exists in all of us – the Fight or Flight response. Whenever we encounter a survival threat, we will see our fear rising and the adrenalin release happening in our body. That adrenalin release gives us so much of energy that we could almost fly! This is the fight or flight response i.e. we either face the fear and fight or escape by running away. Pure fear helps us in survival which is a spontaneous response. That is why fear cannot be destroyed, but it can be transcended.
- Types of Fear. In general, we can classify fear into 6 types. The first is fear of losing our wealth, comfort, name & fame, prestige and other outer world things. The second is fear of losing our health and parts of our body through some accident or diseases. The third is the fear of losing our mental health – our stability to relate with this world. The fourth is the fear of losing our dear and loved ones. The fifth is the fear of unknown like darkness or ghost. The biggest fear human beings have is the fear of losing their identity because we always want to look good, we are always concerned about what others will think of us. Even the fear of losing one’s life is not as great as the fear of losing the identity. All fears span from one root fear – the fear of death.
- Fear comes from negative thoughts. If we look into the thought current of fear, fear is just a deeper dimension of worry. Fear becomes only possible when we have negative thoughts, either about certain objects or future events. Fear can destroy our life if we don’t know how to handle fear because the adrenal gland is functioning excessively in overdrive mode which causes a shut down in other systems in our body. So the good news is if we are able to change our negative idea about certain object or future, we can avoid fear.
What is the difference between a person who is courageous versus one who is full of fear? The courageous person is not one without fear but one who has learnt to face fear with acceptance.
From my own experience, it is possible to live life without being disturbed by fear. Here are the three major clicks that I personally experienced from my spiritual guru, Paramahamsa Nithyananda, for which I am forever grateful to him :-
- Acceptance of Death. All fears come from the fear of death under various disguises. Death is the illusion as understood by the normal human brain, we need to awaken the non-mechanical parts of the human brain so that we have the capacity to see the life with the larger understanding. In Vedic tradition, death is not end or extinction of existence, different deaths and different births are not discontinuity of our existence – just like sleep and waking-up is the continuity of our life, births and deaths is also continuity of our life. Death is just climate change on our body and mind. At some stages in life, we will begin to cognise the inevitability of death and the impermanence of this physical body. By becoming aware and integrated with this Natural Law, we accept death as the natural progression of the same life, we will be able to gracefully exit when the time comes and there will be no fear of death. This understanding takes away all the fear in our life and puts us in tremendous restful awareness.
- Be Integrated with Your Words. Refer to my previous article “Integrity Begins with Our words”; I talked about integrity at different levels. If we list down all our fears, in every fear, there will be some lack of integrity. Each time we utter a word to our self and do not honour and fulfil them, we are living in an incomplete space in us. It is a lack of integrity with our being that is responsible for fear and insecurity. Over time, this out-of-integrity attitude creates incompletion with self and makes us lose self confidence over any word or commitment we make to our self! All the incomplete space gathers and keeps a deep insecurity about our existence. By not honouring even a simple commitment we give to our self, our heart loses the trust in self. This truth was such a big click for me because it makes me think consciously, speak consciously, utter authentic words and honour them with integrity. Constantly keep our self in the stage of completion is the best way to develop self confidence.
- Be Authentic with Your Possibilities. Life is for expansion, life is for experiencing the different dimensions and possibilities. However, due to our unconscious fear of unknown or lack of self confidence, we are living life in a limited way. We always carry this crippling attitude of “It’s ok, no big deal” that we stop being intense in stretching our possibilities and enriching our life. This is inauthenticity with our integrity with life. This truth was such a powerful jolt in my Being because I realised exactly this was where I was stuck. Unless we stretch our self beyond our self-imposed limits by our mind, we will not be able to transcend beyond fear. The sacred secret is to have courage to commit with things which we think we cannot do or fulfil, but keep on honouring with integrity and breaking the hangover of self doubt we carry in our heart, that is the only way we can stretch our self beyond fear. This is also the technique to go beyond body pain and experience a constant vibrant energy of our Being. Just by applying this truth to my sadhana (yoga practice), I was able to increase the intensity and complete 54 rounds of Sun Salutations on the first day and 72 rounds on the second day! By the 4th day, with an intention to do only 90 rounds when I started my practice, the moment I experienced the opening of my Being center and the rush of Kundalini energy just propelled this body to 108 rounds effortlessly. It was such an amazing awakening! I could feel the tension at the lower back disappeared and my body felt so alive and agile the entire day! The fire of authenticity ignited the intensity and brought a new level of possibilities I never knew I could achieve.
When we complete with our self with integrity and authenticity, we will be out of fears and insecurities. The Being center (Swadhistana charka) will be so alive and vibrant, in that space only eternal peace blossoms. Namaste! 🙂