“It seems that if I am afraid, then I am “stuck” with fear. But in fact I am chained to the fear only so long as I am trying to get away from it… So long as the mind believes in the possibility of escape from what it is at this moment, there can be no freedom.” -Alan Watts

Ah- fear. Or rather, the fear OF fear. The single most powerful force that keeps humanity from seeing and reaching their immense potential. An incredible (yet merciless) teacher on the journey of what it means to be truly free.

In this article, I am going to share with you a most powerful technique to transmute and integrate any fear. This technique can be used for harmonizing any uncomfortable emotion- but I want to use fear as the example as fear (in my experience) is the single-handedly most tricky and intense underlying emotion that one can encounter on this wonderous journey that is human life.

Feel free to skip to the last section: ‘How To Transmute Fear’ if you’re in quick need of a fear-integrating formula; however I highly recommend reading the entirety of this article if you want a deeper insight into the purpose, history, and solution of the pandemic of fear in human life.

How Fear Manifests

There are so many ways that fear manifests in our experience. Humanity has so much trauma in our history- not only in our own personal lives- but as a species. The deep, painful, and terrifying emotions that are felt (and often repressed) in our bodies and the bodies of our ancestors do not simply go away when we refuse to look at them, but must be seen, felt and expressed to be transmuted into light (i.e. karma).

And I assure you- transmuted they are, for when we do have the courage to FEEL our uncomfortable feelings that arise, there is always a lesson within them that truly is the equivalent of a pot of gold– giving you the information and freedom you need to take your life to the next level of expansion and creativity.

Though surely we are all quite familiar with the feeling of fear- it is necessary to dive a little deeper because fear can be extremely tricky, hidden, and illusory. I want to give you an example by sharing with you a recent experience I had that brought all of this information to light for me.

Fear is one of my greatest “shadows”- my experience has been so that I have had a lot of fear-based trauma in my life (preaching to the choir here.. lol). I experience this in my daily life as a vague resistance to my hearts desires, not being able to trust myself, always being on guard, not being able to be vulnerable or express myself fully, trying to control things in my environment, a sensation of a tornado of anxiety in my chest at all times, paranoia, and overall an existential terror of being human on this crazy Earth plane.

Now here is the important piece: though I have been feeling these symptoms in my life as long as I can remember, I have been in deep denial about them. When we deny our emotions (or any experience), we actually prolong our suffering around it. What we resist, persists. There has been so much shame around the emotion of fear, especially in spiritual communities. We are taught that fear is bad, silly, pointless, shameful, and weak. That we shouldn’t feel fear and that if we feel it something must be wrong with us. When we subscribe to these often well-intentioned but not fully-informed beliefs, when the normal and universal emotion of fear arises our reaction is then to deny it, suppress it, or invalidate it… which never allows these fears to come to the surface to truly be seen, held, healed, and transmuted back into light. Trying to deny and separate ourselves from emotions we deem “negative” turns out to be quite a disservice to ourselves in coming into our wholeness.

This is, in my opinion, the very definition of a “purgatory”… it’s like running around carrying painfully heavy baggage in your arms and denying that you are carrying anything at all. Until you acknowledge the fact you are carrying it, you will never be able to release your burden and be free. We all are worthy and capable of this healing and freedom, and we are all in the same boat when it comes to carrying these burdens around that we find so shameful and embarrassing about ourselves. The truth is that we are not alone; we all have these “shadow parts” within us.

In my experience, it wasn’t until an intense “divine intervention” occurred in my life that gave me the opportunity to see (and FEEL) clearly all of the deep fear, panic, and straight up terror I had be holding on to and carrying around everyday. Before this point, I truly didn’t think I had any fear… and I was in complete denial about it as I had believed that feeling fear was a sign of weakness, and that I should never be weak. Yet in reality, my fear has been the main source of resistance I had towards accomplishing and creating many of my greatest dreams. Metaphorically speaking, it is nearly impossible to paint pictures, tell stories, and play beautiful music when my hands are so full of bags of possessions that I refuse to acknowledge and release.

In this work I have found that true strength is in vulnerability and the true definition of humility: to innerstand that I contain more multitudes of thoughts, feelings, and experiences than I tend to consciously think.

Long story short, when I was able to accept the fear I had, honor its pain, FEEL it, release it, and come back to my Self in a new light.. I realized this was the greatest gift I have ever received. I saw how much fear had been like a glue holding together all of these illusory limiting beliefs in my life. When I was able to see, accept, and transmute this fear.. it was like a light was shone upon my entire reality and all of these limiting beliefs (which I had been working on healing for so long to little avail) suddenly dissolved. Since this experience, I feel lighter than I ever have. A new sense of gratitude, trust, joy, and faith has come into my life that is the most beautiful thing I can imagine so far.

I must highlight- as I was accepting and FEELING this fear (to transmute it), it was NOT comfortable; feeling and transmuting pain isn’t exactly a blissful experience.. in fact it was extremely painful to accept and feel through all of this fear that had been controlling me. However, it is an inestimably valuable and courageous act; a process of death and re-birth for your greatest good; a commitment of true unconditional self-love. Fear (and any “negative” emotion) is not something to spiritually bypass or dismiss or hate- it is something to deeply honor and hold reverence to. Though it was one of the most painful experiences in my life surrendering to these feelings of terror and panic and letting them move through my body to be released- it was the unmatched wholeness and restored sense of courage and connection felt afterwards-as well as these lessons I am sharing within this article- that made it worth all of the pain a thousand times over. Feeling the immense pain (in this case, fear and panic) was truly one of, if not the, greatest gifts in my life so far and has changed the very foundation upon which I experience my life.

Though I know despite releasing so much fear, more fear will likely arise for me. However, knowing what I know now I have much more experience, wisdom, and tools to navigate these sensations with more grace than ever before. I no longer fear the fear in my life, and I am prepared to face it head-on as it arises; my relationship with fear is more harmonized and willing than ever before.

Why Fear Manifests

I feel it is important to touch on why such intense, survival-mode fear manifests in our often quite physically safe lives. As I said before, there is so much shame associated with fear and feeling fear that we often refuse (consciously or unconsciously) to allow ourselves to feel it when it arises in our experience… never allowing it to be truly understood, honored, or healed.

Yet, when we understand the source of our fears we see that being able to sit with and feel through intense fear, without resisting it, is the very definition of courage and strength.

There are infinite ways that fear may have and does manifest in our life. Not only have our childhoods been riddled with traumatic experiences of different degrees, but the fear in our DNA and body from our parents and ancestors gets passed on in each generation until it is able to be seen and transmuted by the sons and daughters in the lineage (hence, “generational curses”).

That said- it has NOT been easy to be a human. The amount of poverty, war, betrayal, repression, deception, violence, rape, abuse, evil, hatred, ignorance, division, confusion, mind control, etc. that has been experienced has put all of us (whether we realize it or not) in a perpetual “survival mode”. We have been in a “dark age” where a mental parasite has corrupted the very connection to life that we all are, leaving us in very low states of consciousness. Constant fear, pain, and suffering has been the norm/base line experience.

If you are in a physical body, it means you belong to a lineage that had to make many, many sacrifices just to survive. That pain doesn’t simply go away when it is repressed… it must be acknowledged, felt, and truly transmuted in honor and grace. When one is ready to heal it, the repressed pain will come to the surface to be transmuted.

That said, we will likely be facing and transforming our fears here for a long time- as it is part of our evolution, dharma, and work here as souls in human bodies. That said, the pain and fear that has been experienced by humanity is so extreme that it is completely essential to hold a sense of reverence, respect, and honor for the aspects of ourselves that are afraid (or in any pain) in any way. Instead of trying to push them down out of fear and ignorance (again, what we resist persists; infinite fear loops until it is recognized), we must invite these parts of ourselves to come back to us (soul-retrieval), to see them, to honor them, to recognize the immense pain, trauma, and suffering these fearful aspects of ourselves have been through, and to begin a journey with nursing them back into the safety of our love and awareness for our wholeness as Divine Beings. These parts of ourselves are NOT weak or wrong. In fact, they are extremely strong and heroic for being able to withstand the amount of pressure, neglect, and pain that they have. This is why we must come to honor them in the light of our love, rather than keeping them hidden in the dark of our fear.

For example, you wouldn’t try to shame or ‘intellectually strong-arm’ a terrified, confused child- you would (hopefully) take him/her into your arms and give them a colossal bear hug and reassurance that everything is okay. This is the level of compassion we are being asked of to have towards ourselves (and others, of course).

An ancient shamanic practice called soul-retrieval that is associated with this work of bringing back aspects of ourselves that were split off/fragmented/denied/repressed in the face of trauma that was too much to bear may also be worth reading into for those on this path. For more on this process read my article How to Integrate Fragmented Aspects of Yourself.

Finally, concerning these “shadowy” aspects of ourselves that we often deem as “separate”, “negative”, or as “ego”- I invite you to create a more harmonious, compassionate, and holistic relationship with them. I have already demonstrated why these fearful aspects of us are not negative or weak at all- they are just in pain and in need of your love and healing. The same goes for what we call the “ego”- the ego is not a malevolent aspect of you- rather it is a ‘young’ aspect of you that, due to the nature of what has occurred on earth, has had to be extremely loud and strong merely to keep you and your lineage safe and alive in the past. It has served you as your protection and armor in a dark world; and it has served you extremely well.

Your ego actually loves you very much, even if it doesn’t know how to serve you anymore.. it is your job now to teach it. It is not a time to hate on it or try to separate yourself from it; it is a time to take your ego in your arms, thank it, and correct your relationship with this aspect of you as your Higher Self (your higher awareness) comes back online through your Hero’s Journey.

As we begin to evolve and enter a new age of enlightenment and ascension, we no longer need this armor of constant fear and we begin to find it is actually our unconditional love, connection, and vulnerability that protects and stabilizes us as our armor in the “New Earth”. This high armor is the restoration of the Divine Masculine- allowing the Divine Feminine to return as the creative expression of God-Source, opening the floodgates for new levels of creativity to enter our experience unlike ever before (or at least, a very, very long time). I have found that as we evolve, it is a vitally important process to begin to trust ourselves and the Higher Plan again and again-this means harmonizing with our fears.

Please remember to be gentle with yourself on this process, as you cannot rush this evolution the same way you cannot force open a rose- allow it to unfurl as it needs. The key is to simply be present with whatever arises in your experience- for whatever is arising in your present moment is exactly where your “work” is.

While it may be an indefinite while before all of these fears are fully seen and transmuted in the collective of humanity- take comfort in knowing that as we do this work we get better and better at it, for this IS the very process of how we step into our mastery, heroism, and wholeness as Divine Beings. It truly is a divine dance, a cosmic play.

This is why I felt a deep call to share this story with you, and to share the technique below that has been immense in my own learning how to navigate deep, intense, messy, painful fears with as much grace, wholeness, and ease as possible.

How To Transmute Fear

When it comes to healing (especially fear), I find it is a very inappropriate concept to just “get over it”. Every emotion has a valuable meaning, key, history, and lesson behind it, and therefore cannot be pushed down, bypassed, or just “got over”.

While we often (consciously or unconsciously) try to separate ourselves from such experiences, it is actually the full integration of such experiences that “transmutes” them into cosmic gold.

Learning to “overcome fear” isn’t about trying to ‘get rid of it’ as much as it is about consciously re-creating your relationship with fear, which is what this technique is all about. As I said-instead of denying or resisting these uncomfortable emotions, it is about facing and confronting it.. with huge compassion for every part of yourself. The way I most like to frame it is harmonizing with your fears as if it were a verse in a song- as it is the YOUniverse!

Again, this example is geared towards fear but can be used with any uncomfortable or repressed emotion.

That said, here it is:

1. Observe (Recognize)
   1. Be present as much as possible so that you consciously recognize when the sensation of FEAR arises.
   2. As it arises, ask yourself: Am I safe? Am I actually in life-threatening danger in this moment? The answer will almost always be no; in that case continue on this technique. If yes- do whatever you need to do and then come back to this!
   3. As you observe, notice (as neutrally as possible) what arises with this fear. How does it feel in your body? What happens to your thoughts and imagination when this survival sensation arises? What does this sensation make you feel like doing? Are you able to access your deeper knowing/guidance in this moment or is it being drown out by this experience of fear? Observe everything with as much curiosity and playfulness as possible.
2. Honor (Reverence)
   1. As you observe fear arising and preparing to feel and transmute it, honor yourself. Recognize that there is nothing wrong with you for feeling it and that you are about to do some beautiful inner work and transformation in service to yourself and all of consciousness. Honor yourself for your bravery in doing this work and honor the part(s) of you that may be scared shitless with deep compassion and reverence for the trauma you’ve endured. Honor fully the process you are about to embark upon.
3. Feel (Release)
   1. Sit quietly and stare into the feeling/sensations/thoughts that are arising. Don’t resist it. Surrender completely.
   2. BREATHE. DEEPLY. The breath will guide you. In through the nose, out through the mouth.
   3. Feeling IS healing. Emotions = energy in motion. This is the ALCHEMY aspect. Picture the lead being transmuted into gold under intense pressure and fires. In these moments, YOU are the lead being transmuted into gold. This is the most uncomfortable and yet profound part of the entire experience.
   4. Have “Firmeza”- a beautiful Portuguese word for “Firmness, focus, stability, strength”. Know that this feeling is temporary and WILL pass. Often (especially with fear) there is a sense of panic and urgency that is super convincing (F.E.A.R.-False Evidence Appearing Real) that makes it really hard to sit with this sensation. Unless you truly are in a life-or-death situation (which it rarely is), it requires considerable discipline to just SIT and FEEL the emotion without trying to escape it with some kind of distraction, excuse, or avoidance. When feeling fear, a few minutes may seem like an eternity but know that it will pass, and when you allow yourself to surrender and feel it you will come back to yourself feeling more free than ever, often with a new nugget of knowledge and wisdom about yourself). Allow yourself to release however you may need (breath, sighs, cries, purges, etc.).
   5. Remember true courage is not avoiding feeling fear, but being willing to face it head on and continue through it: accepting WHAT IS ARISING fully.
4. Affirm “I AM SAFE”
   1. As you are pHealing the fear move through you, your mind will naturally come up with many different narratives, scenarios, or stories that again, may be very convincing and tempting. Do your best to not get attached or hooked to any of these stories but rather use your mind to concentrate on an affirmation like “I AM SAFE” to give yourself a safe space to continue to let these uncomfortable emotions move through your body.
   2. Remember that you are FEELING pain; you are not dying and this is simply an incredible opportunity for healing and evolution.
5. Tune Into Higher Self’s Guidance (Integrate)
   1. After time has passed and you have felt all of the emotions move through your body, you will slowly find yourself in a calm, peaceful state again. This is the best time to tune into your inner guidance and see what may come up. Regardless of how connected to your inner guidance you feel, this is a good time in general to ground back into your body, do some journaling, reflect, get some water or a snack, sit in nature, listen to uplifting music, and/or do whatever it is you feel called to do to bring you back into a grounded, peaceful state. It is likely you will receive messages and guidance after this experience but be open to whatever is (or isn’t) arising.
   2. Take time and care to reflect on your experience and any insights, feelings, intuitions, visions, inspirations, or ideas that may come through.
   3. The more you practice this, the easier it will get, and the more you will innerstand this process and how each time you are integrating another fragmented piece of yourself, dropping deeper into your wholeness. Congratulations!

Feel free to take this template that was given to me and make it your own as we all have our own unique way of processing. It is extremely vital to come up with techniques and practices to add to your “spiritual toolbelt” as it allows you to navigate these super painful, shadow-y realms of yourself with much grace and ease… again, true sovereignty and mastery!

This human life is the full spectrum of experiences- from joy to guilt to gratitude to shame to rage to depression to bliss and everything in between- as we navigate all of these different textures and aspects of ourselves and harmonize our relationships with all of it- we become a symphony of wholeness. Through this process, I myself have been a witness to how sacred and precious this life is; filling my heart with love and reverence for every single life form and all it has been through. I find remembrance through this work that we are all innately and inevitably connected. As we all do this brave work within ourselves, we are not only serving ourselves but we tangibly assist all of those around and in relation to us from the inside out.

Human evolution: it truly is an inside job!

That said, I honor and thank YOU for taking the time to read and learn these teachings and may you be blessed wherever you are at on your own journey!