Imagined fear
Children's experience of fear can often be dismissed or taken on by the parent as a problem to be solved. But fear is something we all deal with on a regular basis, so why not work with it as a teaching tool to help our children learn to cope with what they are experiencing rather than dismissing it.
What is fear anyway
“FEAR - a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.”
Fear is a sensation we have physically, emotionally and mentally. Depending on what is happening with us, the fear can be brought on by very real danger or something we are creating in our mind and we don't always know the difference.
We will be discussing the imagined fear. The fear that our mind makes up and how it impacts out ability to move forward in doing the things we want, not the real fears we should be listening to.
There is a great episode of "Brain Games" around fear you might watch with the kids. Here is a clip.
Facing the Imagined Fear
If the fear has completely taken over the emotions, otherwise termed "amygdala highjacking", the only thing to do is breath and focus on bringing the logical brain back online.
Once the emotions have simmered down a bit there are five techniques I will be teaching the kids to work with the perceived threat.
1) Use out five tools for protection - ground, center, presence, connect with infinite energy source and surround yourself with protect arms length in all directions.
2) Bring it into perspective. Sometimes it is just the metaphoric lighting of our life that makes something scary, so we start to look for ways to change how we are looking at the situation.
3) Go down the path of worst case scenario. How bad could this all get? How likely is it that it will get that bad?
4) Rewrite the story, what is the best case scenario. How good can it get? How likely is that to happen?
5) Create an action plan. Sometimes our mind is just trying to figure out the unknown. Think about how you can set some real, short term actions to address what the mind is trying to.
Use Fear to Their Advantage
Fear doesn't have to be all bad. Sometimes we use fear to motivate us. Talk to the What If monster's and find out why he is there. What is he trying to help us accomplish. If we learn to view fear as just another sense, we can learn to use it with flexibility and skill.
Talk about fear, don't just rush through it. Teach your children that fear is a normal emotion that we all have. Share with them how it has worked for you in the past and help them use their fear to guide them into their own sense of power.
For more of my adult version of how to do this, visit my energy awareness blog.
In Class Exercise - Truth meter:
In class we will be drawing out our truth meters. We will discuss how we can take in feedback from the world and run it by our inner self to decide if it resonates with our truth. The kids will draw out their meter, giving the truth and untruth a visual representation and then run some of our fears through the meter and see where they end up.
