Naturally, fear and anxiety will be present for many of us right now, given what’s happening with the ‘C’ word all over the world. While it’s extremely important to have a clear idea of what’s going on and follow the guidance of our governments, it’s also important not to get overwhelmed and consumed by everything that’s happening – easier said than done, I know! Here, I’ll explain why it is so important and what fear does to our bodies.

We know that laughter is contagious, well so is fear, and it can create a pattern that we can get stuck in. Fear creates stress hormones which in turn shut down the immune system. The World Health Organization shared that “Stress is the health epidemic of the 21st century”.

As Dr. Lipton also writes in his book, The Biology of Belief, “Stress is responsible for up to 90% of illness, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes.”

Your vibration is your energetic frequency, fear is one the lowest vibrations, at this frequency, if experienced long term it can harm the immune system and bring about different physical symptoms. Therefore, watching the news which is mainly filled with fear, will intensify the feelings you may already be experiencing and keep contributing to the feeling of ungroundedness and heaviness in your body. In this state you may not be able to see the bigger picture of the situation and give opportunity to rise out of the fearful situation you may be experiencing.

Think back to a time when you felt full of love or joy, how did it make you feel? Maybe more open, expansive, lighter, more relaxed. Resonating feelings of love and joy come from the heart and in this state one is able to cultivate resilience to have the strength to overcome hurdles and grow from them.

The heart resonates at a high frequency and if we cultivate that it will boost and strengthen the immune system. If we can turn our attention to these feelings, not only will we support ourselves, but it’s contagious, and we will, in turn, affect others and help raise the vibration of our planet by creating small ripples of love and compassion. 

Although for many of us our business, financial situation or job is at risk, we cannot control this situation, nor control when the lockdown or the virus will end. Therefore, we must change our mindset and try to focus our energy on what we can control to support our health and immune system and try to be compassionate towards ourselves and towards others. 

What we can control are things like:

• Our thoughts
• What we eat
• How long we sleep for
• What we choose to do with our time
• The people we connect with
• Our exercise routine 
• How we treat our bodies
• How compassionate we are to ourselves

All of these have a huge impact on how we feel on a daily basis and are completely within our control if we choose to bring our attention to these areas of our lives. 

GROWING FROM FEAR 

Dr. Joe Dispenza teaches, wherever you place your focus of attention, your energy flows. So if you want your energy to flow to somewhere positive then you need to work on finding things in your life that make you feel positive.

Dr. Dispenza held an experiment where 120 participants completed test studies for 10 minutes, three times a day, where they replaced thoughts of resentment, frustration and fear, for gratitude, meditation, positive thinking and appreciation. After this their immune responses and the chemical Immunoglobulin A (IgA) were measured, these are the body’s primary defence against bacteria and viruses. Their values increased by 50% in just 4 days, a huge improvement and better than a flu shot!

Dr. Dispenza says “when you are frustrated or fearful the immune system dials down because you’re in an emergency. There’s no energy in your inner world for growth and repair.”

Growth and repair can only happen when our parasympathetic nervous system is activated (I’ll explain this more below) and in order to reach this state, we must remain calm. Now more than ever, it’s vital that we use our time wisely and try to focus on the things that help us to feel calm and relaxed.

In order to function and survive as human beings, we need both our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Our sympathetic is our fight or flight response, where we feel fear, frustration, anxiety and anger. The sympathetic nervous system increases our heart rate and alertness and prepares us for action when we are at threat. Back when we were hunters and gatherers this was essential for our survival – nowadays we can be triggered into fight or flight just by reading an email. 

The parasympathetic nervous system slows us down and relaxes us. It helps us to rest, digest, metabolise and enables the functioning of our reproductive system. This response is not vital when running from a tiger but is essential for our health. So you see both are equally as important, however, we don’t want to be in fight or flight mode all of the time as it can be detrimental to our health and immune system. Our bodies will not be able to repair or replenish themselves therefore weakening the immune system and making us more susceptible to illness.

Alongside the 5 top tips I shared a couple of weeks ago on calming the mind, here are some further suggestions of things that may support you to ground your energy during these times of change:

1. If any moments of anxiety arise, close your eyes and focus on deepening your exhales. When we take longer exhales out of the mouth, it signals to our nervous systems that it’s ok to relax. When we’re feeling calm our parasympathetic nervous system kicks in and this is where the following are able to take place – rest, digest, repair, reproduce. None of these are possible when we are stuck in the fight or flight response (the sympathetic nervous system). 

2. Start a daily affirmation. For example, look into a mirror and say “I have a strong and healthy immune system, all is well and I’m exactly where I’m meant to be right now” – aim to repeat this three times. Find the right words that resonate with you.

3. Move, sing, dance, draw, paint, read, play a board game! Whatever it is that used to excite you when you were younger that maybe you’ve lost touch with, embrace this time of now and do something that excites you. Your mind will be distracted from fear when you are feeling joy.

4. Walk barefoot or stand on a patch of grass or soil. Close your eyes, breathe deeply and imagine your feet like roots of a tree, grounding deep into the earth beneath you. Imagine these roots growing deeper and deeper until they reach the centre of the earth. Wrap these roots around the centre of the Earth and ask for the Earth to support you, nourish you and ground your energy.

5. Take some time out of your day to cook or bake something new – I find cooking really grounding!

6. Light incense to clear your space. For many of us, our home has now become our workplace too, to enable us to switch off from work mode at the end of the day, it’s nice to light some incense, sage or palo santo and set the intention to clear and cleanse the energy in your space.  

Kate Stewart is a Reiki and Sound Practitioner. Kate’s personal journey of practising meditation, movement, breathwork, shamanic work and yoga helped her to overcome anxiety that she’d lived with from the age of 11. She has since made it her purpose to support and share these gifts with others. 

To find out more, check out Kate’s website and follow her on Instagram.