NO SPACE FOR FEAR

Right now, with the world in lockdown, it feels like a difficult time to be brave. This is probably why we are seeing blame and panic spreading as quickly as the global coronavirus pandemic. With the focus firmly on staying healthy, it seems a luxury to allocate any of our efforts to fighting our fears. Yet, fear is one-dimensional, humming the only note it knows: stop.

Fear is triggered in the realms of the unknown, and currently we are in the realms of the unknown in global history – not that we have ever been anywhere else. It might seem hard, but fear is the battle we need to fight more than any other right now.

To allow our fears to drive us in these uncertain times is to endanger ourselves even further. Much research has highlighted how fear weakens our immune systems and makes us more susceptible to illness. Jo Marchant explains in her book Cure: “Fear causes the body to go into damage control mode as it prepares for defeat… Our peripheral blood vessels constrict and our heart beats less efficiently, so less blood is being pumped around the body… In addition there is a surge of the stress hormone cortisol, as the immune system prepares for injury and infection.”

This is not new information. Scientists have been studying the link between stress and the immune system for years now, and finer details of the effect of stress have been uncovered for most illnesses. Scientists

already found in 2012: “In a healthy body, cortisol helps suppress inflammation. But the chronically stressed have consistently elevated cortisol levels, so the immune system grows resistant to the hormone, effectively ignoring it. Inflammation-causing proteins called cytokines – associated with developing a cold – then go unchecked.”

To allow our fears to drive us in these uncertain times is to endanger ourselves even further.

To protect ourselves from the damage which our own fears do to our immune system, we could apply a little curiosity. Author Erik Wahl writes in his book Unthink: Rediscover your Creative Genius: “In our early years, you and I consistently embodied the key traits that drive constant creativity. Curiosity ruled our senses. Enthusiasm ignited our actions. We did not fear what we did not know– instead we thrived on the process of discovery.” It is as we get older that we crave certainty and security. Yet, as we are constantly being reminded by life, certainty and security do not really exist.

Perhaps these times of great uncertainty are offering us a chance to re-think how we do ‘business as usual’. Perhaps we are being offered the opportunity to slow down, spend more time at home, and rethink what our true priorities actually are. When last did we even have the time to consider what our priorities are? Perhaps this is the time.

When we replace our fear of the unknown with curiosity, we invite creativity into our lives. This is the time to appreciate the value of your own joy, and to find out what unfolds beauty and transcendence in your life. Perhaps there has never been a better time.

Kirsty Watermeyer Kirsty is a Yoga and Meditation Coach, a Transformation Facilitator and Writer. Contact her at kirsty@seednamibia.com