Fear and Anxiety

Impact of Fear and Anxiety

Fear is a human emotion that is triggered by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism that signals our bodies to respond to danger with a fight or flight response. As such, it is an essential part of keeping us safe.

However, when people live in constant fear, whether from physical dangers in their environment or threats they perceive, they can become incapacitated.

How fear works

Fear prepares us to react to danger. Once we sense a potential danger, our body releases hormones that:

• Slow or shut down functions not needed for survival (such as our digestive system)
• Sharpen functions that might help us survive (such as eyesight). Our heart rate increases, and blood flows to muscles so we can run faster.

Our body also increases the flow of hormones to an area of the brain known as the amygdala to help us focus on the presenting danger and store it in our memory.

Impact of chronic fear

Living under constant threat has serious health consequences. 

1. Physical health.  
2. Fear weakens our immune system and can cause cardiovascular damage, gastrointestinal problems such as ulcers and irritable bowel syndrome, and decreased fertility.  It can lead to accelerated ageing and even premature death.
3. Memory.  
4. Fear can impair formation of long-term memories and cause damage to certain parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus. This can make it even more difficult to regulate fear and can leave a person anxious most of the time. To someone in chronic fear, the world looks scary and their memories confirm that.
5. Brain processing and reactivity. 
6. Fear can interrupt processes in our brains that allow us to regulate emotions, read non-verbal cues and other information presented to us, reflect before acting, and act ethically. This impacts our thinking and decision-making in negative ways, leaving us susceptible to intense emotions and impulsive reactions. All of these effects can leave us unable to act appropriately.
7. Mental health. 
8.  Other consequences of long-term fear include fatigue, clinical depression, and PSTD.

So whether threats to our security are real or perceived, they impact our mental and physical wellbeing.

~ courtesy of the University of Minnesota 

Emotions, Beliefs and our physical health

There has been lots of research connecting the emotional and physical body. I personally believe that most ailments start in the emotional field first but there are also indications that toxins hold their own unique energy and bring about certain mind frames and thoughts.

Candice Pert, a neuropharmacologist, who wrote Molecules of Emotion and, revealed that neuropeptides are present in both the Immune system and on the cell walls of the brain. As these messengers travel through the body they provide vital information and sometimes instant physical feedback.
This discovery shows a close association with emotions and that our emotions and our health are deeply interdependent.  Research indicates an inextricable link between our emotions and the regulatory systems of the endocrine (hormonal system) and Immune system through the Central Nervous System (CNS).

"We can safely say that words, thoughts, emotions and the physical body are all synergistically linked together. A thought expressed in an electromagnetic brain wave that sends a message to the neuropeptides, which in turn is fired off into the CNS to produce the result from the human body. A belief system is a strong enough (or perhaps recurring ) though that is relayed to the neuropeptides within the message system of the body. In turn, the physical body reacts to the emotional Belief System that it is conditioned for. The key is to change the messages that are sent to the body, and to do that we change our Beliefs."  (Vianna Stibal..Theta Healing)

It is crucial to look at the predominant thoughts we think, the emotions we feel and our belief systems as they are creating our health and or maintaining our dis-ease. It is time to be brutally honest with ourselves to begin and progress our healing  to live the lives we were meant to live.

It does not serve you to hold onto the anger, fear or bitterness in your life. There are many different avenues to help you address these feelings and blockages in your system if you find that you cannot do it by yourself, and many of us can't and there is no shame in that....Shame being another emotion that is holding us captive.  Emotional healing and counseling may be what you need, so be open to going down this road. This road may lead you to your inner self and all the mysteries that are locked inside there, patiently waiting for you. Reach out to the network of information around you. Have the intent to resolve whatever may be needed and watch for the messages and people that are there to help you do so.

Contact me for further assistance if you feel stuck or do not know where to begin. It is time to realize that you are unlimited and everything you need is within. I know you hear this so often that it makes you sigh and for some even flips that switch, and we've lost your attention, BUT if this IS what you hear often, maybe its time to pay attention!!!!!!