I’ve been here many times before. The familiar walls of this dimly lit house close me in from the dark night sky and the hidden landscape that lies beyond the windowpanes. The maze of rooms twists and turns without end. I don’t know exactly where I am, how I got here, or what I’m doing here, but I can feel a presence. I’m not alone.
Footsteps approach as a long shadow slowly stretches across the floor. My body tightens, overtaken by the familiar grip of fear and panic. Run. I must run. But the footsteps follow. Every room I turn to, every threshold I cross, it won’t let up. I try to escape, to outrun the approaching presence, but my legs feel like heavy lead weights, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t move fast enough.
This dream has repeated itself in my sleep for many years, always playing out the same way until one night I stopped and turned around. I always ran, and it was always the same. What if this time I chose differently? What if I turned to see what was really following me? If I couldn’t outrun it, I had no choice but to face it. To turn and meet what scared me.
This is how fear moves through many of our lives. We try to avoid it, to outrun it, to keep it behind us. But fear is the one thing we cannot outrun. It will follow us until we finally turn to face it, and that’s where true healing begins as we embark on the sacred journey of transforming shadow into light.
Meeting the Fear Within
Before I continue into the energetics of fear, I want to share what I saw when I finally turned around in my dream. It is an important part of my story, and it is also a critical piece of understanding how we work with fear. When I turned around, I did not see a monster or some unknown presence looking to harm me. Who I saw was in fact myself.
This carries two meanings. First, our fears will follow us until we face them. Second, our fears are not always what they seem. We often see them as something separate from us, when in truth they are parts of us that have taken on a different form. Throughout life, we develop patterns, beliefs, and ways of protecting ourselves from emotional, physical, or mental harm. When this happens, pieces of our true self can become hidden beneath these protective layers, and we begin operating from the mindset or limitations that formed in those moments. Turning around to face ourselves gives us the power to reshape these narratives and return to the light of who we were before we took on those protective identities.
How Fear Shows Up in the Body and Energy Field
This is why understanding how fear expresses within us is essential. It does not remain only in the mind. It settles and imprints itself into the body and energy field, often in subtle, subconscious ways we don’t always recognize.
What sensations arise in your body when you feel fear? Take a moment to notice which ones feel familiar: tightening in the chest or stomach, knots in the belly, heaviness on the shoulders, reduced range of motion in the neck or upper body, shallow breathing, holding the breath without realizing it, a racing heartbeat, sweating, heat rising through the chest, neck, or face, trembling hands, or a heavy, lethargic feeling throughout the body. These are all ways the body communicates that something within us feels unsafe.
And what about your emotional responses when fear comes up? You may recognize some of these in your own experience: irritability, feeling angry over small things, a short temper, complaining or gossiping as a way to release pressure, overwhelm, not being able to see a way forward, numbness, boredom, a sense of disconnection from yourself, hyper fixation on planning every detail, canceling plans or avoiding social situations, or feeling disappointment or hopeless.
This is not a full list of possible responses, but it offers a place to begin noticing your own patterns. Fear is a protective mechanism that places us into a fight, flight, or freeze response. When this survival response activates, the body is not trying to punish us but to protect us. It mobilizes energy to fight, pushes us to run from the threat, or shuts everything down to keep us from feeling overwhelmed. These responses are instinctive and completely natural. The problem is not that they happen, but that we often stay in them long after the threat has passed.
As an energy healer, I sense fear as an accumulation within the body. Imagine a main road that runs from the south side of town to the north. A tree has fallen across the road and now there is a blockage. Traffic begins to back up, and cars must be diverted to different routes. But these roads are not built for such heavy volumes, and those pathways begin to slow too. What was once smooth and free flowing now becomes dense and sluggish.
Let us then say that no one comes to clear the fallen tree. This new pattern of traffic diversion and backup becomes the new normal. The town adjusts to the slower routes leaving everyone to cope with the new strain and discomfort. This is the same with our bodies and fear. When fear stays unprocessed, we begin to adapt around it both emotionally and physically. This increased effort becomes our new normal, and what life was like before fear, before the tree fell across the road, becomes a distant dream of the past.
When we begin to understand how fear arises uniquely within our bodies, emotions, thoughts, and behavioral response patterns, we open the door to forming a deep, trusting relationship with it. We shift from being passive experiencers of life, swept away by external events, to becoming active participants who can meet fear with awareness rather than being controlled by it.
Pathway to Freedom
So how do we move from fear into freedom, alignment and wholeness? In this photo you will see a stone reading I did to explore that very question. This practice, traditionally called lithomancy, is something I turn to often. I love the energy of stones, and I find that they have a way of offering guidance, clarity, and deep wisdom.
1) The black stone: This is where the fear sits, represented by the small black stone in the picture. Its energy feels heavier, and you will notice that it rests at the bottom. But being at the bottom does not mean it is the worst. This is the entrance to the path that we step onto when we begin healing our inner wounds. In many ways, it is the most important piece, because without this starting point there would be no doorway at all. Many of us linger here, living in a state of inaction. I know I myself did for many years as I was constantly overwhelmed by the weight of fear that I carried. This is where we get caught in the familiar patterns of fight, flight, or freeze that I mentioned earlier.
2)The yellow & white stone: This stone represents the action steps we take as we begin to face our fears. Maybe you start meditation, therapy, energy work, running, or some other type of movement. Often it is a combination of more than one thing. It is important to understand that this is never a one size fits all process. What works for one person may not be the right thing for another. There may be some trial and error, especially in the beginning stages when it can be hard to distinguish what is truly me from the distorted perceptions created by our inner wounds. But what matters is that we try, and that we keep trying, and that we don’t give up. A misstep is not a setback. It is still forward movement because it teaches us what does not align with our Spirit, and that knowledge is just as valuable as knowing what does.
3) The pink stone: This stone represents our physical and emotional bodies. As we take action and begin facing our fears, this is often where we notice the earliest changes and shifts. Our bodies soften, tension releases, and our emotions begin to rise to the surface to be felt, expressed, and released. Sometimes this stage brings discomfort, not because we are doing something wrong, but because the body is finally letting go of what it has carried for so long. This is where we begin to reconnect with ourselves, our Spirit Within, learning to listen to what our body and emotions have been trying to say all these years.
4) Heart shaped stone: Walking a healing path creates more space within the heart and brings a more expansive, attuned connection with the world around us. We begin to see our path with greater clarity, and we also start to see our inner landscape with new understanding. Our intuition becomes more accessible, and we move through our days with a little more ease and lightness. Moments of love and joy begin to replace the moments of fear as we ground more fully into that openhearted state.
Awareness, Acceptance, and Action
Often when fear arises in the moment, we are not thinking about healing. We are thinking about getting through it. The fight, flight, or freeze responses activate automatically and we do whatever we can to feel safe again. It is important to not judge ourselves for this, and to remember that these reactions are instinctive and part of the human experience. Healing does not mean eliminating these responses, it means learning to meet them with greater understanding.
To transform our fear is to step on a path of healing our inner wounds. We open a door to our inner world and our world is forever changed. But to begin, we must see that there is even a door there, to embark on this sacred journey of uncovering our own light within the shadows.
Awareness is finally seeing the door…
This is the moment we finally pause. Usually what gets us to finally notice the door is when the discomfort and disruption that our fear response has caused in our life becomes greater than the fear of stepping through the door. We are tired of driving around the tree and the symptoms have become so uncomfortable that we are finally ready to start cleaning it up so life can flow more smoothly once again. We feel that there must be a better way!
Acceptance is crossing the threshold…
It is the choice to acknowledge what we are feeling without resistance or judgment. This is the beginning of being honest with ourselves about what we are feeling, accepting what is occurring in our inner world and recognizing how it is affecting our outer world. When we accept what is present, even if it feels uncomfortable, we step into a place of inner power, truth, and accountability. We must accept what we are feeling, and acceptance is not approval. It does not mean we have to like what we are feeling or that it will stay with us forever. It is simply the act of being with ourselves in an honest and compassionate way. Fear is a messenger. Once we accept and receive the message, it no longer has to repeat itself so loudly.
Action is walking a healing path…
Once we have seen the door and passed through it, we can choose our next step from a grounded place rather than a reactive one. Action looks different for everyone. It might be taking a deep breath, journaling your feelings, reaching out for support, setting boundaries with friends or family, or returning to the practices that help us reconnect with our Spirit. Even the seemingly smallest of actions can make a big shift. Every small step we take on our healing path builds inner trust, helps shift our energy, and moves us forward on the path of healing.
How Healing Fear Creates Clarity and Connection
As this inner flow becomes steadier and more spacious, our intuition grows clearer. We feel more connected to our Spirit, and it becomes easier to distinguish between the voice of fear and the voice of truth. We begin to sense what is right for us with greater ease. Choices feel less overwhelming. The guidance within us becomes more accessible and we begin to trust that we’re on the right path.
Healing is not a destination. It is a lifelong relationship with ourselves. We cultivate this relationship by getting to know who we are, understanding our patterns, and accepting ourselves at deeper and deeper levels. As we do this, the energetic pathways that once felt blocked or constricted begin to open. With more compassion, love, understanding, and gratitude for the parts of us that once lived in fear, our intuition begins to blossom and our heart begins to expand.
My life didn’t transform overnight. I didn’t begin walking a healing path or truly facing my fears until I was 37 years old. It took time, dedication, and most importantly, taking the leap before I felt ready. We often wait for the perfect moment to take a chance or face fear, but this is just another way fear keeps us frozen in our old story. We don’t wait for the road to be built and then walk it. We build the road as we go, because we are the ones creating it.
As I continued to face my fears, those small moments began to create space inside me that I didn’t know I was missing. With time, new possibilities started to appear. Becoming a Shamanic Healer and sharing my story publicly were never part of my plans. They unfolded through a leap of faith, the natural outcome of listening to my Spirit and choosing to walk through the doorway that opened.
The truth is, we rarely know what is on the other side of the door. We simply walk through and discover it as we go.
We all have a choice in our lives. Do we continue to run from the fear that chases us, or do we turn toward ourselves? It is not always an easy path, but the magic that unfolds when we begin to face our fears and uncover the light within the shadows can really change your life in so many wonderful ways. But we don’t really fully understand this until we try.
So what is your Soul calling you to do? I invite you to take some time and reflect. What discomfort in your life are you ready to face? I recommend starting small. In one of my videos, I shared a simple technique I used at the beginning of my healing path that helped to ease some of the heavy energies of past wounds. This may be helpful for you on your own path and you can watch it HERE.
If it supports you, here is a simple affirmation you can use as you begin to sit with fear in a new way:
“I am ready to acknowledge this energy of fear in my life and allow it to move through me. I know that my Spirit Within is guiding me on a path to healing and wholeness, and the road to healing will open up in my life and in my awareness.”
May your healing continue to unfold in its own timing, and may you always feel supported by the Spirit within you. Thank you for walking this path with me.
Love and blessings,
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