The Energetics of Fear

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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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How I’m Overcoming Fear and Imposter Syndrome as a Shamanic Healer

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Why am I scared to talk about my work as a Shamanic Healer???

This is a question I struggled with for quite a while, and it was a big reason I delayed starting my business. The truth is, I carried a deep, lingering fear of being the odd kid in town. It’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly when this need to fit in originated, because honestly, it feels like it’s always been there. I remember, even as a young child, cleaning my room without being asked just to gain the approval of the adults around me. In early grade school, I wanted so badly to join the other kids playing make-believe, but instead, I stayed on the swing with another girl because she thought pretending was “dumb,” and I didn’t want her to think the same of me.

For many years, this became my pattern: closing off my heart’s calling so I could blend in. But when we stifle our heart’s calling, we also suppress our inner light.

Where did our light go?

There’s a type of healing in Shamanic practice called Soul Retrieval. In both small moments and big traumatic ones, pieces of our light, our Spirit, can break away and stay safely hidden until we are ready to call them back home within us. This is called soul loss, and it happens when an experience feels too overwhelming to hold, so a part of us steps aside for safety.

A Soul Retrieval is the Shamanic technique used to call these pieces back, but this only happens when the receiver is truly ready. You wouldn’t call back a soul piece before it’s time, just like you wouldn’t plant a seed in soil that hasn’t been tended to first. The ground needs to be properly prepared, weeds removed, compost added, and the season must be right, or the seed won’t take root. In the same way, our Spirit needs care and support in order for that part of us to return and stay.

But who would go watch a movie or read a book with an uneventful plot? Every story needs a beginning, a middle, and an end, and every hero faces challenges that lead to growth. Your life is that story, and you are the hero of your own unique, sacred journey. The moments of soul loss you’ve experienced are part of your plot, written perfectly for your Spirit’s growth, and each step on your healing path helps you face these challenges and reclaim your inner light.

To me, living a life here on Earth is a funny thing. Many people in the spiritual community agree that we come here with a plan and a purpose, but we also agree to forget about that plan and purpose so that we can find our way back to it. I have a very clear memory from when I was in kindergarten, walking alone down the hall to the bathroom. I remember a moment while I was sitting on the toilet and suddenly thinking, What am I doing here? Not in the sense of what am I doing sitting on this toilet, but in my life. How did I get here, and what’s my purpose of being here? Needless to say, I did not get an answer at that moment. The time was not right, and I was not ready to fulfill my destiny at the ripe old age of five.

Stepping onto a Shamanic path was the part in my own story where I began to call back my light. It marked the start of a deep healing process, and little by little, I began to retrieve the parts of my soul that had flown away. All of those times I dimmed my light around others were the very pieces I started to reclaim. This did not happen for me until later in my life, in my late 30’s. There’s a part of me that wishes I could go back and shake my younger self and tell her “Get yourself together!” But in my heart, I know that the soil was not prepped and ready yet.

The Fear that Steers Us

This now brings me to the very title of this blog post: Why am I scared to talk about my work as a Shamanic Healer? It turns out, I am probably not alone in this. This is something that many other healers, spiritual entrepreneurs, and creatives experience, especially when in the realm of things that one can’t tangibly see or hold with their hands.

This fear is often called imposter syndrome. It is the voice inside your head telling you that you’re not good enough, not qualified enough, making you wonder who in the world would even seek out your services. This is a heavy burden to bear, and the fear causes us to close off our hearts. Fear is an emotion, and emotions are here for a reason. They always guide us to the places calling for our healing. We have two choices: do we stifle, ignore, or suppress them? Or do we embrace the fear and move forward on the path together?

As I began speaking up about this new path I was walking, all of this fear came knocking on my door to remind me that it was still there, waiting for me to face it. Me…I chose the avoidance option at first!

When people asked about my Shamanic healing, I could instantly feel my stomach clench, my heart rate increase, my breath grow shallow, and heat rise to my head. My first reaction was avoidance. I would breeze past the topic, change the conversation, or suddenly find something I just had to do right that second so I could retreat without fully feeling what was coming up. Classic avoidance.

Conversations would usually go a little something like this:

Other: “What kind of business are you starting?”

Me: “I’m a Shamanic Healer. I provide energy healing and intuitive guidance to help support people with their healing and spiritual growth.”

Other: “How do you do that?”

Me: “Well, I work with Spirit Guides from the non-physical realm and bridge through energetic healing.”

Other: “Interesting…”

In other words, invisible work with invisible helpers from non-physical reality. Sounds a little crazy, right?

Avoidance has its limits, and I eventually began to realize that this was certainly no way to live. I would never meet my goal of changing my career and life direction if I kept up with the same avoidance tactic. Fear was simply trying to get my attention, and I was ignoring it over and over again. When we don’t face our emotions, we dishonor them, and we miss the sacred guidance and message they offer. And how could I dishonor something I truly love and believe in by continuing to avoid it? The truth is, it wasn’t really about what I was doing. It was about me, and the internal fears I still hadn’t faced.

Selling the Invisible

Not long ago, I went to dinner with a friend who asked me to explain my work, what it is that I do, and how I knew I was meant to do this. We talked about my path, the intuitive nudges along the way, the healing I had done, and the ways I now support others through their own transformation.

At one point in the conversation, she remarked how it all seemed very abstract and so different from selling something physical, like an item you can hold in your hand or see with your eyes. What’s funny is, this was something I had often said to my husband. Life would be easier if I was just selling ice cream! You know what you’re buying, you can experience it in the moment, and most people are familiar with the product.

So why would my path lead me here, to a place where I’m offering something that can’t be packaged, displayed, or even easily explained? Something seemingly invisible at first glance?

Life is fleeting. And the deeper truth is that we take nothing with us when we pass on. None of our belongings, none of the plants or animals around us, not even the food. What remains and carries with us when we leave this Earth is our Spirit. So in reality, the service I offer is the most real and tangible of all. Our Spirit is eternal, so tending to our soul’s evolution and truly remembering our own light becomes the most sacred, long-lasting gift we can give ourselves. Every piece of our light we call back, every moment of soul retrieval, brings us closer to that remembrance.

The work I do might be invisible to the eye, but not to the Spirit. When a piece of our soul returns, it may not be something we can hold in our hands like ice cream, but we feel it deeply, and it changes us in ways that can be hard to describe with words. Over time, the effects of that inner change begin to show outwardly. Life starts to feel different, and we start to feel different as we move through our day to day. We begin to navigate life with more clarity, ease, and naturalness.

The work I do brings people back to themselves, to their own light, to the parts they thought were lost or broken or forgotten. And that is more real than anything I could ever sell on a shelf.

Walking With Fear on Our Hero’s Journey

I didn’t get over my fear of talking about my work overnight. In fact, there are still moments in conversation where I feel the fear rising again. I’m still playing out my own hero’s journey, and I imagine likewise you are too.

But we don’t get to fast-forward to the final chapter. Moving through fear is the sacred middle part of the story, where the burden can feel immense, and our healing and growth can be challenging and uncomfortable at times. Yet as we move forward, despite the fear, we begin to gain a clearer view of the land ahead. This is the next part of our journey, where we walk through life with greater ease and begin to serve others with our healing gifts. Change happens within us first, and from there it emanates outward through the gifts we offer in service to the world. This is also the true meaning of stepping into our purpose: reclaiming our light, finding our voice, and remembering our Spirit Within.

Remember, all great stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. The story that is you is a truly unique and special one. Never before has there been someone exactly like you, and there never will be again. While we may have the same fear or the same struggle, how you move through them will guide others in ways only you can.

So let’s walk hand in hand with fear, not as a foe, but as a friend on the path to remembering our Spirit Within. May we all find the courage to share our light with the world.

 

Blessings on your journey,

P.S. If this post resonated with you, I’d love to stay in touch.

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Cassie Mendez

Answering the Call to Heal

How do we know when we’re being called to something deeper?
What prompts someone to step onto a path of healing?Photo of Cassie

This call doesn’t always come gently. Often, it arrives through a crisis, or a moment when life as we’ve known it begins to unravel. Like waking from a dream that once felt real, there can be a moment of disorientation or a sense that something has shifted, and life no longer feels the same.

What once seemed solid or certain may start to feel unfamiliar or uncomfortable. And though that can feel uncertain or even painful, it’s often the beginning of a deeper calling. This is a quiet invitation from your Spirit Within to take the brave leap toward re-remembering yourself and your purpose. This is the start of what is often referred to as the Hero’s Journey. This is a sacred path of healing, awakening, and returning to who you truly are beneath the layers life has placed upon you.

In every hero’s story, the journey begins with a call to adventure: a disruption, a crisis, a quiet knowing that something must change. In our own lives, this might look like grief, illness, emotional pain, or simply a sense that something isn’t quite right. To answer the call is to step into the unknown and onto a path that can feel dark, disorienting, and unfamiliar. It takes great courage to say yes, but when we do, we often find we are never truly alone.

There are always signposts. Helpers. Guides. Moments of clarity and synchronicity that remind us: you are on the right path, even when you can’t yet see the destination.

And as the journey unfolds, something within begins to shift as pain is slowly transmuted into love, wisdom, and light.

If you’ve found your way here, perhaps something deep within you is stirring. Perhaps you are carrying pain that others can’t see. Or maybe your emotions feel heavy, confusing, or simply too much to carry alone. Know that you don’t have to walk this path alone.

Healing is not about fixing what is broken, but about coming home to your Spirit. The eternal part of you that has always known the way. When we begin to answer the call, the journey doesn’t always look the way we expect. Healing is not a straight line.  It’s more like a spiral, and I often liken it to peeling back the layers of an onion. And as those layers fall away, we begin to see how we were once living in a version of life shaped by fear, conditioning, or survival.  

It may have felt like truth at the time, but as we step onto our healing path, we start to realize that not everything was as it seemed. Deeper truths begin to reveal themselves.  And with each layer peeled away, we gain greater awareness, deeper intuition, and greater connection to our true self. Slowly, our Spirit Within begins to reawaken as we remember who we truly are beneath it all.

Many of us have been taught to suppress or ignore our emotions, or to hide our pain. Emotions can feel uncomfortable, even overwhelming. But they are not a weakness. Emotions are the language of the spirit, lighting the way for our deepest healing. 

True healing begins when we stop running from our emotions and start meeting them with presence, love, and compassion. We begin to feel. To listen. To honor the sacred messages they carry. Perhaps anger is pointing to a boundary that was never honored…maybe you said “yes” when you really wanted to say “no”. Maybe grief is asking you to feel a loss or an unmet need. Or anxiety may be the voice of a part of you that feels unsafe.

When we turn inward and begin to listen…really listen…things begin to shift. Your awareness becomes a light that illuminates what’s been hidden. And in that light, the weight of your emotions can begin to lift, making space for the radiance of your Spirit Within to shine through.

This is the call:
To love yourself, even if you’ve never felt fully loved.
To offer yourself the compassion you may never have received from others.
To become the source of the love you’ve always deserved.

This is the sacred alchemy of healing. We don’t suppress the pain…we embrace it! And through that embrace, the gift begins to rise. And this is the work I feel called to support you in: To help you reconnect with your Spirit Within. To walk beside you as you embark on your own hero’s journey, as you release what no longer serves, and reclaim the light that has always resided within you.

The universe is not random, and perhaps you were guided here because something within you is calling. If these words have resonated with you, if something inside you feels stirred or seen, know that this, too, is part of the journey.

It doesn’t matter when we begin. What matters is that we take the first steps.

I invite you to continue exploring this space. You’ll find free resources and videos filled with wisdom, guidance, and healing on my social media channels. (TikTok & YouTube)

And if you feel called to journey deeper in a one-to-one healing session, I would be honored to walk beside you and hold space for your sacred healing path.

Until then…

May you trust the whispers of your Spirit Within, and may you walk this path with courage and compassion, guided by the light that has always been yours.

Much love and many blessings,

 

 

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