MFWF

I woke this morning early with the idea for a website--perhaps a Facebook page?--where people would be invited to make friends with their fear. The idea originated in a casual remark at our artists' group on Tuesday evening, when I mentioned that I was anticipating the trip we're due to start this morning with some anxiety, and that I was trying to make friends with my panic.

"Making Friends With Fear" would offer a simple, step-by-step process:

1) Find a quiet place to sit and close your eyes, and use the breath to create a pleasant, safe, expansive mind-space.

2) Allow yourself to recognize your greatest fear; ask yourself when you were first aware of it; and what kind of physical sensations it brings with it.

3) In this safe, expansive mind-space, allow yourself to fully experience those sensations. If possible, breathe them away.

4) Invite your fear in to join you. Welcome it warmly and let it know that you understand its intentions to be good: it wants only to protect you. You appreciate everything it has done for you in the past.

5) Breathing comfortably, sit with your fear quietly for a while in friendly silence.

6) Before inviting it to leave for now, give your fear your warmest thanks. Say you'll look forward to sitting comfortably together again soon. Wish it well. And without the attempt to banish it forever, breathe it quietly away, for now.

A little fanciful maybe, but worth a try. I find this to be a wonderful exercise. I think it might be helpful to others, and would love to share it in some way. If by some magic it caught on, it could go a long way to healing old wounds and worries, along with the rifts between us.