(Great fears are barriers to experiencing your real life.)

[There are countless fears, yet few are of the level of the Great Fears. A Great Fear is noted by its commonness and its effect; it shows up in a large part of society and can have a numbing effect on one’s happiness.]

 

This Great Fear is beyond the conscious awareness of most, yet present for all. All? All is a big word.

When we are very young our needs and survival requirements are clear to us and require frequent attention. We are highly dependent on our caregivers, and being pre-verbal, unable to articulate what we need. A ‘long time’ for a young child is measured in minutes. When we’re hungry, wet, hurting, separate-from/alone, or in the dark, we want our condition ‘fixed’ immediately. It’s part of being a child.

Even in the best of environments we repeatedly experience moments of upsetting emotions caused by the above-listed unmet conditions. Since we lack sufficient capacity to process our emotional reactions we can easily become overwhelmed by them. (We start developing our emotion processing capability at about age 2.)

Thus, buried in our unconscious are the stored memories of being repeatedly emotionally overwhelmed. Being emotionally overwhelmed is scary and fear of it can unconsciously hamper our ability to deal with our present and future.

Keep in mind that some (many?) of our childhood upsets may appear trivial to an adult, easily discounted. But as a wise person once stated, “A doll to a child is as a castle to an adult.”

 

Coaching Point: What have you done to lessen, heal or resolve your old conditioning of emotional overwhelm so you can be free from the fear of it?

 

Copyright 2018 Steve Straus. All rights reserved.