As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic expands its footprint to over 100 countries, it is obvious that fear and anxiety, due to uncertainty, are robustly on the increase.
The Care Focus below is to compassionately help transform the intensity of personal fear into a more grounded attitude and feeling of managed concern, which, unlike fear, connects us more deeply to our heart’s intuitive discernment. This provides clearer thinking, effective discernment, and much better choices through times of uncertainty and rapid changes.
Many people have benefitted from this practice, because they are simply tired of allowing fear to repress the power and strength of who they really are. We know that fear can serve a purpose of helping us take precautionary measures, yet sustained, highly amped fear can deteriorate our two most important purposes — maintaining health and clarity in our reasoning.
Research has shown that balancing the energetic nature of our mind and emotions, while practicing compassionate care for others and ourselves enhances the immune system. However, excessive worry, anxiety or fear compromises the immune system and much more, making us increasingly susceptible to viruses and disease. Fear disempowers us, whereas the attitude of managed concern leaves us more in charge of our mental and emotional nature — and provides easier access to our intuitive guidance and highest choices. Fear disrupts this connection, especially when we need it the most, for grounded direction.
As we watch the news reports, it’s effective to practice listening from the attitude of managed concern to reduce the fear effect. Be patient with yourself; any progress when dealing with fear is a lot of progress. Managed concern is a mental and emotional state that can leave us informed, without allowing us to be infected and debilitated by the emotional virus of fear’s momentum. The Care Focus practice below can help us become progressively more empowered and confident when we find ourselves challenged by fear and intense anxiety. Don’t give up. In the beginning it can seem more challenging. Put your heart into it and you will see results. Self-compassion and patience quicken your progress in fear maintenance.
Radiating compassionate care to yourself and others helps calm the ramped up mental and emotional energy, which drives fear momentums beyond what seems manageable. We can change these behavior imprints. We can use this virus as a practice opportunity to finally regain our power by reducing our fear to managed concern, which connects us with intelligent choices and actions.
Managed concern is a health-conscious replacement for fear.
Care Focus- Replacing Fear with Managed Concern
The tool is intentionally simple but effective.
1 | Breathing at a relaxed pace, pretend you are breathing through your heart or chest area and imagine that you are calming your mind and emotions with each breath. (Calm emotions help to create a space that enables intuitive access to clearer discernment and choices when evaluating situations.) |
2 | As you breathe, visualize mental and emotional calm and poise streaming into your mind and into all your cells. Hold a conscious intention in your heart to change feelings of anxiety or fear into feelings of managed concern. Practice will increase your capacity to maintain care and compassion for humanity’s challenges without creating burnout in your own system. Remember, any progress is a lot of progress when reducing fear. Be patient. |
3 | Let’s close by radiating compassionate care and calm into the global energetic field to help reduce the fear and see people making smarter, less stressful choices from a perception and attitude of managed concern. This leaves people more in charge rather than pawns of fear and mental scatter. The Coronavirus is a perfect situation for this effective practice to transform the fears and anxiety that suppress much of our life force and power to create a better life. |
You can continue to practice this Special Care Focus, if convenient, for 5 minutes each day to help lift the energy field environment that surrounds you, your family and our planet.
Thank you for your participation in this Special Care Focus.
Doc Childre
If you would like more heart-based practices and information regarding fear reduction, read this excerpt from the book Heart Intelligence: Connecting with the Intuitive Guidance of the Heart, from which this Care Focus was adapted.
Heart-based practices for reducing fear, Heart Intelligence, pages 223-227
From experience, I have learned the importance of approaching fear with ease and self-compassion rather than with mind struggle. Impatience sent many of my fear-reducing intentions straight to the trash basket until I learned that patience is also a must for transforming fear, not an option. When our intuitive reasoning capacity becomes restricted from fear, this causes our self-security alarm to go off and creates a powerful inner distortion which we call panic, overwhelm, etc. You can reduce this by placing importance on slowing down the vibrations of your mind and emotions; this helps to reduce the charge or intensity. It can be done by slow breathing while imagining your breath entering through your heart area. An effective way to learn to manage emotional intensity is to first practice on smaller emotions such as frustration, irritation, impatience and such. Reducing mental and emotional intensity is a gateway to intuitive sensitivity for wiser choices and solutions.
You may find this suggestion helpful:
Don’t try to stop fear; simply commit to increasingly reduce fear a little at a time (with ease, not push). Don’t put a timer on the process. Release self-judgment or negative feelings towards your fear as this creates more resistance. Know that fear becomes more negotiable as we reduce the extra drama created in self-talk and imaginary projections with dim outcomes. I did this habitually until I realized that my mind was addicted to over-thinking the aspects of fear—trying to be too complex in assessing my feelings (boy Freud). The more we amplify fear with drama, the more we empower the fears we wish to eliminate. Most of us already know this—until the fear pops up.
Below is a practice you may already be using for managing fear and anxiety when watching the news — if news is a trigger for you.
Simply practice breathing in the feeling of calm and emotional balance while watching the news. As you breathe, see yourself maintaining care and compassion for humanity’s challenges without taking on their pain and fear. This doesn’t mean that you care less. Doctors, nurses and first responders practice maintaining their care and effectiveness without over-identifying with the pain that people are experiencing. It requires some practice to develop this quality, but with patience and genuine commitment any of us can develop it as well.
If the news seems too hard to deal with at times, then know that it’s okay not to watch it at all. Without truly learning dispassion, many people would probably fare better by not constantly watching the news. I often choose to watch global news because it stokes the fire of my commitment to compassion for the fear and suffering experienced throughout the planet. With practice, the mind and heart can learn to process dispassion and compassion at the same time. We have to be honest with ourselves in deciding if following the news supports or compromises our wellbeing based on our individual nature and constitution. Like many issues, the news has its assets and its deficits. Use your own heart to decide what’s best for you.
The practice that helped me the most to reduce fear is this: In prayer or meditation, I would visualize love from my heart streaming into my mind and into all my cells to change my old fear imprints. While breathing, I would hold a conscious intention in my heart to change my old programs of fear and anxiety into feelings of managed concern which is a much more objective and less stressful attitude than the feeling of fear.
Fear disempowers us—whereas the attitude of managed concern creates focused care that leaves us in charge and more attuned to intuitive direction. Managed concern is a health-conscious replacement attitude for fear. Make a heart commitment to practice befriending fear and changing the feeling to managed concern. This will draw a calmer response, clearer assessment and intuitive direction for responding to whatever threatens your inner or outer security. Practicing this exercise can and will help you progressively become more confident and empowered when challenged by fear, if you are patient and committed.
Practicing on less intense fears quickly strengthened my capacity to objectively shift and dissipate some of my deeper fears and anxieties. As you practice reducing and transforming fear, realize that small steps are wise steps because they create a balanced pace which draws less discouragement. As you practice, allow for slip-ups without self-judgment and resignation. Approach it with ease, without urgency and self-doubt.
These few paragraphs don’t come close to addressing the endless situations and circumstances that can trigger our fears. People have searched for ages trying to find that “fix all, fear-eraser.” Many helpful instructions are available if you research the books and information on this subject. If you desire it from your heart, you will draw information that can help you replace your fears with increased self-security.
If you feel that your friends, family, and associates would benefit from this Care Focus, we would appreciate if you could post the link on your emails, blogs, social media, etc.
Adapted with permission. Originally published by the HeartMath Institute for the Global Coherence Initiative Care Focus.
