The Cost of Fear

I had an experience recently with one of my cats that got me thinking about fear. She had a lump in her mammary gland that the vet said was cancer. We scheduled a surgery to have it removed a week-and-a-half from the original vet visit. As soon as we got home, I did research on what nutritional, homeopathic and energetic healing methods would best help her. I implemented several of them and in a week the tumor had shrunk by half.

So I was faced with a decision: continue with the holistic therapies and trust that the cancer would go away or have the surgery. I opted to relieve my fears by having the tumor removed and continuing with the other holistic therapies afterwards to make sure it didn’t come back.

My higher self knew that it all could have been treated without the surgery but my fear that I didn’t really know what to do, or that I was deluding myself was strong. As I brought her home from the vet I realized the cost of my fear. It was one unhappy and cut-open cat and approximately $460. Yup, that was the bill for my fear. It all came across in a very practical way. I really started to think about what fear costs us every day and in what ways do we pay?

The prices we pay for fear aren’t always up front and obvious. It is an insidious and subtle thing sometimes. For instance many of us pay for our fear with our relationships. Many people sabotage their relationships through mistrust, jealousy and misplaced anger when they are actually afraid of losing their significant other. They often can’t see that the very actions they are taking are the ones that ruin their relationships.

We also pay for our fears with our health. Fearful thoughts and worries are a stressor on the body. The body reacts to fearful thoughts the same way it would react to the actual situations with changes to hormones, blood pressure and brain chemicals. Dwelling on what we are afraid of happening takes a toll on us physically — and practically, it worries our fears into existence. The Law of Attraction states that what you focus on the most you will attract. Not a pretty thought if we are spending a lot of time worrying about what might happen, is it?

Another way we pay for our fear is in energy. When we are in a fearful state of mind we tend to clench up, physically and energetically. When that happens we are not allowing new, healthy and helpful energy from Spirit to enter our beings. We are in shut-down mode, and inspiration and intuition are virtually impossible to come by. We don’t make room for spirit to guide us. Try clinching up all your muscles, even just in your hand. That takes energy, and we can’t replace that energy until we unclench. The same goes for our energetic and emotional bodies. Until we can relax and let go of our fears, we can’t replenish the energy we wasted on them. When we do unclench, we can open ourselves to trusting Spirit and letting the universe show us the best way to handle a situation. Replace our fears with love and trust.

So look at your life and into your mind. What are you afraid of and how much energy do you spend every day on those fears? Do you worry things into existence? What has your fear cost you lately?