* Dear anonymous:

First you acknowledge the fear, you call it what it is, indicate when/where it started, when it became excessive. This is the Insight part.

Then you manage fear: you recognize when you feel it (the sensation/s), you pay attention when you sense it. You call it what it is. You take deep breaths, calm yourself. You pay attention where you feel it in the body and pay attention to it, feel where it feels and what it feels like (heaviness in chest, feeling like vomiting are examples of what some feel), then you observe it changing, pay attention how the ex. heaviness changes.

You learn that the fear will not kill you, that it is not dangerous. It only feels dangerous. But it is not. After all you felt it so often and lived to tell about it.

You learn that you can endure it, tolerate it. You are not so scared of it. You learn, over time, to not react to it automatically, rushing to relieve it in self destructive ways.

Over time, paying attention, also called Mindfulness, you develop this skill. It is a skill, described above.

You persist, being gentle and patient with yourself, regularly calming yourself, meditating while sitting, lying down, walking, working… all the time, paying attention to your body, your mind, your environment.

You get down from your thinking head to your body, feel the emotions there instead of obsessing.

anita