Fear might be getting a bad rap

I first encountered yoga and yogic philosophy when I was a newly-hatched adult and pretty much un-formed person in my 20s. Human relationships were quite a mystery to me, and as the saying goes, I was not "in touch with my feelings."

For some years I misunderstood the philosophy. I thought it was offering a shortcut, a way around those mysterious and troublesome phenomena, the emotions. The solution was to ignore them, obviously, and focus on "higher truths."

It's been a long road to learn that the emotions, all of them, are an irreplaceable part of our exquisite bodymind systems.

I can understand how I misinterpreted some cues. 

For example, check out this excerpt from a primer on the chakras.

The first three chakras, starting at the base of the spine, are chakras of matter. They are more physical in nature. When we work through our physical chakras, or the first three, we can open the spiritual chakras more fully.      

First Chakra: The Muladhara is the chakra of stability, security, and our basic needs. It encompasses the first three vertebrae, the bladder, and the colon. When this chakra is open, we feel safe and fearless.  (Chopra Centered Lifestyle)

Can you see a subtle value distinction which implies that the “physical” is inferior to the “spiritual”? And a not-so-subtle statement that a person with an open first chakra will feel fearless? Without an appreciation for the roles of the emotions, writings like this one might cause us to undervalue the emotion of fear — which I’ve seen called a “base” emotion.

Actually, we’ve each came equipped, physically, mentally, emotionally, to be proactive in our own survival. Our organisms have that innate wisdom. Survival is a necessary platform from which to seek truth, peace, enlightenment, and spirituality. So, we can honor our abilities to survive.

Which brings me to the value of intuitive “feeling” and the value of fear.

There’s no better interpreter than the author Gavin De Becker. From The Gift of Fear, 1977:

Fear can save your life. It directs you to avoid that stranger, to leave the room, to call for help. The intuitive message of fear, together with rational principles, can help you to predict and thereby avoid personal violence.

Like every creature on earth, we have an extraordinary defense resource. We don’t have the sharpest claws and strongest jaws — but we do have the biggest brains, and intuition is the most impressive process of these brains. … [M]ore viscerally named a "gut feeling," but whatever name we use, it isn’t just a feeling. It is a process more extraordinary and ultimately more logical in the natural order than the most fantastic computer calculation. It is our most complex cognitive process and, at the same time, the simplest. 

Intuition connects us to the natural world and to our nature. It carries us to predictions we will later marvel at. "Somehow I knew," we will say about the chance meeting we predicted, or about the unexpected phone call from a distant friend, or the unlikely turnaround in someone’s behavior, or about the violence we steered clear of, or, too often, the danger we elected not to steer clear of.

Regarding our intuitive and emotional nature, I think the way forward is a two-part process. First feel. Then deal. 

I want to be open to intuitions of warning, to feelings of fear, for their purpose is to alert me to danger. Then, I want to be open to dealing with warning and with fear. Perhaps I should act on them. Perhaps on second look, they will prove groundless.

The principles of the yamas — the knowledge of how to relieve stress by soothing the nervous system — the inner knowing oneself that comes from yoga practice — and what we can learn by reading Gavin De Becker — all those are priceless tools for the “dealing” part of the process of honoring and working with our intuition and our feelings.

The “feeling” part is to be equally valued and honored.