Not always, when under the power of fear and anxiety, can we relax and go into meditation to understand why we created them and what they are about.
In such a case, I suggest you not torture yourself with attempts to relax, but instead, thoroughly feel and draw your monster.
This practice for working with fears, anxieties, and other similar states has helped me many times, and I hope it will be useful for you too.
Since early childhood, anxiety and fears have been my frequent companions in life. Sometimes they grew to such sizes that they completely paralyzed many areas of my life.
What did I not fear: the wind, darkness, the bogeyman, strange men, women, the Terminator, illnesses, my boss, heights, and much more.
But one magical day, I decided that I had had enough and turned to face my fears and anxieties to figure out why I had created them for myself in the first place.
I started drawing them. At some point, I invented a method for communicating with fears — I would feel them, draw them, and talk to them, writing down the answers that surfaced.
Then, of course, I forgot about it. But it resurfaced again, and I started actively using it).
This technique turned out to be very effective for me, so I am sharing it with you, hoping that someone will use it and also get the desired result.
I will describe each step of the technique with explanations using my work with anxiety as an example. For the work, you will need something to draw on and something to draw with: a sheet of paper, a notebook, a corner of a newspaper, pencils, markers, paints, etc.
The choice is yours, whatever is more convenient. I hope you understand that drawing ability does not matter at all.
Well, are you ready? If so, then I invite you to the land of your fears)
See also How to cope with anxiety
If you are currently experiencing confusion and anxiety, this material will be useful. Let’s figure out what lies behind anxiety and how to eliminate it.
Practice for working with fears
Step 1. Get to know your fear
Feel your fear in your body. If you are experiencing it right now, this is a great time to work. If not, remember and immerse yourself in a situation when you felt it.
The more vividly you feel it, the better. Where is it located? What color is it? What temperature is it? What does it feel like? Prickly, slippery, sticky, soft, hard?
When I drew my anxiety, it felt cold and gray to me. I felt it in my stomach.
See also How to stop the flow of anxious thoughts and anxious states in stressful situations
Step 2. Draw your scary thing)
Once we have determined the color and shape, we start drawing.
Keep your focus of attention on the sensations in the body from the first stage and let your hand go. It will draw your scary thing itself.
Do not expect that it will necessarily be something with eyes, legs, arms. I had both stones and armor, a helmet, and, of course, characters.
Anxiety came to me in the form of an old woman with a sharp nose and long nails, scratching with which she caused those unpleasant sensations in my body.
A very unpleasant old hag with dirty, sparse hair, button eyes, at the sight of whom I vividly felt all the bodily manifestations of anxiety.
There could be no doubt that it was her.
Read also How to switch from a state of fear to a state of love
We offer several tips on how to move from an old habitual behavior pattern based on fear to a state of love and maintain it.
Step 3. Talk to your fear
You already have an image of your fear, and now you can talk to it as much as you want. It will no longer hide or run away from you.
Here is a list of sample questions for your image:
- Why did I create you?
- When did I create you?
- What are you protecting me from?
- What do I need you for?
And of course any others that come to mind at that moment. Along with this, you write down everything that comes.
Even if at first it is just a set of unrelated words. Keep going.
You will know when the answer comes by a feeling of relief; perhaps the moment in your life when you acquired this fear will surface, or tears will flow; in any case, you will not miss the answer)
My anxiety did not want to talk to me for a long time. But I was persistent)
Why did I create you? Why did I create you? I created you as a protection from pain. Having encountered a painful experience in childhood, I created anxiety for myself.
One that was no less painful, which either forced me to shift my attention from the painful situation to the anxiety itself.
Or it forced me to avoid these situations; as soon as I went there, the anxiety increased to such an extent that continuing became very, very difficult.
A little girl created it as a defense mechanism, and it worked automatically all this time. And it greatly ruined the life of an already grown woman)
See also The Illusion of Safety. What Will Help You Find Peace
Step 4. Release or Transform Your Fear
So you have talked, cried, and maybe laughed at how ridiculous the cause of your fear might seem (because sometimes it can be a scary story from a cartoon that frightened you in childhood).
Now I offer two options for further work: either you release it, or you transform it. You are the master, you are the creator.
Ask the drawn image what it would like. But in both the first and second cases, thank it, because it sincerely worked for you, as best it could, as it was able. It truly believed it was helping you, protecting you.
If you decide to release it — dissolve it with light. Take a color that you associate with light (in my case it was bright yellow) and pour it, paint over it with this light, draw hearts on it, pour love over it, more light, more love.
And when in the place where the fear was, you feel relaxation, warmth, or other pleasant sensations, the work is done. Congratulations! You can ceremoniously burn your drawing.
If you chose the second option, then feel it, and draw the image into which your fear has transformed.
Here it is important to feel this new sensation and anchor it.
In this article you will find a practice of anchoring your experience in the core of the planet.
I chose the second option, and my anxiety transformed into the image of a warm grandmother.
When my four-year-old daughter saw the drawing, she said: “Mom, it’s a heart grandma!”
The image of a grandmother from childhood, who will always love, help, and support, no matter what happens and no matter who I am.
This method is suitable not only for working with fears and anxieties; it can also be successfully used for communicating with sensations in the body, illnesses, inner aspects and characters, etc.
I would be glad if you share your results! What practices for working with fears do you use?
Author of drawings: Elena Shelest