fear

Ask for Help

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Dear reader, this post is from the archives of AskGCW.

Dear friends, I feel a great heaviness in this world right now.

I can feel the vibrations of your tension, the tightening of your shoulders and throat, the churning in your gut, the stress, the weight of worry many are feeling right now in this time of uncertainty.

For those who are worried, frightened – lean against me and those of my kind, the extended family of trees. Enter into our friendly energy, rest your weight on us, we will support and calm you, help you know what is real and solid and true.

Grandmother Cottonwood

Tune yourselves to our quiet and subtle frequency. Listen with your whole body and heart, your wise self.

We will help you know you are not alone, that life goes on, that you are safe in this moment.

Know this. All trees and the collective spirits of nature – animal and plant, insect, reptile, amphibian, all angelic beings, your human ancestors who have crossed to the light, all spirits or land air and sea, of heaven and Earth, of the Universe are with you always.

Male Cardinal in winter

Please call on us for advice, kindness, companionship, spiritual nourishment, comfort. You are not alone. You are surrounded by love.

Tune into our quiet and loving voices to steady and calm your anxious minds.

More about living in the present

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Please do not cling to the past with all its delights and pleasures. Remember them fondly. Your job is to create new delights and pleasures in your now and be fully present as they unfold.

Step into your now! This is where your power lies!

Painted Lady butterfly on zinnia

You have come this far in life, balancing on the knife edge of each moment as it comes, lasts, passes into the next and the next.

Remember this: Worry keeps you distracted from your present. Fear of the future keeps you powerless to make needed changes to your life. Guilt keeps you stuck in the past.

Take pleasure in your now. Pay attention: masses of sun colored daylilies, a dramatic sky, your life giving breath as you inhale and exhale, your feet supporting your body so beautifully, your arms swinging in rhythm as you walk, shifting patterns of leafy shade on the grass, the summer landscape…an evening thunder storm…

Wild Lobelia

Make the most of your precious time, your precious life, your present moments. Live them fully!

Harmony with nature

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Perhaps you fear the power of storms, avalanches, earth quakes, lighting, tornadoes… hurricanes…bob cats, mountain lions, bears…

Nature is not your enemy!

You are not here to conquer and subdue nature, but to observe and learn her ancient language, understand her patterns moods and rhythms and live in harmony with her.

Flooded creek

To respect nature is to live in unity and accord with the forces and seasons of the natural world, reading her signs, staying clear of any dangers you perceive, taking shelter when needed, paying attention to her slightest cues and hints of what is to come.

These signs will touch your early warning system: your intuition that is born of your existence on this planet. You must pay attention to what is around you and how that resonates in your body heart and mind!

Living in harmony with nature can mean nurturing the plants and rooted growing beings from the towering trees to lush shade loving ground cover, learning their ways, what they need.

Hosta in bloom

Living in harmony with nature can mean caring for your domesticated animals, letting them teach you, observing their ways. It can also mean a kind and healthy balance between the habitats and habits and needs of wild creatures and those of the human world.

As you commune with the spirits of nature, you will know your place in this harmonious web of life and learn to exist in peace with all conditions and all creatures.

Teach by example

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Dear one, is your heart heavy with fear for others?  Do you worry about your family? 

You can help them without depleting yourself by seeing and witnessing their power, their strengths their capabilities, their talents, and reflecting this back to them in words and actions.

You are saying to them – “I know you can do this… I know you are capable… I know you can figure this out… this is what I’ve seen in you before…”  This is gentle coaching – leading by example – inspiring those around you.

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GCW in winter

Let them know you trust them to step up to the plate and do what needs to be done.  Your job is not to rescue, or save, but to be a light, to shine a light for them.

When you feel the familiar fear, go inward and feel it in your body.  It might be a tightening in your heart, a resistance in your throat, a roiling in your belly.  Pay attention to your feelings with love.  Breathe deeply for a few moments and allow yourself to be fully present to your body’s signals.

Feel your fear. “Give it your compassionate attention.” – Pema Chodron

This will help you find the courage to tune into the power within you.  Go deep into the living well of your life force and draw up the strength and fortitude and will to heal your life! Even though you feel fear, you can shine brightly and stand in your power. 

You teach by example!  Those you worried about in the past can learn to stand in their own power, reach deep within themselves and find the resources to thrive.

Take a news vacation

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Dear hearts, are you addicted to the news?

I challenge you to turn off the 24/7 news. the constant drumbeat of events reported in minute detail, argued over, rehashed, replayed. This can serve to drag you down! The authoritative voices, the selection of stories can keep your thinking boxed in and contained right where they want you to be.

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A news message from Grandmother Cottonwood

This kind of program scares the living daylights out of many and promotes fear and loathing and ratings. Fear can spread through a population like a virus or wildfire, taking many down, dimming their light, obscuring their power, keeping them small, manipulating them into anger!

Do not allow the tentacles of fear from around the globe to penetrate your heart and mind. When the world was young, it was not possible to know what was happening ten miles away, let alone across the globe in the most obscure location until days, weeks, months or even years later….Now it is in your face all the time! It is so much more than you need to know! You are meant to confront and deal with the conditions and emotions of your life and your circle of influence in the here and now.

Of course, there are advantages to knowing what is happening at times. You want to be an informed citizen… Can you find a neutral source of news that does not seek to manipulate your emotions? 

Especially if you are an empath, a sensitive person, please do not take on the crushing emotional burdens of others that this sort of news coverage promotes. It will only deplete and weaken you and keep you stuck .

Take a news vacation. Let the toxic energy clear out of your home and life and body. See how you feel after a week or two… turn your focus and energy to your own projects, plans, dreams, your own clarity and mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health. Strengthen and empower yourself.

Know this! When you stand in your power, aligned with source, you are a force for good on our planet! This is what you can do to help change the world!

Ego fear

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Set aside your fear – the fear that keeps you small, keeps you invisible, keeps you from your light and power. Tuck it in, kiss it goodnight, read it a bedtime story. Now shut the door to the room where your ego fear resides and go on about your business of living in your full power.

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Grandmother Cottonwood’s gift

Your ego fear is the voice of your past, trying to keep you safe, comfortable, perhaps invisible and small. It means well… but you have outgrown it!

When you speak and communicate with your ego fear, do you use confident clear language – or do you sound tentative, indecisive, unsure of yourself? Remember that you are the boss, the parent. Your wise self is meant to be in control.

Let the fear know you hear it, feel it, understand it, as you would an anxious child. Let it know you will still do what you mean to do. You will do what needs to be done, what you have been called to do whether the fear agrees or not.

You live in the here and now! In the past, your fear was warranted, it may have been needed for physical and emotional survival.

Now that you are an adult, find compassion for the fear from your past that tries to keep you small. Acknowledge it, feel it, then step into your power and shine your light!

What are you waiting for?

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I, rooted to the earth, I who stand patiently in my chosen place for my hundred or more years ask you –

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Grandmother Cottonwood

What are you waiting for?

It is time to get off the mark, out of your seat, and let the inspiration that fills your being move you to act! When you are inspired and connected to source, the acts you are moved to will ring true, fall into place with ease, be in your highest good and the highest good of the planet.

When you are in accord with your heart and allow the fearful ego voice to fade into the background, your actions will bless this earth and all living creatures.

So, what are you waiting for?

If fear and loathing keep you frozen and motionless, do what you can to soothe your fears and calm your anxiety. Do not allow your life to pass you by because of fear!

Your true power comes through when your will and divine will line up. Then you feel the energy and inspiration fill your body. Then you can tap into the great power at your center, the divine purpose you have come to express.

Let your light shine brightly!

Roots hold fast

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Your roots will hold fast during the storms of life when the wind rises and the rains pour down. Your roots hold fast when you fear for your life or health.

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Summer grasses

When the thunder cracks and lighting blinds you, your deep roots will keep you upright. Bending with the wind will keep you from breaking. You will weather this storm and the next and the next for there will be more. It is the nature of life.

Your deep roots allow you to stretch to your full height and reach, to feel and know your belonging to this earth in this place and time without fear of toppling over, breaking, or blowing away.

Our roots, the roots of all growing things interweave and stitch together the soil, the stuff of life that feeds your planet and makes your existence possible. From the deepest taproot to the tiniest microscopic thread searching for water, roots hold your world in place with love.

Your sweet spot

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You are meant to be a column of pure clear light. This is when life flows delightfully, without effort.

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White and black butterfly on red flower

When your light is shaded and dimmed by fear, when you are pulled off center or out of true by foreign substances, worry for another, your reaction to events, you lose effectiveness, you spin your wheels, you may become careworn and haggard.

Put yourself back in the sweet spot of flow, back to your spotlight where your energy moves without impediment. Align yourself with the web of all things where endless possibilities exist.

Simply drop the idea that you can’t do this. That, my dear is a lie! You are strong, capable and powerful. Those qualities are within you.

Do not search for your power and strength outside of yourself, for you will continue searching from lifetime to lifetime in vain. Draw them from the core of your being, as a singer brings forth a clear pure tone from within.

Release your need to control. Know your inner power and strength. Ask for help.

Allow the amazing intelligence of all that is to make connections and create soul satisfying solutions for you.  Allow yourself to live in your sweet spot!

True power

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Those who would hurt others and use ugly words to describe those unlike them might seem tough and strong. They might give a sense of being powerful. They might attract followers. Yet they rip into the web of life with their hurtful words and actions, creating chaos, pain and destruction.

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Dead tree

They create chaos, then ask you to trust them because it is so chaotic.

They plant seeds of fear in your mind, then feed off your fear.

They tell you others are not to be trusted, then stab you in the back.

Those who would do this are great deceivers. Most of all, they deceive themselves into believing that harsh words and a tough demeanor and a boatload of money and a big gun = power.

True power does not come through striking fear in others or talking tough or yelling louder.  It comes through knowing the quiet truth of the heart and spirit within you and living by that truth, no matter what!