Transform Your Fears: Methods to Channel Your Inner Power and Create a Better Life

By Corinne Coster

Fear is an energy wave and as such, the author offers to take us to the ride of our life by drawing from the energy of fear itself, and start harnessing today the power of the wave—our power. For this, a set of tailored practical methods. Results? Feeling more free, happy and in control of our life than ever before. Learn to ride and identify fear. Open your life to new perspectives. Discover the divine power residing in you and waiting to be manifested. These are not empty promises, but proven techniques over 30 years of experience and personal quests gathered in this book. More like a manual, to read and come back to, you will find resources to build long-term resilience to fear, orient yourself in time of fear-crisis, and draw from within the power to build abundance and a new way of living.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781257906499

Book preview

TRANSFORM YOUR FEARS

TRANSFORM YOUR FEARS

Methods to Channel Your Inner Power and Create a Better Life

Corinne Coster

Copyright

TRANSFORM YOUR FEARS

Methods to Channel Your Inner Power and Create a Better Life

by Corinne Coster

Copyright © 2021 Corinne Coster. All rights reserved.

Published by Corinne Coster.

No part of this book may be reproduced, copied or used in any form or manner whatsoever without written consent of the author, except in the case of brief quotations in reviews and critical articles.

1. Healing, 2. Fear, 3. Intentionality

Ebook Edition

ISBN 9781257906499

Cover picture Copyright © rolffimages https://www.123rf.com/profile_rolffimages

Cover text design by Dave Steffey

Acknowledgment

To my friends, Scott, Brent and Dave for their regular feedback and spiritual support in the building of this book. I wish also to highlight Dave's insightful eyes to catch and correct my mistakes in the editing phase, for which I deeply needed a rescuing hand. Thank you.

I salute all my friends and family members who have in ways they may never know contributed to this book.

And to all residing beyond perceptions, I wish to underline my great appreciation of their constant support and whispers to my ear making this book a reality.

With all my heart, to all of you friends, thank you!

Preface

This book is a gathering of my personal experience and knowledge dealing with fears since I was six years old. All my life I have searched for answers on health, nutrition, stress, energy, spirituality, philosophy, psychology and metaphysics in order to heal myself. After all these adventurous decades, I have decided to gather all of these topics as they relate to fear in this book. My personal endeavor led me to be wary of many cookbooks that did not seem to work for me or offering any practical tools as I had wished for. Somehow, for each subject I had to dig deep before I could find a solution to my own problems. Now decades later and seeing the state of the world plundered by anxiety, stress and fears, and in the hope to alleviate others’ sufferings, I have thought to bring this into writing. Some of these methods have helped me go through hard times, and I wish it to be the same for you.

Therefore, in this book you will find methods that have withstood the test of time. They work—if one puts efforts into it, obviously. As a complement, I will add channeled knowledge and practical experience of living and dealing with fears—some often taught by wiser teachers than me. The world is greater than what the eyes can see. If you need help to deal with your fears on your own, then here you will find a repertory of good practices to implement in your life. Some quite easy, like mantras, and some requiring a lot more efforts and regular practice, yet greatly rewarding if you accept the work.

All I can say is that anyone can be free of their fears if they focus their will towards healing. It’s a matter of will and faith. The mind is the most powerful tool you'll ever have. With training you can direct it towards healing or towards doom if you choose so. Sadly, most of us have received zero education on how to deal with our psychology and it requires a lot of research to find the right teacher and the right teachings. So please, kindly see this book as a broad painting of techniques—non-exhaustive—bringing this type of education to heal fear and build a happy life. As with everything in life, the tools in this book and the advice should be tailored to your specific ways of living and perceiving reality. If you need more information or some help in that matter, feel free to contact me.

May You Be Well and Happy!

Corinne Coster, June 6th, 2021, Taiwan

Read Me

"To whoever read this book

and is filled with much pain and fear.

Just know there is a way out.

Do not despair, keep reading,

orient your mind into yearning for a solution

and you will find one."

Introduction

Fear is like an energy wave, it has a high peak and if you ride it, it will eventually wane overtime. This should give you hope that what you are feeling now will ultimately disappear. When dealing with fear, keep that in mind. It will subside. The question is more about when and how can you get it out faster. The how will be exposed in the following chapter 1Tools to Handle Fear. The when is totally up to you and depends on your involvement in dealing with your fear process.

For those reading these lines and facing acute distress with fear, I have created a Fear Crisis Management Quick-Sheet available at the end of this book. You can directly jump to Annex 1 Fear Crisis Management Quick-Sheet when needed. It will quickly help you find a method to apply now and recover your clarity of mind. Later, come back to the rest of this book to transform your fears. For long-term freedom from fear, we need first to take care of several aspects of our life described in this book.

With that idea in mind, I have placed the methods and most of the tools to deal with fear directly in the first part of this book. My intent is to provide you with many methods that work so you have time to apply them. I know deeply what it feels to be afraid and having no time for a long dissertation on fears. Therefore, I am giving you right away all the things you can use to help you now. Most of the methods are designed to deal with fear on your own, while there are a few to use with a helper.

In the second part of this book, you will find different chapters helping you understand what fear is. You could say that know your enemy is kind of the goal. Though here, my intent is not to treat fear as an enemy but as a teacher giving us information about ourselves. Once we know more, we’re better armed to deal with it.

Now for long-term freedom from fear and its triggers, you have to be involved in your own self-growth. This is why this book contains a third part to gain general knowledge of self-growth. Its focus is to broaden perspective on what triggers fear, to bring useful habits for better self-care and create resilience. Self-care is the ultimate basis of love and the slayer of fears.

Part I ~ Tools

From our deepest sense of self rises fear, bearing a shroud of unknowns. Its energy often leaves us powerless. Many philosophies and teachers, gurus, masters around the world have brought ways to enlighten us about this darkness. For those learned in meditation, they know that fear arises like any other emotions and be just as well dealt with. Additionally, fear can be integrated and used to promote life.

In this chapter, you will find methods to fill your own toolbox and handle fear. Many of them can be used for other emotional processes like grief and anger as well. The list is not exhaustive; I have tried to gather as many useful tools that demonstrated their practicality. Since we are all different, each of us will end up with a toolbox filled with unique sets of techniques. Find those that suit you. Keep in mind that sometimes some tools work for a length of time until we are ready to move on to new ones. Harvest your preferred methods in this book, and then come back later to refine your approach.

Mantras are my preferred tools in all situations, and that's because they work for me. I have lots of energy in mind, thoughts, and feelings. So they help cut that energy stream. Comes next Meditation and Awareness and breathing, relaxing, visualizing techniques like Pull the Fear. It is up to you to find what suits your mind and your process. I wish you well on this path of transmuting fear.

In the midst of my own feelings of fear rising out of the collective unconscious, Eckhart Tolle's words resonated1. He was saying that fear starts as a worry then feeds fear and anxiety in the body, which in return leads to more emotionally charged fear in mind. That charge leading again to more worry. My mind visualized the figure below of a loop. This is where we fall into the trap of fear. Frozen and paralyzed, it sounds difficult to get out. He then advised to replace these thoughts [of worry] with awareness of what's going on. In the diagram below, the colors represent the amplification effects of that loop, from yellow, orange to red.

The more the loop feeds itself, the stronger, and more energized it becomes. Its movement is also downward, meaning this energy will take you down. Down to a hole if you don't address it. The way out is by transmuting the entropic energy of fear to get to what Wilber et al. (2008)2  call raw, present embodied awareness. To escape that loop, you have to consciously step out and refuse to feed the fear. In the following you will find methods to interrupt that loop, obtain mental space and re-orient the energy constructively. Among great teachers, they believe fear is an energy you can use for growth and inner power. This is summarized below by a Chinese philosophy quoted by Dr. Scott Mandelker (2002)3 :

Power gathers where there is stillness

Stillness is a type of deep silence of mind. Power is our energy too often dispersed by emotional instability. This means that if you can bring deep silence into your mind, all your power will gather within. This is often pictured by meditation masters painted with glowing halos of powerful energy around their bodies.

Continuing with Eckhart Tolle's video4, he too compared fear as an opportunity. A trapped energy from which we can tap from and transmute to "fuel presence and awareness." Imagine a small mouse trapped in a wheel and you'd get a good view of your mind when afraid. Just like the little mouse, it is trapped running on the wheel. The more it runs, the faster the wheel goes and the faster the mouse has to run. Only when the mouse realizes this is pointless and going nowhere can it jump out and leave behind the hysteria of the wheel. Many of the methods below will address ways of stopping that wheel, and for some even dissolving the illusion of the wheel. 

Fix the Problem

It may sound obvious, but when afraid, our ability to see and decide clearly is impaired. So before you go check any method in this chapter, first verify that fear is not stemming from something you can fix right now and stop the wheel dead in its tracks. Now even actual problems that can be fixed give rise to fear. So if you solved the problem and fear is still there, jump to the next part Mantras and look at the methods from that point.

Or maybe you have a solution. And while you are trying to fix it, fear fills your body and mind, hindering your progress. In that case, jump to Mantras and start from there to find a method you like. A quick one would be to choose a mantra and repeat it as you are working on your solution. Every time fear comes up, repeat the mantra, again and again, until you feel better.

So now, you are in the third category, your problem is real and you have not fixed it. This raises a few questions: Do you feel paralyzed by the idea of attempting to fix it? Or do you believe no matter what you do, the outcome will be bad?

In all those cases, it is important to remember that fear is a natural signal to help us deal with issues in our life. Fixing the problem will get a lot of your fears out of the window in a very short time. So fix the problem as soon as possible as most fears are born from frightening unknowns. Get it done so that your mind can be free again. Remember, we say that fear is a trap. If you fix the problem, that's your get-out-of-jail card, and your mind will have a hard time keeping you there. Also, fixing helps to feel successful, and that's good for your inner motivation. So if your fear comes from an actual pressing issue in your life, and it is to a certain degree your responsibility to deal with it, then there lies your exit.

Naturally fixing issues are not easy. However, they are the only way to survive in this material world if we are to lead material lives. On the other hand, if you aspire to a spiritual life and are looking for spiritual ways to get out of material issues, this may be part of the problem. You see, life encompasses the spiritual, the mental-emotional, and the physical. All of it is the universe or God—if you want to call it that way. Materiality is then as much important to be dealt with for a spiritual person, while spirituality is needed for a material person. This because spirituality and materiality, both represent a manifestation of the universe. Denying one part leads to problems and imbalances. For a healthy life, one needs all its components taken care of.

The mental-emotional is a sort of intermediary into these two sides (material versus spiritual). It too can become excessively used at the depends of the others. If you have some fear because you do not have enough money, lost your job, ditched your studies, then these are material matters that need your attention. Talk to a friend or a helper to deal with the problem if necessary. Furthermore, as you materially work on your problem, I would suggest to add one or more of the methods proposed in this book to cope with fear as it comes up.

An example would be to find more work or a different one—if the problem is the loss of job or money—then add prayers when you go to sleep and get up. During the day use mantras, breathing technique, and meditation when fear rises or even as a preventive measure. Taking a break into nature, increase your self-care (see chapter 12Be Caring With Yourself), learn from your failings and build on your known skills. Some can be accompanied by a helper. Email me if you want I accompany you on your path. You will find my contact information at the end of this book. To brainstorm your problem and find a solution, go to the mapping model technique MapEndings: Build Your Happy Life that I present in chapter 3Tools to Build a Happy Life.

Mantras

The use of mantras has been with humanity for at least 2,600 years. Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha himself, advised on using some mantras to avoid reactivity with the mind's habits—fear, being one of them.

Frank Herbert's hero in the book Dune 9, Paul, repeated a mantra when facing difficult scary situations. Mantras can help you sail through the worst sea storm that fear generates. You can chant them, whisper them or repeat them in your mind quietly. I personally have done all. It often depends where I am, and of my mood on how to use them. Dealing with fear, they have been my life jacket while being swayed by the darkest seas.

Keep in mind to heal from fear, one needs more than mantras, one needs understanding and awareness. Understanding takes time and effort to learn and change one's perspective on life. More can be learned by looking at part III of this book, regarding prevention and resilience. Awareness only grows with a lot of practice and experience. Between the moment you will have enough understanding and awareness to be free of fear, and now, mantras will be your joker to pull up and keep you breathing instead of drowning. They help us stay on the road of sanity and wakefulness, avoiding the pits of hysteria and delusions. Mantras are tools to be used at all times, in all situations, day or night, and as much as you want. I personally use them all day long when in a crisis or difficult situation. This way my mind is more peaceful and I can work more easily on my projects, without getting distracted by fear or other emotional upsets.

Choose one or two mantras, learn them by heart, and know their meanings. Practice them in the morning and evening. Go back to it during the day. Make them a part of yourself. You'll be surprised the day you get jumpy, out of nowhere, they just pop up in your head to keep you on your feet and save the day. I have used mantras for decades. Some are easy to remember, some less. Yet they've all left an imprint on my mind that I have been thankful all these years for the numerous times they got me breathing again instead of drowning in overwhelming emotions. They've even appeared in my dreams a few times to pull me out of nightmares.

The Four Brahma Viharas Mantra

This mantra is extremely powerful. As I recall, it was given by Siddhartha Gautama as a way to bring compassion to oneself and to the world (Brahma Viharas SN 46.54 Passage #59). According to the story, a monk at the time of the Buddha had died bitten by a snake in the forest where he was meditating, alone. After being told this story, Gautama informed the wondering monks this would not have happened if the said monk had practiced regularly the Four Brahma Viharas. The mantra is composed of four stanzas, each imbued with a specific quality of energy. The practice and repetition of the mantra creates an energy field of loving-kindness (Metta), compassion (Karuna), appreciative joy (Muddita) and equanimity (Upekkha). The story says in the case of the monk, the snake’s population would have been pacified by the energy produced by the mantra.

I have seen for myself how this mantra has helped me in all sorts of strange situations. The more you practice it and repeat it, the more you will feel its effects within you and around you (i.e. with the environment). It's like serendipity and synchronicity blended as one. It generates a field around oneself that expands to include all beings around. The mantra goes like this:

May All Beings Be Well and Happy,

May All Beings Be Free from Suffering,

May All Beings Rejoice with their Friends,

May All Beings Be at Peace

In regard to fear, this mantra helps tremendously in bringing compassion to yourself while afraid. You have to understand that fear is ultimately our own doing, and it appears and disturbs us because we are not loving and compassionate enough towards ourselves. The practice of this mantra can help us fill up our storage of goodness, so to speak. No matter what your state of mind—fear, anger, grief—this mantra will bring you back to a level of stability. After a while you might even feel a lot of joy by using it. This is why I highly recommend this mantra. It is my number 1 on my list—a blessing for self and others.

Additionally, of its regular usage, to help yourself get more focused and out of fear, and even to help the world, you may want to try a daily practice as follows:

Use the first sentence May all beings be well and happy, and use it