Feel the fear
We were waiting for the lift, when we noticed a young woman in the queue crying and being comforted by her friend. This would be noticeable in any lift queue but we were in a crowded queue at the top part of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and at that height people are a bit nervous of anything emotional. The lift attendant asked if she was ok and she sobbed that she was fine so he piled us all in. As he shut the doors and prepared to move it was apparent that she was not anywhere near ‘fine’, in fact we all found out at that moment that she was terrified of lifts and had decided to use this moment to conquer her fear. Not in a normal department store lift, oh no, rather the highest building, with the smallest lift in Paris, with a friend untrained in any mind power techniques.
There was a deathly hush as her friend clenched the hysterical one’s hands and starting counting in a loud voice, how this was supposed to help I have no idea but on looking around I noticed that almost the whole lift was now counting as well, several had their eyes squeezed shut, others stared unseeingly and a few were looking green. At last, after the count of sixty six the lift stopped, the door was opened and everyone initiated a football match crush to get out, sweeping the still terrified woman along. I don’t know if the experience helped her but it created new phobias in about 20 other people and I thought my first practical application in hypnotherapy was going to be done on the Eiffel Tower as now we were stuck at the top and another lift journey awaited us all to get down.
After the Parisian sites we went to Euro Disney, the land of childhood magic and innocent fun where the scariest thing I expected was the queen of hearts. Alas, I had left it too late to visit, my kids bypassed the princesses, Toy Story and Mickey Mouse and heading for the white knuckle rides where the screaming pointed you in the right direction. I became the coat stand for the whole day, interspersed thankfully by the discovery of Star Bucks. Eventually near the end of the day the kids pleaded for me to go on just one, “The Temple of Doom” as that one wasn’t so bad. If I’d listened to my intuition or even questioned why it had the word “Doom” in it I would have hung onto the coats but instead I climbed into a metal prison cell with my husband for comfort and put a smile on my face.
Five seconds up the incline I realised my children had lied and I yelled “I’ve made a mistake” and tried to climb out. No one heard the panic stricken screech and so began the worst two minutes I can remember. This had every combination of speed, height, and upside down element possible triggering every fear I had accumulated and buried deep in my subconscious throughout my now shortening life. As I shut my eyes and screamed “Om” continuously I was vaguely aware of my husband also yelling which was slightly comforting until I discovered later that I had dug my nails so tightly into his hands he was left bruised and bloody and he couldn’t prise me off. As everyone got off smiling and laughing, I wobbled off, vomited quietly in Aladdin’s cave and headed off to try and wrench the hookah pipe off the Alice in Wonderland caterpillar for some relaxation.
So much fear in unlikely situations seems to be coming up at the moment for people, where personal fears that need to be conquered or cleared are meeting other people’s fears, personal losses, grief or negativity that we need to detach from and then we collide with collective fears around loss of the familiar or secure, financial, health, or relationships issues or loss of power and control. It becomes very difficult to know what fears to face, which fears are in fact illusionary ( False Evidence Appearing Real) what are ours and what is other peoples and what is just the arrival of the new and unknown in which case we should also fear ( Feeling Excited And Ready)
In coping with the panic, I’ve returned to Walt Disney, but his time avoiding the Temple of Doom and the white knuckle ride of life and going back to his original intention of creating the paradise of Disneyland or in today’s reality creating “Heaven on Earth” and the realisation of magic in our lives. Walt Disney brought some fundamental lessons in consciousness into our lives through his films and characters. Firstly the triumph of good over bad through working hard, facing fears, perseverance and positive attitudes, secondly to acknowledge and see the unseen and the magical – talking animals, fairies, and plants, or the ability to fly for example and use that to discern what can exist and what is important in your reality and the importance of human/elemental balance and harmony and thirdly to facilitate the power of dreaming, playing, and escaping into fantasy to create infinite possibilities in our lives and manifest through dreaming and visualisation.
It means that in this time of fear and unknown futures we can still use the Disney approach and moral lessons to get some answers and make choices. The top three Disney lessons for me at the moment are therefore:
- Feel the fear and do it anyway – hate this one- but vital in this time of clearing the limitations, so unfortunately no quick fixes, instead, put in the hard work, (think Handsome Prince in Sleeping Beauty or the 7 dwarfs – “Hi Ho, it’s off to work we go”) grit your teeth and get on with the challenge if it is limiting your life or stopping you from living your dreams.
- Use discernment – is this your fear or are you picking up on the collective? Fear is contagious and misery likes company so discernment is an important spiritual practice to know when to engage with the fear and when to detach and allow others to face their own fears. Also be aware of the Apple that Snow White ate. Who is offering it to you, does it seem too good to be true and what is the intention and the consequences of the shiny and seductive?
- Play and dream – Cinderella says “a dream is a wish you make with your heart” and the physicist Stephen Hawkings states that in Quantum Physics, dreams are what ‘stuff’ is made of. Something that has been coming up for a lot of people in my sessions is the need to create spaces in our lives where we can take time out from the chaos and recover, dream our desires, create some heart happiness and manifest a future through play and fun and doing what you love.
The most downloaded Disney song this month is Hakuna Matata (no worries), something that obviously we need to hear at the moment and the Walt Disney theme song below, from the 1940 film Pinocchio that is said “releases all mental and emotional constraints in, through and around the human heart whilst bringing joy and resurrection to the soul and spirit” is still as relevant in clearing fear and regaining hope today. So take some time out and dream this month
From Pinocchio…
When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you
If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do
Fate is kind
She brings to those who love
The sweet fulfilment of
Their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue
Fate steps in and sees through through
When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true
