Managing Fear and Anxiety

There is the mind, and there is the heart of the human being, and we have to make some distinctions in order to understand how part of our life works. The heart is the seat of the soul, and you might also say that the heart is where the highest authority comes from. The mind has a capacity, and it’s been said that the mind is the builder—so the intellect and reasoning, the rational process of the mind is in the control of the human experience, meaning the processes of the whole human being. There is an important reason that we need to make this distinction. When we think of love and compassion, even empathy, we understand that it comes from the heart. And as the energy that rises up from the base of the spine to the heart, there’s also the energy that comes down through the brain, down the stem of the spine into the heart as well. So, they meet in this place where when we are attuned to the heart, when we’re attuned to the authority of the soul, we have our greatest strength.

It’s often thought that the energy rises all the way up to the crown of the head, which it does, but there is a mistake in thinking that this is raising it to the highest level of authority in the being, especially in the human being. This certainly is the greatest capacity of the being, and this greatest channel of attunement, but the authority rests, and love rests in the heart. So, this is why we would say that a person might have a strong will based on a reason or some construct of the mind, but the heart can overrule the will. If everything, for example, were left to the mind, in every instance where there is danger, the mind’s rational approach to the danger would be to seek safety. Yet, we know that human beings display courage, do things beyond reason, do things that are not rational out of love, and this is courage coming from the authority of the heart overruling the rational capacity of the mind.

I say these things to you because we need to talk about fear. Fear does not arise from the heart. Fear and anxiety arise from the mind. So that when we are in moments of fear or anxiety, what is happening is the mind is taking and sort of running in flight with the fear, letting it overwhelm other capacities of the being. It can be very rational, and it can choose its path based on its response to the fear, but courage can overcome that, just as has been already said. But knowing that the fear comes from the mind, often fear and anxiety can be overcome through simple processes in the body and in the mind—the body calming the mind, understanding presence—all of these things help overcome the flow and the rational process of the intellect and the mind. This is not to say that the mind is bad or difficult or whatever, it is simply something that a human being needs to learn to master in order to grow in consciousness. Otherwise, the mind limits the capacity of the being to understand its own existence. It’s the heart that opens in acceptance, the heart that opens with love that has the greater capacity in the human being.

Many people in the United States, and many new people around the world that lived in a rationally coherent world are now afraid because their minds can’t stop thinking about the possibilities for what the consequences of certain events mean. The mind can never predict with accuracy, and therefore it takes tremendous amounts of information, and processes that information according to the patterns and the bias that exist within the human being that are the more limited expressions of consciousness. It’s always a return to the heart, the seat of authority, the true spiritual authority that can overcome the mind, that can overcome and produce the actions of a person for good. And like many things that are a result of this spiritual attunement, when that good is practiced or produced, then one does not need to fear the consequences or the outcome of the action. The actions, in a sense, release the energy back to God, and whatever universal laws of karma or cause and effect come into play according to those conditions that are in the other people in the world, responding only to their mind and not heart to heart with other human beings. Almost all actions of terrible consequence are actions generated by the mind. The rationale, the data, the signs that are interpreted through the mind produce a reactive behavior, a reactive, fearful or anxious response.

So, the invitation of spiritual teachers—of Jesus, of Buddha—is to become situated in the space of the heart. The throne or the seat of the soul in the being that is connected to the heart. And when there is this connection, then all of the things that become part of one’s relationship, the sphere of one’s relationships, being connected to the heart, the qualities of these experiences of the relationship improve, the consciousness improves, and one’s own being develops and moves toward alignment with God. It is often easy to see this alignment in the life of Jesus or other spiritual teachers—the prophets, the saints, the mystics—there is a unification of the heart, the action, and the response to the authority of the soul, and the soul possessing the highest degree of consciousness in the being.

But we must not forget that in the mind, there is the opening of the energy that comes down through the higher energy centers that are the connection between the body and the soul. So, the mind, the intellect, the rational process of the mind, in a sense needs to become a servant of love. It needs to look through a lens of love. It needs to speak in a loving manner. It needs to process with love and care, and it is with care that we sit in the greatest amount of consciousness in our being. To care for something allows us to attune to the most minute movements, the most pertinent information, the smallest bit that responds. We respond to that little bit of love, and love being love, grows and expands in that capacity and opens—just as a flower opens, just as the buds on a plant opens, just as the human body can open and give birth. All of these things embody the same capacity of love. The same heart-centered response of God in the world. This is the opening between those worlds: the material world and the spiritual world. It is not through the mind, but through the heart. And when we see into those other worlds, it is when the heart has opened the eyes of the being, the sight in the being, that one sees at greater depth and with greater capacity. The same with what one hears and senses—all of these attune to the heart, vibrate at a higher frequency, are more sensitive to physical touch, and all of this because the presence of God is activated within the being.

This is why we see so many images of Jesus with his heart opened or exposed—the power of that heart, the love that is expressed through that heart is in complete harmony with the Divine. And all the capacities that he expressed—his healing capacities, his ability to connect to people, the healing touch of his hand, even the energy that radiated through his garments—come from that same heart. The sound of his words vibrate at the same vibration of his heart. It is why his expressions are so authentic, so easy for another human being that is nearby to understand because the resonance is occurring in the heart, and the mind is activated by the heart, not by its own patterns, not by its karma, but by its true capacity to understand.

Our acts of love activate the energy of the heart. Our doing loving things activates the heart. Our loving thoughts and our prayers activate the heart. The strength, the capacity to understand the authority, and the invitation to lead, look, hear from the heart and through the heart to other human beings. When this is the seat of the being’s earthly process, fear is dispelled, anxiety is reduced, the whole vibratory resonance of the being is changed physically, mentally, and spiritually.