Yirah

What do we do in the face of fear, or uncertainty? 

I found myself looking to other languages to get a better understanding of how different cultures view fear.  In Hebrew, there are actually several words for fear, and the difference between them was this “a-ha” moment for me. This new language pushed the boundaries of my English construct of fear to something that lives in each of us as a driving force. How we interpret that fear and what we do with it can change the course of our lives.  What if we shift our thinking to allow ourselves to not just feel, but to sit with, and discern between the subtleties of each feeling to understand and learn from them?  

According to the author Tara Mohr, in Hebrew, the word Pachad is projected or imagined fear. The fear whose objects are imagined. That, in contemporary terms, it’s what we might think of as overactive, irrational, lizard brain fear: the fear of horrible rejection that will destroy us or the fear that we will simply combust if we step out of our comfort zone.

The word Yirah, on the other hand, means the fear that overcomes us when we suddenly find ourselves in possession of considerably more energy than we are used to, inhabiting a larger space than we are used to inhabiting. It is also the feeling we feel when we are on sacred ground.  

Do you know the experience of being in the midst of a great storm when what you feel combines awe and fear and an acute awareness of the profound majesty of life?

Our immediate response to each may feel similar, both make us uncomfortable to some degree, but being able to discern where that fear is coming from gives us the opportunity to consciously evaluate the potential for positive or negative outcomes.  

Is there a good side of fear?  And when we feel it, do we push it away, or do we create more space to understand what it’s telling us?  

Therapy provides the space to do just that.  It’s the practice of building skills to deal with life as it is, instead of how we want it to be.  It is the ability to be with your emotions in a curious, compassionate, and courageous way.  One that recognizes that through practice we can use emotions as data and not directives.  It builds on what Psychologist Susan David terms as “Emotional Agility”.  

What we now know through science, is the power of the mind-body-brain connection. To live with optimum health we need to understand all of the interconnected parts of who we are - our stories, thoughts, emotions, and experiences, to understand how they shape and drive our decisions, how we love, and how we show up in the world.