This exercise asks you to tune into your body’s memory and begin mapping out how your fear is stored within it. To do this, we’ll identify where you physically feel the fear in your body and the sensations you feel with it, while also connecting the dots of memory stored mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually within your body. This can help lead you back to the origin of your fear.

*Read through all of the below before beginning.

Step 1: body scan

In a seated or lying position, close your eyes, take a few minutes to take some deep breaths and tune into your body with a mental body scan. Allow yourself to feel your body’s current state, without judgment – noticing and acknowledging any internal feelings and sensations as they arise, and where you feel them in your body. Do you feel any pains or discomfort, notice any feelings of worry, frustration, uneasiness, anger, uncertainty, sadness, or shame, etc.?

Step 2: Assure you're safe

Once you've settled into your body, place one hand on your heart and the other on your belly, and affirm these words (or anything similar) to yourself, taking a breath between each: 

• • I am here.
  • I am safe.
  • I am safe in my body.
  • I am safe to feel my emotions.
  • I am safe to feel sensations.
  • I am safe to remember.
  • I am open to connecting to my fears.
  • I am listening.
  • I am ready to release them.

Step 3: identify the fear

Now ask yourself: "what am I afraid of?" 

Take a few minutes to notice anything that arises - whether it be a physical sensation, an emotion, a thought, or a memory. 

If nothing arises: continue breathing for a few more minutes to allow your body to relax further. If you feel you need more support, consider incorporating bilateral stimulation, binaural beats, or somatic breathwork. Be patient with yourself, and trust that your body will speak to you when it’s ready. Return to this practice again daily, or as often as you like. Use it as an opportunity to show yourself that you’re here, you’ve shown up, you’re listening, and you're patiently waiting for your body to begin communicating with you — it will. Sometimes a fear has been woven into us so deeply for an extended period of time, it can take time to unravel. Trust yourself to reveal it when you’re ready. 

If you’re flooded with thoughts of various fears: Can you identify a common theme or thread amongst them? Do they all surround a particular time or significant event* in your life? If so, focus on that element for the remainder of this exercise. If not, select the fear that spoke to you the loudest.

*Consider doing a life map afterwards to process this further.

Step 4: uncover the root

With your body’s response in mind, invite your inner child to join you. You can say this aloud or in your head: “I call on my inner child.” And then patiently wait until you sense the presence of yourself as a child (at any age). Greet them however you both feel comfortable, and ask them one or all of the below questions:

• Can you show me where this fear stems from? 
• Can you help me remember what I cannot see? 
• Can you reveal what I’ve blocked from conscious memory?

*If you have a spiritual connection with your ancestors who have passed, feel free to call on them as well to guide you. 

Step 5: follow the breadcrumbs

Follow wherever your mind and body take you — you may see flashes of images or color, sense an emotion or physical sensation, or hear a voice. Take notice of how your body responds, for example: 

• Do you feel a sensation in your stomach (perhaps a feeling of nervousness or nauseousness)?
• A constriction in your throat or a tightening of the chest?
• A rush of anger or a pain in your lower back? 

These can be clues to particular chakras to work with, or metaphysical symptoms that require subconscious rewiring (ref: Louise Hay books), or past life experiences that are manifesting into this life (try a past life progression meditation or hypnosis). 

Step 6: express it

Journal about anything that comes up, no matter how obscure or fleeting. Below are some prompts to consider:

• What was the main fear that arose? 
• What memories, visions, colors, or voices did I see or hear? 
• What emotions and/or bodily sensations did I feel? Where did they present in my body?
• Do I have an inkling or vague memory of something happening in my childhood that may have prompted this fear? Jot it down even if you’re unsure if it actually happened. 
• When do I remember first experiencing this fear? 
• When and how does this fear present in both my body and in everyday life? 
• What was my birth like? Did I experience any trauma while entering the world? For example, was the umbilical cord wrapped around my neck, or were my mother/father experiencing an exorbitant amount of stress beyond the expectations of birth?