Transforming Fear: A Community Session in Contemplative Psychology 

By Sandra Ladley

These days, I often wake up wishing the fear and uncertainty we’re experiencing now would just go away like a bad dream. Don’t you wish you could just tap your ruby slippers like Dorothy and come back to a different experience? L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz, WAS tapping into something universally human when he brought Dorothy back home. It IS possible to transform our terrors and to settle and strengthen ourselves amidst the worst of times. Unfortunately, fear is our human birthright. It’s in our reptilian cells, our ancestral DNA, and our traumatic childhoods. It greets us in the morning with the weather patterns, the news reports, and our life events. We fear for our survival, our livelihoods, and our relationships. We fear aging and dying. Fear is marketed to us and lurks beside us in our devices and social media. We can feel fear trapped in our hearts. 

We each respond to fear in different ways. Some of us try to ignore it. Some of us are perpetually anxious. Some of us binge. Some of us rage. Some of us attack. Some of us work too hard. We might have different reactions over time. Current trauma research groups our fearful tendencies into the five categories of fight, flight, freeze, fawn, and flop. What do you tend to do in response to fear? How do you recognize when you are experiencing it? 

Chogyam Trungpa, the grandfather of the Karuna Training program, said that “one must know fear to know fearlessness.” Since fear is fundamental to our human experience, how can we know and befriend fear as an ongoing practice? How can we soothe ourselves, gain strength, and transform fear into fearlessness? 

People HAVE been working to transform fear for as long as we’ve been together on earth. We forget this wisdom passed on to us, especially when we need it the most. The Karuna Training contemplative psychology program taps this ancient wisdom and uses time-tested methods for navigating the full range of our human experience, including fear. Karuna Training has also adapted since its inception 30 years ago to incorporate evidence-based techniques for working with emotions that dovetail with contemplative psychology. Some commonly-cited methods pertinent to working with fear that are used in Karuna Training include:  

Integration of Mind and Body

The view and study of contemplative psychology is based on the integration of body and mind, and the foundational starting point of Karuna Training is meditation. Practicing meditation together in a quiet and safe space can help one to synchronize body and mind, and to understand and become familiar with what is presently happening. Though not a one-size-fits-all or a one-stop solution, meditation can have a settling, softening, and clarifying effect. Meditation practice is guided and supported throughout the Karuna certificate program.  

Body Awareness 

Increasing awareness of the personal body sensations associated with fear can help one identify and process emotions. Karuna offers many compassion-based body awareness exercises that support holding, attunement, and opening to the natural movement and release of emotions. 

Grounding Techniques 

Grounding exercises help one reconnect with the present moment, which can reduce feelings of fear and anxiety. Karuna Training offers grounding techniques using various methods and encourages walks in nature to open to the self-existing support of the natural world. 

Movement 

Karuna includes movement such as shaking and stretching, along with forms like dance and yoga that can help one go deeper and release the pent-up energy associated with fear. Movement can help one attune to and find direct expression and transformation when words fail. 

Trauma-Informed Approaches

Understanding the impact of trauma on all of us is pivotal to transformative work. Karuna faculty stay apprised of trauma-informed approaches for creating and holding sensitivity and safety as we work together.  

Other methods central to Karuna that help to transform fear: 

The Five Wisdoms Mandala and Maitri Space Awareness Practice

Karuna Training is rooted in the Vajrayana teachings on the wisdom mandala of the five buddha families. The mandala provides a map of the five elemental patterns of fear of space and how these patterns can be transformed into wisdom. Maitri Space Awareness practice, which is practiced in retreat, intensifies direct perception and learning on the nature of earth, water, air, fire, and wind through the use of color, body postures, and wandering in nature.  

Creativity and Play  

People have neurodivergent ways of learning and of integrating their learning.  The Karuna curriculum includes exercises such as drawing, collaging, and journaling to support people’s experience and expression. Program schedules include time for open play, and art supplies are provided for people to explore on their own or with others.  

Karunity 

Karuna Training is a heart-opening journey. Fears come to light, and trust is built through the practice of compassionate exchange over time. In a circle of trust, there is the opportunity to experience reflections we may not have received before, and to open to others in new ways. The community or Karunity is central to the transformation that occurs in the program.  

In Closing 

On Tuesday, July 8th, from 6 - 7 pm Mountain Time, I will lead a free online introductory community session on this theme of Transforming Fear. It will include teachings, discussion, guided meditation, a contemplative exercise, and information and Q&A on the Karuna Training certificate program. All are welcome. I hope you will join me.  

Sandra Ladley