Working with Fear & Anxiety

Fear is considered one of the greatest foes on the inner path. But what is fear? How has it been traditionally understood and worked with? What about contemporary findings in the field of psychology? In recent decades a great deal of wisdom has emerged, both due to cross-cultural fertilization and psychological research (e.g., from neuroscience, somatic psychology, depth/psychodynamic psychology, developmental, attachment, and trauma psychologies, and emotion theory) about the nature of fear in human experience and how to work with it. In this meetup, we’ll be looking at the answers given to these questions, namely, the questions of how to understand what fear is and how we may skillfully and therapeutically work with it, dissolve it, and even the possibility of its transmutation into wakefulness.

There are no prerequistes to participate, only an open mind and mutual respect and goodwill for fellow participants.

We begin with some words to narrow the scope of our inquiry and practice, engage an exercise/inquiry in groups of two or three, and conclude with a group discussion and suggestions for further application at the end.