Friends,

>> Here’s the AUDIO version of today’s Transformation Tuesday newsletter. Enjoy!

Have you ever heard the saying that we’re all spiritual beings in physical bodies?

This is true. But it’s incomplete. Here’s my version:

“You are a spiritual being, in an ever-evolving, ever-expanding psychobiological system, living in and around a multitude of other ever-evolving psycho-bio-socio-technological ecosystems.”

In other words, I love to learn and think about how the insides of our minds, bodies and souls work. 

Recently, I was reading about one such subject that’s of great interest to me personally: allergies. 

I knew that allergies are misfires of our immune systems. For years I’ve blessed my allergies, knowing that they’re just a false positive reaction by the same system in my body that does a wonderful job warding off all the Really Nasty Stuff. 

But a while back, I read this article about an all-new allergy that is evolving in humans as we speak. It goes by a very sexy name: Mammalian Meat Allergy. 

Mammalian Meat Allergy came to mind as I was talking to a couple of college-aged entrepreneurs the other day about the fear and self-doubt which stop them from taking the right next steps for their projects. 

I said, “Think of it this way: All fear is a spiritual allergy.”

Allergies are physical responses that evolved to keep us safe from dangerous substances, mistakenly triggered by non-dangerous substances like peanuts, pollen and now, apparently, meat. 

Fear is also a response that evolved to keep us safe from danger. But in our lives, most of the time, fear is triggered by scenarios which, like peanuts, pose no real danger to our safety.

Here’s the lowdown: The deepest, oldest part of your brain is the brainstem or limbic system. (It’s very similar to the entire brain of a modern-day lizard.) 

This piece of your brain evolved to send fear signals throughout your body to alert you to dangers in your environment so you can keep yourself safe. 

Your lizard brain triggers physical fear responses like holding your breath, rapid heartbeat, bracing and clenching your muscles and narrowing your field of focus to exclude everything but the Supposedly Dangerous Thing.

Then your thinking brain tells a story about the connection between this non-dangerous thing and the fear you feel in your body. The fear-based story and your physical fear reactions wire together over time.

Fear was designed to keep us safe when the beast that lived in the cave next door charged at us, way back when.

But in both cases — allergies and fear — our bodies haven’t kept up with our world. 

Allergies are misfires. Peanuts and pollen are not dangerous to humans, other than the allergies they trigger.

And the vast majority of our fears are misfires, too.

Nothing about giving a speech, speaking up in a meeting with a creative idea you’re not sure will be well-received, putting yourself up for a promotion or putting a book out into the world is truly dangerous.

But they feel dangerous, because they are outside of the comfort zone you’ve erected around yourself and your life. 

So all of these things trigger your brain’s fear responses.

And just like different people have different allergies, in some people the “fear allergy” might be really intense, causing you to fear non-dangerous things like:

• speaking up and asking for what you need
• expressing how you really feel
• making needed relationship, career and life moves
• criticism, disapproval or rejection 
• or even fearing that catastrophe will result if your life plan or even your day doesn’t go exactly how you want, so you try to control the specifics of your life, including what other people do and say. 

So much devotion to “making things happen” exactly the way we want. 

So much breath-holding. 

Fear prevents us from joyfully pulling out all the stops, and just fully being who we came here to be.

Knowing that fear is just your Lizard Brain doing what it does is the first step on the path beyond fear and its first cousin, self-doubt.

Fears are just spiritual allergies. And most allergic reactions go away fast.

Neuroscientist Jill Bolte-Taylor says that when you think a thought that sparks fear, the fear feeling lasts only 90 seconds. 

Unless you keep thinking that thought, which is what happens when we try to talk ourselves out of being afraid, keep old fear-based storylines alive in our minds, or judge ourselves for feeling fearful in the first place. 

Fear-based thought habits are learned patterns that you have the power to rewire.

Fear is not who you are. 

I know fear can feel very real. But it’s not true, almost ever. 

It’s very temporary, if you let it pass instead of struggling against it.

Almost every successful spiritual or practical strategy for living beyond fear will tell you that arguing with your fears in your own mind is not the answer. 

The answer is to understand what’s happening when you experience fear and find ways to leave the conversation with your lizard brain entirely. 

P.S.: In my next couple of emails, we’ll cover the two types of fearand how to opt out of the fears and doubts that limit you.

NOTE: Upgrading our inner wellbeing by learning about our inner workings is something we do all the time in the School of Upliftment. 

I want to introduce you to SOU student Christine Casillas, who shared a bit about her experience in the School recently. She said: 

“What I like about the School, is that it brings together the psychology and the science and the whys and the wherefores of why people act the way they do.

Actually, more importantly, of why you act the way you do. It brings all of that together and integrates it with your spiritual side.”

After sharing about her own personal transformation, she closed like this: 

“I recommend the School of Upliftment for anyone who is ready to lead the life they were always meant to lead.”

I’m re-opening enrollment in the School of Upliftment soon. If you’re interested, just hit reply and say: “Put me on the interest list, Tara!”

Here’s the rest of what Christine had to say (3 minute video): 

Click to watch Chrstine’s Testimonial on YouTube

Head up + heart out,

TNN

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