Fear, Anxiety, and IFS
To live from love and compassion and joy and all, and to live from these self resourced places, what actually seems to be needed is to address the fears, acknowledge them and address them head on.
And by the time it reaches anxiety, there's several fears that have gone suppressed, restricted, ignored, exiled. So one at a time, the parts that hold these concerns, these fears, and these worries need to be acknowledged, witnessed, and attuned to.
They've got fears because they've got reasons to be afraid. At some point they had reason to get scared and because that fear was never addressed, they continue to bring it up.
This looks scary again. So how about now? What do we do about this? Well, I'm gonna push you down. I'm gonna shut you up. I'm gonna have you send you to your room until you can straighten up and then you can maybe can come back out if you can be strong, if you can be good, if you can comply. Then they just keep coming back. They never get resolved. And that's our role.
That's what there is to do. Instead of sending those parts of myself away that are objectionable or inconvenient or too painful, one at a time, I embrace them, acknowledge them, and address them and do something about it.
And miraculously that fear starts dropping, that anxiety starts dropping, and the resources begin to emerge. So we don't have to try to be compassionate or try to be loving or try to be joyful. That's our default nature.
