Yesterday, a friend found herself in the middle of a standoff between a hawk and a pair of squirrels, culminating with one of the squirrels dying in her arms. Another friend questioned how she would have reacted in such a circumstance. It caused her to ask (for example), “Why am I afraid of a snake? Is it all the signals I received as a child to this present moment? (and) Are those statements and fears true for me?“ 

"Are those statements and fears true for me?” This is such a perfect question to be asking ourselves right now. Whether the statements are about squirrels, snakes or the squirrelly snakes we encounter day to day.

It seems we’ve entrained ourselves with a mindset of fear and we rarely even question it.

When it comes to fear, we all have that basic need to feel safe. We need to feel safe in our bodies. We have that instinct to protect ourselves and our loved ones - like the squirrel was trying to do in the face of the hawk standing over its mate. When we aren’t in fear of death by hawk, or whatever might be running through our minds in the moment, we can feel more free to loosen our grip on all that is happening out there.

But right now, we are all holding on so tightly because of the atmosphere of fear that has been created and reinforced for so very long. We imagine the hawk with it’s pointy beak and very sharp talons standing over us. When we’re in that heightened state, when we are holding that tension in our bodies. We’re frozen. We don’t even breathe. When we’re not breathing it’s literally impossible to relax. To let go. To trust. To flow.

And lots of pieces need to be in place before we can let go enough to trust. Our basic needs must be met. We must not be living in that state of fight or flight or freeze. Or that state of fear caused and reinforced by television and social media…

When our basic needs are met and we can get enough distance from those fear inducing sources, we can begin to breathe. When we’ve released the raptor informing our minds and remember the essential nature of connection with nature - the grounding it brings - that ease of breath returns. When we sit on the ground or walk amongst trees. If we pet a dog or hug a horse. These are the things that bring us back to what is right and real and true. From THIS place of being, we can ask ourselves what we know to be true. "Are those statements and fears true for me?” We can truly open our hearts and our minds. We can relax. We can trust. We can be.

When I allow myself to go there, my desire for the mind-altering media or any other substance falls away. The adrenalized drug of fear doesn’t feel necessary. Or desired.

Staying in that heightened state, keeps us frozen in our fear. We imagine death standing over us even when the hawk is nowhere near. Another wise friend reminded me that we often confuse instinct with intuition. An instinctual reaction is often that one that is reinforced by parents and ancestors. “If it happened to them, watch out, it could happen to you, too…”

But, she said, the hawk, perceived through the lens of intuition, rather than seeing it as its instinctual self, is seen as the archetype of the Initiator. We get to ask ourselves, “Where are we confusing a squirrelly, fear-based instinctual reaction, with our intuitive knowing-ness? Can we walk through the fear and recover the nuts of wisdom buried within? Can feel into what we know to be truth?”

Feel the difference in your body when you do something as simple as imagining yourself breathing in nature. It shifts. It all shifts. And when, as best as we can, we live our lives from that place, the pandemic state of fear we’ve been immersed in can begin to fall away. Releasing the fear will allow us to build back our immune systems. We will find we have a greater and greater immunity from falling sick with fear. We will no longer need to mask our fear, because the fear will have less and less power over us. When we can breathe, and open our hearts again, our minds can’t be far behind in their reopening.

It starts with each of us as individuals. Remembering our own worthiness. Our own lovability. It starts with each of us remembering and trusting in our essence. It takes each of us trusting that we are held. That there is something greater than all of the fear and all of the blaming and shaming and othering.

It takes each of us looking into our own hearts and remembering the love that we are. And when we love and lead from that place, the fear in the outside world will begin to fall away. The masks that we wear in an effort to protect ourselves will no longer be needed. We will breathe into the truth and spread that like a virus. We will create a pandemic of epic proportions. We will create a pandemic of love.