Sitting with Fear – An Imaginary Encounter

Image credit to Julie Lansom

Everywhere I turn, the advice is always to “sit with your emotions” rather than numbing them away with food and shopping (ahem…). However, I find this really hard to do, and I’ve realized that I do not know my emotions really well. Inspired by The Book of Qualities by J. Ruth Gendler I’ve decided to write my own emotion descriptions, just to make it a little bit easier to sit with them. Here is a little story about Fear:

Fear.

Fear is a man with grey hair. He is tall and slender, and he always dresses in grey. This allows him to sneak up on you from behind. He has long, thin and cold fingers, and he puts his hands on your neck from behind, sending shivers down your spine. He also has the habit of puching his victims in the gut. Hard. He has eyes as blue as ice, and he doesn’t look – he stares. It is as if he sees through you, through your guard making you feel naked and weak. Fear doesn’t really like being out in the sun, explaining his white, pale skin. He is the kind of guy that would hang out in dodgy places like train stations and underpasses. If he approaches you on the street, you either run away or instinctively tighten the hold on your handbag.

If you try to sit with fear, you will notice that he sucks out all the oxygen in the room with a big inhale. The air will then feel heavy and you’ll have to breathe faster to keep up. If you look away, Fear will move closer and closer until he is sitting too close, invading your personal space. He is sometimes accompagnied by a silver woolf with sharp theeth.

Trying to run away from fear is like runnding from your shadow. Although he doesn’t look like it, he’s a strong athlete. What few people know, however, is that Fear is really lonely. If you can manage to get his respect, he is willing to run with you, making you stronger, faster, more powerful.

Have you met any emotions lately? How are they like?