The immediate response to fear is flight. There are times when this is absolutely the correct response and will indeed save your life. However, if you never stand and confront your fears, you will always be running. Facing the dragon takes courage this is true. It is also what’s required to grow and develop into our best selves.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines repression as,” a mental process by which distressing thoughts, memories, or impulses that may give rise to anxiety are excluded from consciousness and left to operate in the unconscious”. This is how the dragon is fed and grows more dangerous and unpredictable over time. Anxiety is not one of those states of being that is easy, or that anyone wants to experience. So instead, people develop all sorts of shrewd and creative mechanisms to veer away from it. People drink alcohol, over-indulge in foods or other substances, keep themselves in constant motion, for example.
But the deeper unconscious aspects will have their day – so to speak. At night, when you are asleep and the conscious mechanisms are off-line, repressed things are reviewed or take shape in the dreamtime. Nightmares are one indication that some sort of repression may be going on. Illnesses can sometimes be linked to repressed emotions that have become buried in the body tissues. If un-locked by conscious attention along with a higher degree of courage and honesty, profound healing can occur. Turning to facing your fears allows new personal capacities to be unleashed.
There are abundant resources to aid you in discovering the ways in which your own unique repression pattern can be disbursed, removed and healed. Becoming aware that you may be doing this is a major first step.
