Core Emotions Through a Holistic Lens

Fear as a Teacher

This year, I’ll be sharing a series of monthly reflections exploring our core emotions through a trauma-informed, energetic medicine and somatic lens.  This piece offers an introduction to that year-long exploration, beginning with Fear.

As someone who works holistically, I’ve come to understand fear differently from how it’s often portrayed. Fear is frequently framed as something to overcome, suppress or push past. In my lived experience and through years of working with people in healing spaces, fear is not a flaw but an intelligent response, one that lives not only in the mind but in our muscles, posture, nervous system and breath. It is something to be met with presence and compassion, rather than force.

Fear speaks through the body. Held in our breath, our posture and the way we orient to the world. It influences how we relate, how safe we feel to rest, to express ourselves or to expand.

The Physiology and Anatomy of Fear

From a physiological perspective, fear is a primal survival response. It activates the sympathetic nervous system and the body’s fight-or-flight response, an ancient cascade of hormones and neurochemicals that has kept our species alive for millennia.

When fear arises, the adrenal glands are engaged, releasing stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. This prepares the body to act. When fear becomes chronic, this system can become overworked and depleted, often experienced as fatigue, muscular tension, disrupted sleep or a sense of being “on edge.”

In holistic and energetic medicine traditions, fear is closely associated with the kidneys and bladder, organs linked to vitality, resilience and our capacity to respond to stress. When fear is prolonged, this system can become strained, affecting not only physical energy but emotional steadiness and inner strength.

Energetically, fear is commonly associated with the root chakra, our centre of safety, grounding and belonging. When this centre is out of balance, the body may experience anxiety, instability, hyper-vigilance or difficulty trusting life. Beneath fear often lives the belief: I’m not safe.

"Melinda has helped me peel away layers of unwanted baggage helping me move forward to a much happier healthier me."

Fear Through a Consciousness Lens

Fear has also been explored through the lens of consciousness - including the work of David Hawkins. In this model, fear calibrates at approximately 100 Hz  a level associated with contraction, vigilance and survival. From this state, perception narrows and the system remains braced for threat.

Fear’s Roots: Overwhelm, Parts and Memory

For many people, fear originates in moments of overwhelm, particularly in earlier years when we didn't have the capacity or resources to bring ourselves back to a state of safety.

When something feels too much, emotionally, relationally or physically, a part of us may separate or split off as a way to survive. This is an intelligent protective response. That part holds the fear, the sensations and the unmet need for safety, while the rest continues on.

These parts do not live in linear time. They remain held at the age or moment the overwhelm occurred.

Later in life, when a familiar sensation or trigger arises, it can activate this younger, fearful part. The body responds as though the original threat is happening now.

This same process can also occur with ancestral fear and phobias.

Research into the epigenome suggests that intense stress, trauma and survival experiences can influence how genes are expressed across generations. In this way, fear may arise not solely from personal history, but from ancestral memory, responses carried forward through our DNA rather than consciously.

Whether personal or ancestral, the body remembers fear as tension, constriction, bracing, holding.

"Since my kinesiology sessions the old, dark thoughts and self judgement has been deleted from my memory completely. I am happier in my self, more confident and most importantly many body aches and pains have been diminished by half. I have more energy and interest in the world around me and feel like life is worth living again."

How Fear Shapes Our Lives

Fear influences more than we often realise.

When fear remains unresolved, it can quietly erode our confidence and contribute to anxiety, tension or emotional fatigue. Many of the behaviours we judge ourselves for, such as: hyper-vigilance, people-pleasing, control, withdrawal or shutdown are often adaptive survival responses. They once served a purpose. They helped us get through. But now they are limiting our enjoyment of life.

In relationships, fear of loss or betrayal may show up as over-attunement to others, difficulty trusting or pulling away when closeness is what we really desire. In creativity and leadership, unacknowledged fear can show up as over-thinking, self-silencing or collapse. What can appear as “self-sabotage” is often a nervous system trying to stay safe.

Integration: Meeting Fear with Compassion

Few of us are taught why fear arises, how far back it reaches or why insight alone is often not enough to resolve it. Without an understanding of the nervous system and adaptive survival responses, we may personalise fear creating shame, self-criticism and even more tension in the body.

When fear is met with presence, compassion and understanding, rather than judgement or criticism, the nervous system begins to reorganise. The adrenal response softens. Energy returns to the kidneys and root centre. Breath deepens. Muscles relax. Space returns to the body.

The fearful part no longer needs to remain separate or on high alert. It can be met, felt and integrated back into the whole.

As this integration unfolds, many people experience a deep sense of inner peace. Hyper-vigilance softens. The chest opens. The throat relaxes. Expression no longer feels dangerous. We are able to meet life with greater trust, groundedness and choice.

Fear, approached this way, becomes not something to conquer, but something that gently guides us home.

Home to ourselves.

To a body that feels safe.

To a nervous system that no longer needs to brace.

To a way of being that is happier, healthier, more confident and more empowered.

Healing from the inside out!

"I had chronic anxiety and struggled with PTSD and trauma and now after kinesiology sessions with Melinda I feel a deep sense of peace and oneness with the world. My PTSD and flashbacks have stopped, I feel peace and relaxation throughout my everyday life. Every single session with Melinda I had an enlightenment-like experience where I experienced inner peace and oneness with universal love."

Gentle Invitation

If what you’ve just read brings up questions, curiosities or insights, please feel welcome to email me, I’d love to hear from you.

I’ll also be hopping onto a livestream inside the Happy, Well & Empowered Facebook Group, where there will be space to explore any questions that arise. If you feel called, you’re also welcome to book a free discovery call to talk about how this holistic approach may support you on your journey.

With love and respect,

Melinda xx