Exporing Ourselves with Jackie McInley, February 20, 2022

Exploring Ourselves

Dialogue session with Jackie McInley (online)

Sunday, February 20, 2022

Present: 17

This was the second of a series of bi-monthly 2 hour dialogue sessions on “Exploring Ourselves” with Jackie McInley. She started with asking what people would like to discuss. Several brought up questions relating to fear, so the dialogue started with the question: What is fear?

This was followed up by participants probing into various aspects of Fear:

How is it created? It seems based on memory and uncertainty about what could happen.

It seems to be related to a feeling of ‘not being good enough’ and lacking self-acceptance, but how can I accept myself if I don’t really know myself?

There seems to be a sense of threat, and even in a benign setting such as this dialogue session there may be fear of speaking up, with related sensations in the body, such as a pounding heart, sweaty palms, etc.

What is maintaining this sense of fear now? It seems to have to do with our sense of a separate self.

Several persons mentioned that once they heard that their fear or anxiety was shared by others in the group (not only I have it, but we have it), there was a sudden noticeable dissipation of fear.

Towards the end, Jackie raised the question if it is possible to view fear as a signal and part of a system to be observed, without seeing it as a problem that needs to be worked out? And not even calling it fear. What happens then?

It was a lively dialogue session that bodes well for the series and seemed well appreciated by all.

RT