Empathy reduces the feeling of fear.
One way to do this is to hold empathy circles and share ones feelings of fear.
The going into, sensing, expressing, and sharing of feelings of fear helps to reduce it and transform it.
The feeling of fear takes many different qualities, shades, shapes etc..
The responses to fear are
fight
flight
freeze
empathy, the positive way to transform the fear. Feeling into it
The Vision of a Culture of Empathy
John Kinyon and Edwin Rutsch
"I see that there are 4 responses to fear,
they are fight, flight, freeze, or empathy.
20:51 John
Fear and anger, yeah. What you are saying is interesting, that is seeing empathy as a valid response to some kind of apparently threatening situation or a psychologically threatening situation. And my understanding of brain science, as limited as it is, that those are really different parts of the brain."
"Empathy calms the emotional brain so that we can perceive situations and interactions accurately and thoughtfully. With empathy, we produce our own natural stress-reducing chemicals that create calm, focused energy, allowing us to do and be our best."
"Positive relationships and involvement in meaningful group experiences create resilience and lessen stress. Such experiences stimulate the release of oxytocin, the compassion hormone. This hormone produces feelings of security and calm and inhibits stress and anxiety: thus it protects us against the release of cortisol.... while cortisol make us fearful, oxytocin makes us feel comfortable, secure, and in a position to give and receive empathy...
The good news is that we can produce this effect with practice by expanding our abilities to communicate with empathy." Arthur Ciaramicoli
FEAR & EMPATHY: AN EMOTIONAL TUG OF WAR
April 21, 2015
By Robert Pérez
The Competing Narratives: Empathy vs. Fear
"As we are slowly indoctrinated in society, we are told two stories.
The first is that of the scrappy hero thrust into a quest of some sort. The hero is beset by a challenge and is good at heart. The hero goes through tests with honesty, bravery and tenacity. The hero overcomes the obstacles and learns something.
The second is that the world is dangerous and if you go out into the water, you will surely die. If you fail to wear a helmet, you will surely die. If you have unprotected sex, do drugs, or take a camping trip in the woods with a smart virgin, a slut and some comic relief, everyone but the virgin will most certainly die.
The first teaches us empathy. The second teaches us fear. Empathy and Fear. These two narratives compete with each other in our psyches for the rest of our lives. Who we are becomes a result, in part, of which story we embrace."
The Necessity Of Empathy To Break The Cycle Of Fear-Driven Violence
By Jenn Lyons
"This cycle of fear is powerful, and as we’ve witnessed, it can be deadly. I’ve often wondered what would have happened if different propaganda spread, letting the Hutu know that the Tutsi shared the same challenges and fears. That ethnic boundaries wouldn’t help but relationships with their neighbors is what would save them.
When we make the choice to move away from fear, the greatest of all possibilities opens up; when fear is moved aside, the human capacity for empathy greatly increases. Empathy drives you to lift others up. Fear drives you to tear them down."