Overcoming fear mindfully - 5 lessons from Hogwarts

Brainfood for Leaders

Overcoming fear is no magic. However, there is a deep truth in what you can read in the Harry Potter stories. Unless fear arises from an immediate, physical danger, our automatic reactions are no big help. Fight, flight or freeze impulses rather worsen the situation. Mindfulness on the other hand helps a lot. It can work like a fear-dispelling charm like „ridicculus“ and it can create something like a „patronus“. This podcast shows how. If you want to practice, make use of mindfulness meditation which is available online, two are listed here:

Follow some mindfulness meditation to stabilize your mind and get closer to “creating a patronus”:

• Bodyscan seated (my own video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf8KD1fMUpI
• Mindfulness meditation by Jon Kabat-Zinn. His MBSR (mindfulness based stress reduction) has been successfully used in diminishing anxiety. On YouTube you will find many videos from people who uploaded his meditations. This link here seems to be licensed. If not, I apologize https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=524RMtfHKz8 .

Cited literature

J.K. Rowling; Harry Potter. Especially volume 3 HP and the prisoner of askaban, chapters 7 and 8 and volume 5 HP and the Order of the Phoenix

Daniel Siegel; Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology. In chapters 20 and 21 you find information how secure attachment shapes the personality For instance it can improve fear modulation or emotional balance. Also read how mindfulness practice can create a very similar effect. https://www.drdansiegel.com/books/pocket_guide_to_interpersonal_neurobiology/

Jon Kabat-Zinn; Full Catastrophe Living; Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness, especially chapter 25: „Working with Fear, Panic and Anxiety“. See also page 275/276, where he cites attachment research and effects from mindfulness practice. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/full-catastrophe-living-jon-kabat-zinn/1100619932

Bowlby J (1988). A Secure Base: Parent-Child Attachment and Healthy Human Development. https://www.worldcat.org/title/secure-base-clinical-applications-of-attachment-theory/oclc/42913724

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