Today, I allow myself to experience my fears as fears. I don’t need to let them control and color the circumstances of my life. They are real, and it is understandable that I have them. Healing can mobilize my deep fears, they come up more intensely than normal. But this is a part of my process, and growth and healing aren’t neat and tidy. When I am very afraid, I will comfort myself or seek comfort from someone else. I will understand that even though I fear the worst, the worst will not necessarily happen. My feelings feel very powerful inside me,  but they are not facts. I can survive my fears and understand that they will pass.

To lose focus means to lose energy. The absolutely wrong thing to attempt when we’ve lost focus is to rush struggling to pack it all back together again. Rushing is not the thing to do. Sitting and rocking is the thing to do. Patience, peace, and rocking renew ideas. Just holding the idea and the patience to rock it are what some women might call a luxury. Wild Woman says it is a necessity.

–Clarissa Pinkola-Estes