How can fear become the habitual state of feeling? It’s as if we are constantly looking for something to go wrong or someone to attack us, paranoia, or the fear of failure or the fear of disapproval or rejection. We can also get stuck in this condition of fear maybe because we were traumatised intensely at some point in the past, and this paralysis has happened which keeps us in this state of fear which should really be temporary and then relax. But if it doesn’t relax, we become blocked. If it becomes a normal state of feeling, then it builds up that wall of separation. Because we need more and more protection, it seems, from outside danger – it is me on the inside and everything else on the outside is a potential threat.
( The Brick Wall of the Ego 2 by Laurence Freeman OSB )
