Two kinds of fear - know the difference

Finding gold in dark times

Photo: Pixabay -Machu Pichu thanks to mexx_s

"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek."

— Joseph Campbell

We're living in a time when fear feels inescapable.

Fear of authoritarianism.

Fear of losing democracy.

Fear of an uncertain future.

Fear of our financial future.

But what if I told you that not all fear is the same, and that understanding the difference could transform how you navigate these dark times?

In Hebrew, there are two distinct words for fear:

Pachad and Yirah.

Understanding these two types of fear has changed how I navigate the world, especially during uncertain times like these.

Pachad: The fear that paralyzes

Pachad is the fear most of us experience daily—the anxious, contracting fear rooted in conditioned thinking about the past or the future. It's the fear that keeps us scrolling news feeds at midnight, catastrophizing about what might happen.

Pachad makes us feel powerless, small, and separate.

Pachad lives in our conditioned minds, fed by stories about the past and projections about the future.

It whispers:

• "What if I end up alone..."

• "What if they take away..."

• "We've never survived anything like this..."

• I can’t sit here and watch innocent people get picked up by ICE.

I know Pachad intimately. Growing up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee—a secret city created for the Manhattan Project—I lived with air raid sirens, duck and cover drills, dog tags for body identification, and during the Cold War, the threat of a nuclear attack - all normalized.

Pachad was the baseline hum of my childhood: the contracted, vigilant fear that something terrible was always about to happen.

That conditioned fear followed me for decades, driving me to work obsessively, to never depend on anyone, always to be prepared for the worst.

Pachad kept me busy, but not alive; productive, but not present.

I felt like my soul was sucked dry.

All of this stopped after I was in a car wreck eight years ago and almost died.

Yirah: The Fear That Awakens

Yirah is different. It's the fear that arises in the presence of something vast and sacred—what we might call awe. Yirah has to do with beholding something that is beyond one’s capabilities and understanding. It's the fear you feel when standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon, or you’re asked to take on a new level of work, holding a newborn baby, or facing a life-changing moment.

Yirah does not contract; it expands. I first encountered Yirah while whale-watching in Baja, Mexico, in 2017. A mother gray whale approached our boat with her calf, and time stopped. Looking into her baseball-sized eye, I felt both tiny and infinite. There was fear—but it was the fear of recognition, of standing before something far greater than my small self.

An hour later, we were in a near-fatal car accident that almost killed me. During my near-death experience after the third surgery, I heard a voice in the vast void: "You get to choose how you go through this. What will you choose?"

That was Yirah—the sacred fear of standing at the threshold between worlds, between who I was and who I could become.

The Cave We're In Now

Currently, our democracy appears fragile. Authoritarianism is rising.

The future feels uncertain in ways that trigger our deepest fears. We're all in the dark place we fear to enter – the cave Joseph Campbell talks about.

But what if this cave holds our treasure?

What if this moment of collective uncertainty is urging us into Yirah—into the awe of recognizing our power to choose? Not just at voting booths, but in every moment. In how we respond to fear. Whether we choose love or hatred. Whether we stand in our truth or shrink into conditioning.

Transforming Pachad into Yirah

Here's what I've learned about working with fear:

Notice the difference: When fear arises, ask yourself—is this pachad (contraction, story, past/future) or yirah (expansion, presence, awe)?

Question your thoughts: Byron Katie taught me to ask, "Is it true?" Most pachad dissolves under gentle inquiry. Yirah remains because it's not about thoughts—it's about presence.

Choose your response: Even in the darkest caves, we can choose. I chose "the high road" in that void. You can choose love over hatred, truth over lies, and presence over panic.

Trust the process: The cave we're in isn't punishment—it's initiation. Democracy has never been guaranteed. Freedom has always required conscious choice.

The gold in our dark time.

I believe we're being called to grow spiritually. To stop expecting others to save us and start saving ourselves—not through force or control, but through conscious choice.

The gold in this cave might be:

• Discovering our inner authority instead of seeking it outside ourselves

• Learning to live with uncertainty without collapsing into fear

• Recognizing that love is not passive—it's the most potent force for change

• Understanding that presence is our greatest superpower

Moving Forward

The next time fear rises—whether it's about politics, the future, or your personal life—pause and ask: Is this pachad or yirah?

If it's pachad, breathe. Question the story. Come back to now.

Suppose it's yirah, bow. You're in the presence of something sacred. Let it expand you.

We don't know what's coming. However, we can choose how we respond to it. We can choose to enter the cave consciously, knowing that our willingness to face what we fear might be precisely what transforms everything.

"You get to choose how you go through this. What will you choose?"

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Here are practical self-care tools for navigating politically turbulent and potentially violent times:

Emotional Regulation Tools

Daily Practices:

• Limit news consumption (set specific times, avoid doom-scrolling)

• Byron Katie's "The Work" on political thoughts that cause suffering

• Third-person self-talk: "[Your name], this feeling will pass"

• 90-second rule: Feel the emotion fully, then let it move through you. Breathe in, breathe out. Continue this mantra as you breathe for 90 seconds until the emotion has passed.

Grounding Techniques:

• 5-4-3-2-1 method: 5 things you see, four you hear, three you touch, two you smell, one you taste

• Box breathing: 4 counts in, hold 4, out 4, hold 4

• Nature connection: Daily walks, touching trees, watching the sky

Spiritual/Consciousness Tools

Choice-Based Practices:

• Daily question: "Am I choosing love or fear right now?"

• Viktor Frankl's reminder: "You can't take away my attitude."

• My near-death experience wisdom: "You get to choose how you go through this experience (political situation), what attitude will you choose?"

Practice Gratitude

• Gratitude practice to counter fear-based thinking

Community & Connection

• Spiritual/recovery communities for emotional support

• Like-minded friends for processing fears

Focus on what you can control

• You can't control the political system

• You can control your inner peace

• Ask your higher power for help removing fear-based thinking

Daily Mantras

• "I choose the high road"

• "Love or fear - what will I choose?"

• "My body is innocent, my mind creates the stress."

• "The Universe has my back"

The key is building resilience from the inside out - your external circumstances may be chaotic, but your inner world can remain centered.

Now I'd love to hear from you:

How are you choosing to navigate these uncertain times?

If this resonated, please share it with someone who might need this reminder that we have more power than we think.

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