The Fear Cure: Cultivating Courage as Medicine for the Body, Mind, and Soul

The Fear Cure: Cultivating Courage as Medicine for the Body, Mind, and SoulAre You Ready to Let Fear Cure YOU? When Fear Is Your Friend. Most of the fears that plague us today exist only in our imagination. They are not real threats, but the amygdala in the primordial brain cant tell the difference, so the nervous system gets stuck in unnecessary stress responses. Our warning mechanisms malfunction, and we wind up feeling inappropriately afraid, which harms our health and leads to unnecessary suffering. If fear can harm you

Are You Ready to Let Fear Cure YOU? When Fear Is Your Friend. Most of the fears that plague us today exist only in our imagination. They are not real threats, but the amygdala in the primordial brain can’t tell the difference, so the nervous system gets stuck in unnecessary stress responses. Our warning mechanisms malfunction, and we wind up feeling inappropriately afraid, which harms our health and leads to unnecessary suffering.

If fear can harm you and make you unhappy, you might assume that fear is something you need to get rid of. You might imagine you should add “Cure fear” to your list of New Year’s resolutions, along with “Eat healthy” and “Exercise more.” But that’s not what I’ll be suggesting in this book. Instead, I’d like to invite you to reframe your relationship with fear so fear can cure you instead.

What if fear isn’t something to avoid, resist, or feel shame about? What if, instead, fear is here to help you? What if fear is the finger pointing toward everything that stands between you and true well-being?

Most of us devote a great deal of energy to organizing our entire lives around avoiding what we fear most. But fear can be a messenger that wakes you up to everything in your life that’s still in need of healing. For example, if there’s still a roof over your head and money in the bank but you’re afraid of going broke, fear might be pointing to patterns you learned in childhood about financial lack. In order to experience the peace of abundance, you might need to address any limiting beliefs about money that keep you from thriving.

If you’re afraid of making yourself vulnerable and opening your heart to love, fear may be sending you a message about wounds from unhealed heartbreak in your past that need your tender, loving care. If you’re afraid of getting sick, fear may be signaling you to stop giving so much and start prioritizing your own self-care. Fear carries with it a precious message, and if you’re willing to listen to your fear, rather than run away from it, fear can help you get on the fast track to healing in body, mind, and soul.

Praise for The Fear Cure:

“Finally, a brilliant teacher from the medical community takes a hard look at the omnipresence of fear in our culture as a major cause of illness in our contemporary world, while simultaneously offering a plethora of highly specific suggestions for eradicating this ‘disease-producing mind-set.’ I love the exceptionally honest and personal approach that Dr. Rankin provides throughout the pages of this powerful book. Fear is much more than the scary feeling you experience inside when you get too close to the edge of the cliff, it is a way of living in which your subconscious mind is being programmed from your earliest years to avoid any and all risks. This programming invites sickness not only of the body, but the mind, and especially the soul. My friend Lissa Rankin has created a book that will show you how to cultivate the courage to live life fearlessly. It is medicine for the soul as well as the body. I love love love this book.”
— Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, New York Times best-selling author of I Can See Clearly Now and The Power of Intention

“If you’re haunted by fear or anxiety and want an energetic, vigilant, and encouraging friend to calm you down, carry around a cop of the Fear Cure. Dr. Lissa Rankin has been to the dark places where your fear may take you, and emerged not only unscathed, but filled with advice and prescriptions to bring others into peace. Part reporter, part scientist, part mystic, and always full of compassion, Liss will help you find the part of your own being that is never afraid. The Fear Cure can teach you how to release the fears that may limit your joy, and give control of your life to your calmest, wisest self.”
— Martha Beck, Ph.D., New York Times best-selling author of Finding Your Way in a Wild New World

“Just as hunger will lead you to find nourishment, fear can lead you to nourish your life. We are all capable of doing this, but without guidance and someone who believes in us, it is hard to do. Lissa Rankin’s book can make the difference.”
— Bernie Siegel, M.D., New York Times best-selling author of Love, Medicine and Miracles; Faith, Hope and Healing; and The Art of Healing

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lissa Rankin, M.D. is an integrative medicine physician, author, speaker, artist, and founder of the online health and wellness community OwningPink.com. Discouraged by our broken health-care system, Dr. Rankin set out to discover why some patients experience miraculous cures from seemingly incurable illnesses, while others remain sick even when they receive the best medical care. Fueled by a passion to determine what really makes people healthy and what really predisposes them to illness, she dug into the medical literature to study how doctors might better care for patients. Her research led her to discover that patients have self-healing powers beyond our wildest imaginings, and science proves it. She is now leading a "Pink Medicine Revolution" to help patients heal themselves, while encouraging the health-care industry to embrace and facilitate, rather than resist, such miracles. She aims to feminize how health care is received and delivered by encouraging collaboration, reconnecting health care and spirituality, and empowering patients to tap into the mind’s power to heal the body. When not spreading the word, she chills out, paints, does yoga, and hikes in Marin County, CA with her husband and daughter.