Fear-The Shadow That Guards the Gate

Yvette Sheppard
Nov 13
7 min read

Last month, has been a busy month indeed. October is one of my favourite months, but a time where the nights draw in and we too draw in, go a little more introspective – look within. As the trees start to lose their leaves for Autumn and the daylight gets shorter, the early dark nights roll in; this is opportunity to look within on a deeper level. As I snuggle up on the sofa with a ceremonial cacao on the full moon, I ponder on what I’ve observed over this last month, what insights have I gained, and is there anything that I indeed need to release,

I’ve guided many clients through the most profound hypnotherapy sessions - journeys deep into the subconscious, through memories, timelines, and lifetimes. Time and time again, one theme has risen to the surface like a dark whisper through the soul: fear! It’s like a dark looming shadow ready to pounce as soon as someone gets too close to change, or to levelling up.

Fear of change.Fear of the unknown.Fear of what others might think.Fear of not being good enough, not having enough, not being enough.Fear of failing before even trying.

Yet, every single one of those souls when connected with their Higher Self or Superconscious, that infinite, wise, and all-loving consciousness within, receives the same truth:

✨ You are enough.✨ You have always been enough.✨ You will always be enough.

Everything you need is within you. It always has been.

The Origins of Fear

Fear, at its root, is not your enemy; it’s a messenger; I’ve always said that the soul never wants to hurt you…. It’s simply protecting you in the way that it knows best, based upon your life experience. A signal from your subconscious that you are approaching the edge of what feels safe. Often, this sense of safety was formed in early childhood, and sometimes even before this incarnation. The human mind is designed to protect you, to prevent you from experiencing the pain you once felt, or the danger your system still remembers.

From a psychological perspective, your limbic system (particularly the amygdala) stores emotional memory. When a similar situation arises, it triggers the same chemical responses that once helped you survive. However, while this was once vital, for example, learning not to touch fire - it also means the mind can overprotect you sometimes.

It doesn’t distinguish between real danger and emotional discomfort.It doesn’t know that leaving a job, setting a boundary, or speaking your truth won’t kill you.It only knows that something about it feels unsafe - and so it holds you back.

That is why so many people stay in relationships, environments, and belief systems that no longer serve their highest good. Not because they are weak or unwilling - but because their psychology has equated safety with familiarity.

And familiarity, no matter how small or painful, can feel safer than the vast unknown.

Fear of the Unknown

The unknown is, to the unhealed mind, the void, and the void can feel like death to the ego.

Your subconscious mind has one primary directive: keep you alive. To it, anything unfamiliar - even happiness, love, freedom, or success, can feel threatening if it’s never been experienced before.

Therefore, when you begin to grow, to heal, or to shift, your mind resists. It whispers:

“What if this goes wrong?”

“What if I’m all alone, and no-one else wants me”

“What if they don’t accept you?”

“What if you fail?”

“What if you’re not ready?”

Here’s the deeper truth - that whisper is not meant to stop you. It’s meant to invite you to notice the edge of your current identity. The moment you meet fear with awareness rather than avoidance; you reclaim your power. This is the precipice – you are on the edge and if you are brave enough to leap you will rise to the next level; you’ll level up and new opportunities, new people now on the same higher frequency will present themselves to you.

Simply put - fear cannot survive the light of presence. Once you acknowledge the fear and you understand that what your soul is doing is completely normal… .it’s protecting you from discomfort… now it’s time to pull up your big girl or big boy pants and feal the fear and do it anyway!!! The only way to move forward is to leap – no one is going to push you – leap and fly!!! You’ll wonder what the heck took you so long when you look back!

Revisiting the Source

Through regression and deep hypnotherapy healing work, we often find that fear originates in moments where the child self experienced powerlessness, shame, or rejection.

A moment when love felt conditional, or when safety was tied to silence, or perhaps worth was linked to performance or approval.

Those imprints remain active in the psyche until they are revisited – to feel where the energy of that experience has been stored in the bio-energetic field, to do the complex healing work and to reclaim their power that was taken there. In severe cases it can be noted that there is even soul fragmentation , where parts of the soul simply are trapped in that time vortex and doing the healing work and re-incorporating that part of them, once again allows the client to feel complete and whole.

When you courageously go back, hold that inner child with compassion, and remind them:

“You are safe now. You are loved. You are free.” - something miraculous happens.

The energy of fear begins to dissolve.The body relaxes.The higher self begins to merge more fully with your consciousness.

That is what true healing feels like - not the absence of fear, but the integration of it. Understanding it from a different perspective.

The Psychology of “Safety” and Why We Resist Change

From a neuropsychological view, your subconscious seeks homeostasis - a steady state. As a Libran let me tell you my happy place is balance and homeostasis – with a coffee or cacao in hand of course. It’s like a thermostat that constantly adjusts to maintain what feels normal. So even when your conscious mind says, I want change, your subconscious may quietly sabotage your efforts because change feels unsafe.

It will generate distractions, self-doubt, procrastination, or even illness to keep you in the comfort zone. I remember many years ago I read a case of a lady who was seeing a hypnotherapist as she’d been having idiopathic seizures - after many sessions the client was asked in hypnosis how did she benefit from having a seizure. The answer - ‘he’ll never leave me’ was the response. On a conscious level she was horrified as her marriage was wonderful, but as a young woman she had thought her fiancé was going to leave, and shortly after she’d had a seizure. Her fiancé had proposed some months after, and they were very happy. However, her subconscious had thought it was protecting her, having seizures every so often meant that her beloved would always be around. Incase you’re wondering - the seizures (which were very real) stopped and never returned once her subconscious understood it was no longer necessary to protect her in this way.

Remember comfort is not the same as peace, and safety is not the same as freedom. If your goal is to move forward along your soul’s journey, if you’re aware of the ascension from 3D to 5D and higher, then now is the time to face the fear, acknowledge it, and begin to see how your growth may be stagnated by it, how it no longer serves you in the way that it might once have done.

Breaking this pattern requires awareness - noticing when “fear” arises and asking:

“Is this my intuition warning me, or my conditioning trying to protect me?”

True intuition feels calm, clear, and loving.Fear feels tight, frantic, and filled with stories.

When you can tell the difference, you begin to make soul-led choices rather than trauma-led ones.

Fear as the Gatekeeper of Expansion

In many spiritual traditions, fear is seen as the gatekeeper that stands before every level of ascension. It’s true, and always when I personally fear something, the Universe will almost instantaneously throw that curve ball under my feet; as if to say – come on Yvette – put your money where your mouth is!!! Let me tell you – every single time I leap, ascend higher and level up - feeling another level of freedom and expansion I’d not felt before. I have a greater understanding of not only the situation I feared, but also I understand myself and my own capabilities even more – it feels great to know that I have control.

This fear should not be there to block you - it’s there to test your readiness. Are you ready to move forward, or to ascend into higher frequencies as the spiritual traditions suggest. Or are you going to stay in your comfort zone and ruminate a little longer until the Universe gives you a gigantic kick up the back-side? Honestly, I prefer to read and see the Universal signals, acting on them in a timely fashion and remaining in control.

When you can move through fear with faith, you activate courage.

When you choose trust over control, you activate surrender.

When you love yourself through the fear, you activate mastery.

Every breakthrough begins where fear is strongest. As one of my clients’ Higher Selves beautifully said during session:

“Fear is not your enemy - it’s the echo of the moment you forgot you were infinite.”

When you remember who you truly are: limitless, Divine, and eternal - fear loses its hold.

Pushing Through the Psyche

The only way to dissolve fear is to walk through it consciously.

You cannot think your way out of fear, you must experience yourself moving beyond it. Every time you do something your mind said you couldn’t, you rewrite your subconscious script.

That’s why deep healing work is so powerful - hypnotherapy, inner child healing, past life regression, and higher self-connection all allow you to experience safety, power, and love from within your own subconscious framework. Of course, I have the privilege of being by your side during the process, like a big sister, asking the deep questions that allow your soul to rethink - how and why it’s been protecting you this way.

You’re not overriding the mind; you’re reprogramming it with truth. The truth that you are safe, guided, and enough may be all you need to set yourself free.

The Invitation - Hand on Your Heart

If fear has been whispering to you lately, reminding you of what could go wrong, why you shouldn’t leap, or why you’re not ready - pause for a moment or two.