Yogi: Sometimes there are fear, worry and insecurity, and other times, the mind is peaceful and joyous.

Sayadaw: When there are fear and insecurity, can you observe them without much thinking?

Yogi: Yes. Fear arises only when the energy increases. When I sit, both joy and energy arise – I focus on the joy and the energy subsides. And, I switch to walking or do samatha practice for 10 minutes.

Sayadaw: For now you can avoid it, but eventually, you have to learn to manage your energy so it doesn’t overwhelm you.

Now you’re sitting 10 minutes of samatha practice so that the energy won’t become overwhelming. But that is not the solution – you have to find out why it is coming up like that. 

First, you need the mindfulness to be continuous so that the mind can be clear. When you watch the fear, the feeling alone won’t tell you the solution to the problem. For you, you need to detect what are the subtle things the mind is thinking that is causing the fear.

The mind holds some wrong ideas.

Yogi: I know the wrong ideas already.

Sayadaw: You have to keep on watching them until the mind sees them squarely and understands so that it can let them go.

Don’t always avoid it; sometimes when you feel quite stable, you can watch and see the fear come up and see if you can notice what is going on.