The Reflection Trap: How Fear Keeps Us Stuck
The Myth of Narcissus and Echo
Narcissus was a stunningly beautiful young man, the son of the river god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. At his birth, a seer named Tiresias prophesied that he would live a long life, but only if he never recognised himself.
Narcissus grew up admired by many, but he rejected all suitors—both male and female—due to his extreme arrogance and self-absorption. Among those who fell for him was Echo, a nymph cursed by the goddess Hera to only repeat the words of others. When Echo tried to approach Narcissus, he cruelly rejected her, and she faded away in despair until only her voice remained.
The goddess Nemesis, angered by Narcissus’s cruelty, led him to a still, reflective pool. There, he saw his own reflection and, not realising it was himself, fell deeply in love. Unable to leave or attain the object of his desire, he wasted away by the water’s edge, consumed by unfulfilled longing. Eventually, he either died of sorrow or threw himself into the water, depending on the version of the myth. In his place, a narcissus flower (daffodil) bloomed.
The original story of Narcissus comes from Greek mythology, primarily in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book 3).
The Reflection Trap
If this story sounds familiar, it’s because it is one as old as time.
The man so blessed with beauty that it became his curse. But was he really trapped? Or was it simply the illusion of his reflection that held him there?
What if you have known someone like this? Someone whose light you could see so clearly, yet they remained blind to it. Have you ever had a friend—a beacon of potential—who couldn’t recognise their own radiance?
And what if that friend was also you too?
That’s the thing about feeling stuck. It’s an illusion we inherit the moment we are born, reinforced daily until we believe it as absolute truth. We don’t just internalise it—we become it. The reflection we are trapped in isn’t the one in the mirror, but the sum of our past experiences and fears, playing back at us like a script we don’t realise we’re following.
What if you could step away from that reflection? What if you were never trapped at all?
I am here to tell you that you can.
Now, I’m not saying you’re trapped by your own beauty—although that may apply to some. What I am saying is that our perception is often the culprit in so many situations in our lives that keep us feeling stuck, fearful, anxious, or angry. And we don’t even know why most of the time.
Does a fish know it’s in water? Does it even know what water is—until it’s forced to confront the air above?
Fear: The Invisible Puppeteer
Fear is the puppeteer, and we are its puppets—but only if we allow ourselves to be.
How many times has fear, or a what if spiral, or the worst-case scenario in your mind stopped you from going after something you wanted? How often do we feel anger toward others—at their success, their wealth, their ease—believing deep down they didn’t deserve it?
What if that feeling was actually jealousy or envy—because we want it for ourselves, but we’ve internalised the belief that we can’t have it? That we don’t deserve it?
What if that was the reflection we’ve been trapped in all along?
I know what you’re thinking.
Okay, sure—society tells us life is scary and that we should be afraid of taking risks, but I still have bills to pay. I have responsibilities. How does this help me?
My point precisely is that you don’t have to change much—only your perception.
Which, admittedly, changes everything.
We are taught to live in fear—not necessarily by villains twirling their mustaches, but often by well-intentioned people. The news, social media, our schooling, our own parents, friends, and mentors—most of them mean well. Most of them believe they are protecting us.
But if everyone is saying the same thing, how are we not supposed to believe it?
We are just like the fish, swimming in the waters of fear, anxiety, and control. The good news? We can step out of the water at any time—once we begin to change our perception.
The Anatomy of Fear – How Fear & Anxiety Take Root
If you’re still here—phew. That was a lot. Sometimes, the hardest part is realising the reflection is even there.
You may not see it clearly yet, but by the end of this chapter, you will begin to notice how these patterns play out in your life, shaping the way you see the world.
But first—if fear is such a burden, then why do we have it?
The truth is, fear isn’t the villain. It’s an ancient survival tool, built into us over thousands of years to keep us alive. And it worked—our ancestors survived because of it.
But here’s the problem: Fear hasn’t evolved. We have.
We no longer live in a world where we need to dodge sabretooth tigers or outrun enemy tribes. But our brain still operates as if danger lurks around every corner. And when the security guard in our mind—the one meant to keep us safe—has nothing to do, it starts making up threats to stay busy.
The Amygdala – Your Brain’s Overeager Security Guard
Think of your amygdala as an over-vigilant security guard standing at the entrance of your mind. Its job?
Detect threat → Trigger a response → Keep you alive.
The problem? It doesn’t check if the threat is real—it just reacts.
Example: You see a shadow in your room at night. Your heart starts pounding, breath quickens. Fear floods your system before your rational brain even has time to process—Oh, it’s just my coat on the chair.
The problem? The amygdala can’t tell the difference between real threats (a bear attacking you) and imagined ones (a stressful email, social anxiety, or financial worries).
And when it’s overactive, it can trap you in a cycle of anxiety, making you feel constantly on edge.
The Hippocampus – The Brain’s Faulty Historian
But here’s where it gets even trickier. The amygdala doesn’t act alone.
Right next to it sits the hippocampus—the brain’s historian. Its job is to store and process memories, acting as a reference library for past experiences.
How does this tie into fear?
The hippocampus is meant to check the facts before panic takes over. But sometimes, it misfiles fear-based memories, keeping them stuck in the present instead of the past.
Example: You nearly drowned as a child. Now, even as an adult and strong swimmer, you feel panicked near deep water. Why? Because the hippocampus didn’t store that fear as past tense—it marked it as current danger.
And when fear gets triggered, your body floods with stress hormones:
• Adrenaline → Kicks you into high alert (racing heart, muscle tension, hyper-awareness).
• Cortisol → Keeps you on edge for longer, preparing you to “survive.”
The problem? Your brain doesn’t know the difference between real and imagined danger.
Have you ever laid in bed at night, spiraling about the worst-case scenario, feeling your heart pound as if it’s already happening? That’s cortisol in action, trapping your body in a fear loop.
Healing is a Spiral, Not a Straight Line
If you’ve ever thought you had healed from something, only for it to return years later, you are not broken.
Healing isn’t linear. It’s a spiral, like the shell of a nautilus. You don’t move in a straight line; you revisit old wounds in new ways as you grow. Similar to how you can read a book or watch a movie at different points in your life, it can take on new meaning at each stage of your life even though the actual story has remained the same.
This is why grief, trauma, and anxiety don’t simply disappear. Your nervous system remembers.
But the choice you have is this: Will you let it control you? Or will you reclaim your power?
By the end of this book, you will understand how to step away from the reflection and rewrite the script.
And it starts here.
This is just the beginning of 🔥Fires of Alchemy—follow along as the scrolls are released in real time 📜
