“Please, Don’t Feed the Fears” — with Cynthia Breheny

Today, we’re stepping into a conversation every one of us has brushed up against—some of us bruised, some of us bitten, some of us still crawling back from the dark. We’re talking about fear… the real kind. The kind that lives under the ribs. The kind that swallows children whole and follows adults into every room.

Our guest today—writer, illustrator, and truth-teller Cynthia Breheny—has written a book that does what so many others fail to do. Please, Don’t Feed the Fears doesn’t teach children to run from fear, suppress it, medicate it, or pretend it doesn’t exist. Instead, Cynthia walks us straight into Fear’s belly and shows us the way out.

This episode is a lighthouse for anyone who has ever felt stuck, small, or alone.
It’s a hand reaching back through the dark saying:
“Come on. You can do this. I’ve been here too.”

Stay with us.Take a breath.Let’s open the door.

Fear has teeth. It can freeze you mid-step, swallow you whole, and convince you that you will never crawl back into the light again. But in this Scarlet Frequency episode, author and illustrator Cynthia Breheny turns toward that monster with an unexpected truth:
Fear isn’t the enemy. Misunderstanding it is.

Reading her Quill essay aloud, Cynthia brings listeners deep inside the emotional ecosystem behind her children’s book, Please, Don’t Feed the Fears—a gentle, whimsical guide for anyone (child or adult) who has ever felt swallowed by their own worry. Instead of preaching avoidance or “fighting your demons,” she offers something far more radical: integration. Listening. Understanding. Compassion for your own biology.

Cynthia pulls back the curtain on her own story—growing up in a house where Fear ruled everything, where bravery was discouraged, and where trust was treated like a liability. When no one came to help, she became her own guide. Over years of therapy, study, panic attacks, and spiritual searching, she discovered what no self-help book had ever told her:

Fear is not an illness. Fear is not a curse.
Fear is a part of you, and it can be befriended.

This episode is for every child who trembled alone in the dark.

For every adult still carrying the echoes of those rooms.

For every parent desperate to help a child who hides inside their own mind.

Follow Cynthia on X

Don't Feed the Fears, available on Lulu

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