Genesis 32:7 · World English Bible
Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies;
Fear always divides. A mind convinced it is about to be attacked splits itself and everything it holds into halves, keeping one in reserve, so that if one is lost the other survives.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
The same verse, read by one tradition.
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Fear always divides. A mind convinced it is about to be attacked splits itself and everything it holds into halves, keeping one in reserve, so that if one is lost the other survives. This is the ego's counsel in the face of a feared brother, to protect by separating rather than to be whole by joining. The division looks like prudence, yet it only doubles the sense of threat, for now there are two things to guard instead of one undivided trust.
What a mind does with its possessions here is what it has already done with itself, cutting itself in two to feel safe. But safety was never in the splitting; it waits in the choice to meet the brother undivided.
Flocks and herds and camels: the mind's possessions and defenses, the things it splits and hoards when it feels threatened Two bands: the divided mind, halved by fear so that loss of one part still leaves the other, self-protection mistaken for safety
Christian Psychology lens
Where am I splitting myself in two to feel safe, and what would it take to show up whole?
Soft and whole outlasts hard and guarded. What has not split itself into defenses has nothing left to defend.
Fear comes from wanting to keep what was never in your control. Loosen the grip and there is nothing left for the fear to hold.
The one who guards against an enemy outside has not met the one inside. Hatred and dread are not ended by preparing for them.
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Christian Psychology