The closer one gets to discovering who they are; the more fear that can arise. When you believe you are the body and you begin to see that you are not the body, the question ... "if I am not the body, then who am I?" appears and at first, that can be scary because you do not know who you are and who has been there all along. Just like if you came home and your house had been robbed, it is like that (sort of) at first, when you begin to see all that you have thought you were/are ... disappears. You have an empty house and yet you don't know what it is full of.
Maybe we can use the analogy of building a house, like the experience of being human and in a body. You begin with earth, a green meadow, air and sky and then you lay a foundation (the body). Then you put up the walls (the building of the personality, with family and friends that say you are who you think you are; you are your name, your gender, your race, your culture, your heritage) and then you put on the roof (accumulated beliefs, ideas and opinions about life, and the world and how it is).
Now you have a house (just like the body) where you live and put things up around to reflect the ideas about who you are and what you believe. But it will not last and you know this. That is why you buy insurance for the house because it may catch on fire, flood, and earthquake. Yet just like the house, the body will not last. When the house is gone ... once again what remains ... is what was there before it was built (before the body, personality, ideas and beliefs, gender and preferences). In this analogy what is left is the earth, green meadow, air and sky; yet you are being pointed to what the earth, meadow, air, and sky appear in (what the body appears in, what everything you can imagine appears in).
You will discover this upon the disintegration of the house/body(death). But you can begin to empty your house/body of the obstructions to the view of Self/Home by first seeing that you are not the house/body, and beginning to question: "if I am not this house/body, then who am I?" This starts the process of the digging the ground to discover a different kind foundation; one that lasts. You Dig and discover what cannot be changed, what cannot be lost, what cannot be moved. If it can be changed or moved or lost, it is not who you are. Keep digging. Eventually you will discover that your True Home, cannot be destroyed, needs no insurance policy, does not move or change, or alter in anyway. This is the True Foundation/Home and it is discovered in no thing at all.
The Realization of Home, is where you rest in Peace, Eternally.
And it is Right Now. You do not have to go anywhere or do anything to discover who you are. However the question "who am I? Really" is a great tool for the mind to calm down enough to See what it is in.