The Anatomy Of Fear

Seneca said : ” there are more things … likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”

Fear is arguably one of the most dangerous human emotions out there and here is why:

• Fear paralyzes your ability to reason;

• It destroys your imaginations;

• It kills of self reliance; 

• It discourages your initiative; it kills of your certainty of purpose;

• It undermines your enthusiasm;

• It encourages you to procrastinate;

• And it takes away your feeling of self control.

Most fears are mainly imaginative in nature. That is they exist solely in out imaginations. They do not exist in in reality. Fear is derived from an anticipation of a future outcome that one dreads. The future outcome may or may not happen. And more often than not, that outcome does not happen as one imagines they would. The dreadful doomsday scenario never happens.

On a positive note, fear is meant to be a protective signal. Something to ensure  one that things are may not be going in conformity with one the person anticipates.

However, most people do not allow fear to be simply a signal. Mot people take the signal as a definite answer that doomsday is around the corner and then go into full on panic mode. They allow the emotions that come the signal to overwhelm them. The emotion takes away from them their ability to reason and see all the nuances that may exist in their circumstances.

An effective way to deal with fear is to feel the fear and do what needs to be done anyway. It is to become aware of the fear as an emotion–as a signal. As unpleasant as the emotion may be, you fight through the unpleasantries and do what you have to do.

Failure to do so will be to allow your fear to hold you back from living the life that you are cape of living.