What is fear?

Have you ever taken the time to think about what fear really is?  If you are like me you have heard the famous quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt “there is nothing to fear but fear itself”, or you may have heard fear mentioned as an acronym such as  False Evidence Appearing Real, or some other catchy tune…but really, what is fear?

According to various definitions fear is associated with an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous and likely to cause pain or are a threat to someone.  Now you know how fear is defined, but the question still remains what is fear?  I like to think of fear as a perversion of the truth.

Now for for any of you gutter thinkers my word use of perversion has no association to the word in a sexual connotation, but rather its use to explain the improper alteration or distortion from what is intended.   According to Meriam-Websters dictionary perversion is the process if improperly changing something that is good.

You see fear is just the thought of something being different from what you had imagined, as fear is first created in our imagination.  Our thoughts are the beginning of most things that we do, and fear introduces itself as a clever thought that focuses on the inverse of what you expect.  In example, if I were afraid to fly on an airplane you may associate this fear to the thought of me thinking that in someway this plane or the trip will harm me.  I avoid the action of flying all together and never take a flight…fear wins.  However, lets say that I wanted to fly on an airplane to visit a loved in another city and I went on the trip and had a blast…there is no fear.  Fear only lives in the mind, and once you participate in the action you overcome the minds thought of fear.

A common fear that most have encountered is a fear of the dark, so think back to your adolescence and your own dark encounters.  Though many of us have outgrown this particular fear it provides a great example of what fear really is.   When you were afraid of the dark your mind begins to create thoughts, visions, and ideas of things that may not be there at all.  As a result of these thoughts you may begin to hear sounds that create pictures in your mind of the a monster, goblin, or the “Boogie Man” himself.  And now that you have created this being in your mind it is very real, and you are too frigtened to get out of the bed to use the restroom as a result of being afraid of  the dark.  Can you relate?  Me too.

So what could cure this fear…the light.

Light is the opposite, the inverse, and the good that dark cannot penetrate.  Once the light was turned on fear immediately exited your imagination as you were able to look around the room, in your closest, and under the bed to be assured that nothing was there.  Since nothing was there, you continued to build up the assurance that you were safe, and regardless of light or dark you gained security in learning that the dark will not harm you.  If you are no longer afraid of the dark then you already know the recipe for curing fears, you just have turn on your own light towards any anxiety and see that nothing is there.

The example of the dark is a great one because it truly does allow us to see (pun intended) that when the lights are turned on, there’s no monster under the bed and there is no need to be afraid of the dark.  Our minds create our perception of everything, and a fear is just our minds perversion of a situation.  I believe that fear is closely related to ignorance, and once you experience a situation you gain the knowledge of it for yourself and thus the thoughts of fear are forgotten.  Your ability to experience people, food, relationships, and all other life experiences for yourself will allow you to live free from fear.  It is possible.

As we go through life our fears like many thing will change, and just because we may not have a certain fear now doesn’t mean that we won’t create new ones in our minds tomorrow.  The  good news is, the process to overcoming a fear does not change and your ability to do the thing that make you afraid is how you overcome.   When the truth is revealed fear is removed, and once your mind is made up about the positive outcome of a situation you will no longer be fearful of it.

Here are 5 reminders about fear, and the next time you feel fearful say these words as I am sure they will help you through.