Your heart is racing, you have cold chills and you feel nauseous. You start to cold sweat and you could feel your body slowly tightening.
Fear?
Might be!
Your body is trying to tell you something. It's your body's natural reaction to threat with preparations for flight or fright.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines fear as a feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger.
We need to understand, that fear is often times based on a future event.
The fear you feel, is expressed because of the thought that something you're afraid of, will become reality.
Of course, you should be aware of any kind of threat to your life but we must consider the fact that fear mobilizes the body for immediate action--flight or fight--which effectively focuses all our physical and mental resources on the perceived threat. This is not a state you'll like to be in, when under serious threat, you can potentially get harmed or lose your life.
Fear control is possible!
Fear is a powerful emotion. Fear keeps us from crossing a busy street without looking. But fear also keeps us from realizing our full potential. We grow up with fear because those who influence us know that fear is an excellent way to control a person. This seems to work well when our parents tell us the terrible things that could happen if we:
1- Converse with strangers
2-Consume alcohol or drugs
3-Fail to eat fruits and vegetables
4-Do poorly at school
5-Break the laws of a government or religion.
It is way easier to offer insight on ways to control your fear than to make fear the primary factor of discipline.
Fear and it's origin!
Our ultimate fear is that of survival. A parallel fundamental fear is that we will not be loved. The two are intertwined when God or religion comes into the equation. Some religions teach that to fall out of favor with God (to be unloved) is to burn in hell forever (failure to survive).
The impact of fear!
Fear serves as a fuel for many childhood situations.
It robs children of their creativity and way of thinking.
They can grow with this fear through-out their life time and even unknowingly change fears as they age.
While focused on a feared event, we lose a wonderful gift--the present. Since feared events are always future events, when we're focused upon these we fail to appreciate the present moment. Unfortunately, we're missing out on life one second at a time. Life is the present moment. All we ever have is the present. That is the gift of life. The past is over; it's value is in what we've learned. The future is uncertain; no one can foretell the future with certainty.
"Fear is like a rocking chair, you lose alot of energy but you get nowhere"- Jerry Lopper
There is hope, you can overcome your fears!
Generate a list of all your fears that you can recall, add as much detail as you can.
Note what happened.
Did the event ever occur?
If it did, were the results as negative as those you feared?
Many life changes turn out to have positive results. Losing the job you hated may have caused you to find a new job you love. How often did your fears materialize? If you're like most people, they seldom occurred.
Start a fear log. Each time you feel afraid write down the date, the event you fear, and what you feel will result if the event occurs.
Over time, reflect back on your fear log and you can determine exactly how this has helped you.
When a new fear starts to take over your life and you've logged it, fully acknowledge it.
When the time comes, and you feel like you're ready to press on from all those fears, have a cancelling ceremony and abolish them out of your life.
I'm not going to tell you exactly how, but have it your way.
"Fear will keep you from reaching your fullest potential, it's up to you to decide just how much power you will give your fears."- Glendola George
