Understanding Fear

Before we learn how to deal with fear, we first need to understand what it is. There are two distinct kinds of fear. Natural fear and perceived, or false, fear. It is important to differentiate what kind of fear we are dealing with. False fear has been described as “false expectations appearing real.” Fear is an expectation of what might happen in the future, but, it might not. It puts us in a survival mode when no present problem exists. We act out of the influence of the media and others.

When we believe in an illusion, or false fear, we give our power away. Most of the things a person worries about never happen. It has been said that 85 percent of the things we worry about never happen, and the things that do, we cannot control anyway.

Fear causes chronic stress. Getting tied in knots about what might happen in the near future, which we cannot change, adds more stress to our body. If we already have a health condition, this stress makes it worse. Dealing with fear is the same as dealing with any other emotion. It begins with taking time to be aware of what we are feeling. Then ask if it is real or not. What is the worst thing that can happen?

Love and fear are the only two true emotions. Love expands our heart and connects us to others; fear contracts our heart and separates us from others. Every action we take in life is either out of love or out of fear. It has been said that all fear is a variation of the fear of death. Few of us contemplate this concept fully and, instead, tend to ignore the reality of death, because it frightens us. Those in touch with the ultimate reality of death consider it to be a graduation of the soul or spirit.

Read another blog Pent Up Emotions