What is Fear?

Fear is an important human emotion that can help protect you from danger and also prepare you to take action, but it can also lead to longer-lasting feelings of anxiety and trepidation. It is also a survival mechanism. It involves a common, universal biochemical response and a more individualized emotional response. It can alert us to the presence of danger or harm, whether that danger is real or psychological. It can stem from real threats or can originate from imagined dangers and can be a symptom of underlying mental conditions.

Finding ways to manage your fears can help you better cope with these feelings and prevent anxiety from taking hold.

From a spiritual perspective, there are only really two states in this Universe: Love and Fear. Everything emanating out of Fear, is a constriction of emotion and being while everything emanating out of Love is an expansion of emotion and being. So, plainly put, Fear is the absence of Love.

If we break it down even further, then FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real.

If we all accept that we create our own reality, then what exactly do we then need to fear? If we know that we are 100% responsible for our own experience, then we begin to realise that fear is at best, just resistance to change or at worst, moving shadows on a metaphorical wall. A better strategy though, would be to learn ways of managing your inner landscape to create a more positive and friendly reality.

Causes of Fear

Some fears may be a result of experiences or trauma, while others can be a masquerade from some deeper symptom, such as loss of control, etc. Certain fears tend to be innate because they relate to survival while others are learned and are associated to traumatic (mild or severe) experiences.

Coping with Fear

If you struggle with fear, then having strategies to focus on managing the physical, emotional and behavioural effects of fear are important. These can include:

• Practice mindfulness / meditation
• Use Stress management techniques such as breathing, relaxation and/or visualization
• Sleep—often fear will create a need to sleep—being aware of when sleep is only an escape can help you to get adequate sleep without oversleeping as a means to escape having to deal with your life.

While traditionally considered a “negative” emotion, fear actually serves an important role in keeping us safe. It can, however, also keep us feeling trapped and prevent us from doing things we’d like to. Whereas some people find fear nearly intolerable and avoid the emotion at all costs, others experience pleasure from feeling fear and they seek it out (i.e., watching a horror film).

Fear is a multi-part instinct: part learnt, part taught. Some fears are instinctive: Pain, for example, causes fear because of its implications for survival. Other fears are learned: We learn to be afraid of certain people, places, or situations because of past experiences and negative associations. 

A Way of Resolving Fear within the Body and Mind

When a fear is triggered in the body, breathing becomes more shallow and also speeds up. The body then goes into fight, freeze or flight mode. Clear thinking is difficult and the urge or instinct to run is heightened. What to do when these feelings arise: Mentally slow your breathing down – this will clear your thoughts.  Ask if threat is real or imagined; if real, then what course of action needs to be taken? Your intuition will guide you.

If imagined, then give the mind something else to focus on: Close your eyes and imagine a field of flowers. Another technique: energetically make yourself as big as the room you’re in and then check in with the feeling again. If it is still there, then make yourself as big as the building you’re in; then as big as the city or town; then as big as your country; then as big as the planet. The feelings of fear will dissipate with each escalation.

Do you want to understand more how to train your self-esteem and release your fear and its triggers? Come to EQ Gym’s free session this Sunday on the subject, or work with a coach. You can find us here!

With love – Vanessa / The EQ GYM

Read more about fear here ( länka till “I’m so damn scared!”) and more about other emotions such as sadness here (länka till “How do you know if you are depressed?”) and shame here (länka till “How does Shame affect us?”).

This is a guest post. Any opinions expressed are the writer’s own.