We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. Marcus Annaeus Seneca
How often have you really come across danger in real life? Have you been chased by a dog; come face to face with a wild animal; met with very dangerous accidents more than once in your life? Yet if you ask yourself how often you have been frightened, the answer will embarrass you, more so when you realize that most of your fears never came true. Almost all our fears are imaginary. Take fear of death; it is a reality but can we brood about it and waste our life because you never know when death pays you a visit. Fear is the most commonly found emotion in the human race for it is the one basic instinct that was critical to survival and yet ironically it is also the emotion that holds us back from enjoying the wonderful life we are blessed with.
In my view, very broadly we can classify fear into two the primal fear and the higher order fear. Primal fear is what we have inherited from the animal kingdom. This is mainly a self protective mechanism and heightens our senses to alert us to dangers. Perhaps over the years as man developed and with the improvement of both intelligence and the introduction of language we have relegated our primal fear to the background more so since we no longer face the dangers from wild animals and lurking savages. In some way though our belief in the occult, the obsession with forecasting the future, our obsession with rituals etc. are indicative of the protective instincts that encompass our psyche and testifies to our primal fear being omnipresent.
Our higher order fear is a result of the uniqueness of the human race. These fears are triggered by our obsession to be competitive, our humiliation at failure, our fear of rejection etc. None of these fears are present in the animal kingdom. There is also the pressure of expectations, the need for acceptance, the craving for attention and the craze for being unique. Summed up all these wholly human / man made fears are the result of the development of the human race. Unfortunately it also has a down side viz. the ability of the human race to go into depression and commit suicide.
Observe carefully and you will realize that most of our fears are wholly imaginary and rarely come true. Even more appalling is the tendency of the human race to give up so easily when faced with a challenge. Failure is a big stigma that man finds difficult to come to terms with ; be it failure in exams, relationships or business. Man has the escapist tendency never seen in the animal kingdom and so as a last resort they run away from life – commit suicide to escape the devils in their mind.
Remember: “You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith.” Mary Manin Morrissey
Try these:
- Read the post http://poweract.blogspot.com/2009/12/fear.html in our Weekly blog www.poweract.blogspot.com
- What are two fears you are going to face up to this week? Plan and prepare to face it and jot down the feelings before and after the experience. E.g. It could be your fear of public speaking and so you join a class for it or it could be proposing to a girl your dating or it could be standing up to a tyrannical boss.
This post is courtesy www.actspot.com
You are also invited to visit our WEEKLY Inspirational and Motivational Blog www.poweract.blogspot.com
