Why You Should Fear, Fear Itself
Stress, fear, and anxiety plague our mental space. It’s as though a mob has taken over a city and held our brain hostage.
It’s difficult to escape.
With one fleeting flick of your thumb on Twitter, you’ll get a swarm of bad news in less than a second.
Turn on the news, and you’ll become depressed for a month.
Combine that with us being complicated people, and you have a recipe for internal chaos.
We all have competing wants, desires, and fears. Fear is at an all-time high. You’ll see thousands of people locked down, awaiting the virus plague.
They don’t want video call in case the virus transmits through the screen — or WiFi.
These people take fear to another level. They’re illogical and bring everything to a worst-case scenario.
Then, you have the irrational population. They have real concerns but dwell on it every day. It consumes a portion of their life.
Why is fear bad?
“We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. -Seneca”
Fear needs a short life span. Dwelling on it plagues your thinking. Over time, it clouds your vision. It doesn’t give you a real sense of what’s going on.
Many of the things we fear, will never come true, so we must fear, fear itself.
As Dr. Christiane Northrup writes,
The flow of stress hormones creates an over-active mind state by flooding the amygdala portion of your brain. This makes you unable to think rationally as you react to signals sent from your amygdala. When in this over-active state, your brain perceives events as negative and stores all of the details surrounding the perceived danger — including sights, sounds, odors, the time of day, the weather, and so on – as negative memories. Later, those same sights, sounds, and other details can trigger fear by bringing back the initial memory, or, in some cases, you may feel afraid without consciously knowing why. This can lead to a constant state of fear and anxiety, or even PTSD.
That’s not to say; we have to have an unhealthy relationship with reality. Problems will arise. Life is a static dance of living in the light, with periods of darkness.
But that’s why thinking instead of living a fear-based life is essential.
As Epictetus put it, “you must diligently work either on your own reasoning or on things out of your control — take great care with the inside and not what’s outside.”
Here’s how to take back control.
You must begin with the premeditation of evils.
What is the worst that can go wrong? Think about it. Write it down. Study it. Once you’ve touched on it, begin to feel it deep inside of you.
Now you’ve removed all the surprise and some of the fear.
This exercise isn’t to invoke fear, but rather, to accept the worst possible outcome.
As Seneca wrote, “the man who has anticipated the coming of troubles takes away their power when they arrive.”
Prepare yourself for tough situations.
Thinking in a focused, calm state is the antithesis of fear. Your emotions are in check while breaking down the worse possible outcome.
What can you do to prepare yourself?
Why is this fear bad?
How likely is this to happen?
What options do you have if the worst-case scenario comes true?
What are some steps you can do today to prevent or minimize the chances of it occurring?
If it does happen, what are the steps to overcome it?
These questions will get you started, write the answers down and begin to think it through.
Embrace practice.
You’ll never enter a vital game without practice.
It’s why sports teams practice before the game.
It’s why soldiers practice live-fire scenarios.
And it’s why company teams, practice their presentations to nail their pitch.
When you prepare, you take control of fear. You know, as you enter an uncertain situation that you’re ready.
As the Daily Stoic writes, “Think of practice as immunity: Immunity to fear; immunity to weakness; immunity to your own sense of doubt and hesitation. Practice even what you think you can’t do, and you might find that you have more capacity than you considered possible.”
Living in a constant state of fear is unhealthy and unrealistic. Fear must have a short life. Take care of what’s inside you.
