Editor's Blog Jun 15th 2012
Fear
It is said that fear is one of the most crippling of emotions; it has lurked in all of us since the dawn of humankind. Without fear most of us would have not reached our teens and as a survival mechanism it is fear that keeps us alive.
Fear for very young humans, is not present until they start acquiring experiences through their senses and is a life long lesson, which develops as we encounter situations that hurt us physically and mentally.
As we get older we accumulate fears like a philatelist collects stamps, but we also lose fears as we learn the dangers and accept that some things cannot be changed.
Phobias are something quite different; they induce a state of paralysis or a flight response, which will carry you away from the source of the fear. I have an old army buddy who would run a mile when he saw a ball of wire wool. This is a bloke that had shown a total disregard for his own safety on many occasions, yet he would become a blubbering mess every time we had to use the stuff on a rusty piece of equipment.
Fear can be overcome. Fear of death and dismemberment are a constant companion for soldiers on operations going out day after day. Most seem to be able to deal with that fear, through repetitive training and exposure to realistic training cycles, that when in situations of high stress the mind will revert to an almost trance like state. Everything you have to do becomes almost automatic, enabling function and reducing the chance of flight in the face of the enemy.
Facing your fears with a rational mind is probably the best way to rid yourself of them. As a child I had an irrational fear of water, which came about due to an incident where I nearly drowned. I became a strong swimmer, I learnt about the sea and have dived on a couple of occasions, but still I was not totally at ease in water. It was only when I took it upon myself to expose myself to a daily morning swim on my travels that I even began to enjoy the sea.
Building defences works, but as a good friend of mine said to me recently, ‘hiding behind the barriers you put up will only prevent you from enjoying the moment’ and I think that good or bad, it is these little moments that is all we got.
Whatever your fears are, it is only by the acceptance that we are only on this planet briefly and that attachments and fear of loss go hand in hand, that you can really throw off your shackles and start living without fear.
I think that today’s blog can be summed up in the eloquent words of the late great Jim Morrison…
“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”
Ed.
