It Is Not Your Fault - “The Gift” from Mother Nature!
Know that you are not alone - me too! And the same applies to every human being on this planet! We all have built survival based mechanisms in our bodies. It is linked directly with one of the oldest parts of the brain - amygdala which governs sympathetic nervous system aka - fight, flight or freeze response. The main purpose of this mode is to protect you and arm you up with the necessary bio-boost of hormones and enzymes to make you alert about the danger for your own safety - and this is great news!
The bad news is that in the modern world we perceive almost everything as a danger and therefore the body will still support it accordingly with those right chemicals running through the veins - as we run for life, apparently!?
Unfortunately these conditions, if prolonged, can have devastating consequences for our health! Fear as a stressor triggers a cascade of events if we do not change the way we think. As if our own body turns against us!
Hence it is essential to be in charge of that mind!
System Overload
It is very important to understand that this mechanism is designed be use as our safeguard only - to protect ourselves when being attacked with appropriate action towards it - to defend using the body or weapon (fight), move fast away from danger (flight), or become still and play “dead” when runaway is not an option anymore (freeze).
In extreme situations the nervous system, when overloaded, paralyzes us from taking simple action! Sometimes it feels like we want to fight with everyone and everything around us or just run away and withdraw from life. Sounds familiar?
I trust that we can all relate to this!
When majority of time is spent in this state, we are no longer really living - we are only surviving. It is not a very healthy and efficient way of being. I know that very well from my personal experience. My everyday fear grew up to the condition of anxiety and panic attacks disorders. For example, a simple activity like walking to the toilet in hospital - felt like life threatening to me.
What about living a day to day life like that?
It Is Time to Change Your Relationship with Fear!
The described above mechanism is not unique in the world of nature. All creatures characterized with one or another survival based mechanism. But only human beings, thanks to a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex, can choose the way one wants to respond!
In other words, we can be in charge of our mind!
It's nothing wrong to feel fear, but what you are doing about it - it is your responsibility. You can choose to avoid and resist it - which you have sense already just does not work if you want to change (unless this is your conscious will).
The other option is to face it, welcome your experience and process it through and out of you!
Just recall for a second how it felt when you overcame challenges in the past? I bet it felt great - a sense of expansion and liberation. If that is your thing, give yourself permission and go ahead to challenge yourself once again.
What I have found profound in this approach is to treat fear as the door to abundance of life!
A necessary threshold to move towards the direction I want to go!
Where to Start?
In the end, fear is just an emotion which is driven by a single thought. The key is to be mindful of any thoughts going through your mind - that’s it!
When you watch it consciously, from that space you are able to detach yourself from the trigger with ease and dissolve it right away before it grows in your mind.
Also if you want, you can try a very simple test now my kung fu mentor Grandmaster Sam Chin taught me! Just smile sincerely and see whether you are able to think at the same time? It appears that a smile can be a powerful tool to drop into your beingness instantaneously.
In closing, you can choose the way you are at any given moment! What is in the way to your Freedom, is your own mind. That is why I highly recommend practicing daily anything which teaches you to observe your mind and body - like meditation!
On the way to become unstoppable in life? Let me know what works for you. Or if you have your own way, please share how you manage your fears in the comments below.