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Fear has the ability to alter our perception of reality in many different ways. There are two kinds of fear: one acute, life-saving direct fear, which heightens our awareness, and one slowly sneaking indirect fear, which lowers our awareness. The same basic emotion—fear—produces completely different results, depending on how it enters our reality and how we cope with it.
Being in the midst of a car accident, in fear of losing your life, will heighten your awareness, sharpen your perception of time and space, and activate your thinking and actions. This is an example of acute, life-saving direct fear. The adrenaline in your bloodstream will make you alert and quick thinking. This type of fear actually gives you power by "telling" you what to do right now in order to save yourself from life-threatening danger. Your attention is focused in the now moment and when the immediate danger is over, you have time to recover by resting your mind and letting your body regulate the adrenaline back to normal levels.
By contrast, being perpetually reminded of negative things which you seemingly have no control over—for example, the notion that no matter what you do, you will never be "good enough," or the prospect of losing your job or fear of an "invisible virus" or the "war on terror"—will lower your awareness, narrow your perception of your options and stagnate your sense of time and space. Aristotle defines this type of fear as "pain arising from the anticipation of evil" because it focuses your attention and awareness on an unknown dangerous future making you believe that you need an outer savior to rescue you from the imagined lingering threat.
The above is an example of slowly sneaking indirect fear. The initial adrenaline in your blood will eventually turn into toxins that not only alter your mind by slowing down your thinking and stopping you from taking actions aligned with who you truly are but actually cause decay in your body.
Slowly sneaking indirect fear is also an illness generator. It triggers disharmonic frequencies in your body that, while disguising themselves as a "normal" ingredient in your everyday reality, effectively reduce the quality of your life over time. The French poet and novelist Anaïs Nin reminds us that "life shrinks and expands in proportion to one’s courage." If you want to thrive in your life, you must have the courage to say "no" to fear because the more fear you allow into your mind, the smaller your life will become. Find the sources of your fear, name them, and have the courage to detach yourself from them. For example, turn off your TV, do not gossip, and avoid reading tabloids and less serious magazines.
There is a Japanese proverb that states, "Fear is only as deep as the mind allows." What this means is that you are the gatekeeper to your inner world. You decide what occupies your mind. You choose where you put your awareness.
So, the good news here is that you can limit the effect of slowly sneaking indirect fear in your mind and body by actively choosing not to let your surroundings influence you into dwelling on negative thoughts for longer periods of time.
For instance, reality is never as fearful and dangerous as the news media present it, and want you to believe—look at your immediate surroundings, look at the nature around you. Nothing needs to be feared in this now moment. Everything is as it is—like an intricate dance slowly changing between stillness and motion. That's all.
Another quick way of getting rid of negative influences from your surroundings is to consciously select your friends and other people with whom you interact. Sometimes, you need to simply say "no" to others and "yes" to you, so that you can give yourself time to recreate peace in your mind and body.
If there’s one thing you take away from this post, let it be this shortcut to reducing fear in your life.
Start choosing consciously:
- Whom you spend time with.
- How you spend your time.
- What you allow to dwell in your mind.
... and you will do just fine.
