You’re More Than That
It’s inevitable that you focus all your energy on the big deadline that is looming. The big presentation, the big test, promotion or competition. I was never much of a sprinter. I hated speeches and presentations. It seemed like I had to do one each month for various school subjects. I had an irrational fear of forgetting my words, standing there looking like an idiot before slowly walking back to my desk.
Research tells us that the brain magnifies fears to keep us safe. It makes sense when we were back in the cavemen days. The brain has become ultra-efficient in evoking a fear response before we even consciously see the danger.
To become consciously aware of a particular stimulus takes 250–300 milliseconds, says LeDoux. But a fear-evoking stimulus can reach the amygdala in a mere 12 milliseconds, which is evolutionarily advantageous if one’s response time means the difference between life and death.
Because it’s so automatic, it’s hard to know know when you are overcome by fear and anxiety until well after the event has taken place. The days leading up to the event, your brain actually begins to magnify the effect and you start to ignore everything else in your life. Your brain tells you that you really have to focus on this, avoid any chance of failure and that nothing else matters.

This is obviously not the most effective way to achieve anything because even though we try to simplify as much as possible — life is just made up of so many different factors. The problem, I find is that this scary event can become all that I think about, and it can mean that I lose enjoyment of everything else. Games wouldn’t be as fun, food wouldn’t taste as nice and I could never sleep. I was so enveloped in these series of events that I ignored the rest of my life.
It’s obviously quite dangerous for us to be consistently thinking and dreading about things that we fear and hate. I’ve written about a couple of things that help me out when I’m under pressure and anxiety but hopefully this serves as a reminder that there’s more to life than what you fear and hate (even though your brain is trying to tell you otherwise).
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