FEAR
10 core principles of any fear
Understanding fear is the first step in overcoming it
Whatever you fear, whether it’s about your child’s safety, your health or prosperity, not getting what you want, or you fear losing something you hold so dear to your heart, the core principles are the same.
Once you deeply understand fear, you will be able to face it and overcome it. Knowledge can truly set you free.
10 core principles of any fear
- You are living in the future with your mind. The thing you fear has not yet happened and may never happen; otherwise, you wouldn’t be afraid anymore.
You are projecting a negative outcome that may or may not occur and worrying about it. In the present moment, the subject of your fear is not real. It “lives” in the future. If you can ground yourself in the “now,” you cannot feel fear, for fear can only survive in your mind while it’s focused on the future.
Fear is just a thought-induced feeling, and in the present moment, the mind is still.
2. The problem is that you can’t “solve” your fear problem in the present moment because the thing you fear doesn’t exist (yet) and can’t be solved.
You are then trapped in a limbo between the now, where you live, and the future, where your mind resides. The two are inconsolable. Since you can’t know or change the future, you can’t overcome your fear of it.
This perpetual fear then turns into anxiety, a persistent feeling of unease and dread.
3. What you fear isn’t real. It hasn’t happened, and it only exists in your mind.
Yes, it may happen. Anything can happen at any time, but this doesn’t make it a fact of life at this very moment; it is only one possible potential future event. Right now, your fear lives in your mind alone.
From this, we can safely deduce that the only way to solve your fear is within the confines of your mind.
4. Your fear is a direct derivative of your desire — your desire to know the future, to control life, your want for something, or your desire not to lose it.
If you had no desire, you would have no fear. A person who wants nothing from anyone is the most powerful person in the world. In other words, as long as you care what happens and believe that you can stop it from happening, you will experience fear and anxiety.
The moment you cease to care and allow the future to unfold as it will, fear and anxiety disappear.
5. You can control certain things, but most are entirely out of your control.
If you realized you have no control, your fear would subside, as you would realize there is nothing you can do to stop what is or isn’t coming. Why worry if there is nothing you can do about it? You need to completely let go of everything out of your direct control.
Separating the things you control in life and those you have no power over is of utmost importance for achieving inner peace and happiness.
6. Fear is an emotion and nothing more.
The danger may or may not be real (99% aren’t). The pessimistic scenario you fear may or may not come to pass (99% never do). But the feeling of fear is real right now.
By releasing fear, you are not denying the possibility of a negative outcome in the future; you are only letting go of the emotion of being afraid, worried, and anxious. This is an important distinction. You lose nothing by losing fear but gain everything!
7. You can acknowledge the potential danger, do what is in your power to prevent it, or improve the odds of getting through the situation you fear unharmed without feeling fear, anxiety, and worry.
One has nothing to do with the other. Analyze the odds of the thing you fear happening, do what you can to improve your odds, and then let it happen, what will happen.
The emotion of fear is unnecessary and doesn’t contribute to anything whatsoever.
8. Whether you are afraid or not makes no difference to what will happen.
You believe that by being scared all of the time, you are somehow helping the situation and preventing bad things from happening, but you’re not. If you’re in a plane and are terrified of it falling from the sky or sleeping like a baby, it doesn’t influence the probability of that plane crashing to the ground.
By being afraid, you are in no way lowering the possibility of something happening — quite the contrary!
9. In this life, what you focus on, you get more of.
By focusing on the thing you fear, giving it energy, and staying in a fearful state of mind, you are making the thing you fear more probable to occur. There is no need to get metaphysical about it (though you might want to), but it is true.
You are, in effect, digging your hole and inviting problems into your life. You are making everything worse by being afraid and nothing better!
Understanding this point and acknowledging that there are things you can’t control or predict should be enough to forever dissuade you from dwelling on the things that frighten you.
10. Your fear will only have power over you if you allow it. The way to rob fear of its power is to face it.
Face it so thoroughly that you will feel you’ve gone through what you fear already, experienced what it felt and looked like, and have now found peace with the idea. Even in the most extreme and painful examples, acceptance of the worst possible outcome is needed to be free of fear. It’s immensely uncomfortable, but it is necessary.
If you fear death (yours or your loved one’s), the truth is that it can happen at any time, and there isn’t a goddamn thing you can do to stop it. Fearing it is then insanity. We all live on borrowed time. That’s just a fact of life.
By experiencing this death in your mind fully, seeing and feeling what it would be like, and understanding what that will mean for you in detail, you will be able to accept it and release the fear.
Again, it doesn’t mean you won’t do anything in your power to live or for your loved ones to survive. You’re just releasing the emotion of fear. Nothing more, nothing less.
Coincidentally, by remaining calm, brave, and operating at your best, you’re also improving the odds of a positive outcome in any situation, as you are free of debilitating fear.
Now that you understand fear, you can reframe it correctly in your mind and overcome it once and for all. The above list already provides snippets of possible solutions and steps you can take.
Can you see them?
If you’re interested in learning more bout fear and how to overcome it, I invite you to read these related posts:
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