“Fear is a vital response to physical and emotional danger—if we couldn’t feel it, we couldn’t protect ourselves from legitimate threats” how psychology defines it.
To me fear is a weakness which acts as an obstacle to take decisions.
Fear is important for survival, but we use fear as a weapon against people, we use fear to even influence a little child. I have seen parents scaring a child by suggesting that there is a ghost somewhere who will come and catch her if she doesn’t have her milk, or the cops will come and take the child away if he doesn’t keep quiet.
These kids grow up to be timid, afraid of the dark or terrified of humans in uniform. It is our deficiencies in patience, intelligence and callousness in controlling the child that makes us resort to easier and quicker methods. And thus unconsciously creating a tribe of weak and vulnerable people, who are afraid to defy, scared to take decisions independently and shy away from taking risks.
Fear is a habit and once fear gets you, there’s no way you can be free from it. In my long years of interactions with colleagues and co-workers found it amazing, how some of them fearlessly jumped into a project taking responsibility yet some would keep stopping at each and every step and be overcautious, confirming and taking opinions, thus delaying the work process and creating unnecessary tensions. Friends who swear to be with you , run away whenever you are in trouble, not because they are selfish, but most of the time because they are afraid. Relatives, neighbors behave in the same manner and most of the times, fear is the root cause. Fear of the unknown, fear of the society, fear of god, fear of the supernatural, fear of death, fear of losing, fear of anything that they can come up with….
No wonder the word “phobia” has the maximum number of prefixes ..fun to read them, like, Achoophobia (fear of sneezing) , and Bathophobia is not fear of taking baths but fear of depths, and Gymnophobia is the fear of nudity and nothing to do with a gym.
But we need to be alert and fear does help us to be cautious, we cannot jump from a cliff just because we have to be brave.
Fear of failure has led to many tragedies, and again our society and parenting plays a huge role in such tragedies. Why do we have to be something or someone? Why can’t we be what we are? And if we do not meet the expectations of the people around us we are afraid we will be looked down upon. And we prefer to runaway than face the humiliation.
Cowards do “die many times before their death….”
It’s better not be afraid of danger, but have the courage to face it, as a result we can be individuals who can work with pride , live free and enjoy our lives without being confused and paranoid about what people will say or whether we will be accepted in a group.
Not being afraid of anything or anyone doesn’t mean you get the license to do anything, and just go about hurting people or destroying the world. The fear of God or severe punishment had taken people to the right path since early civilizations.
I can be afraid of an accident and sit at home and do nothing till maybe an earthquake brings the house down and I get killed anyway.
Look around you, there are thousands of people who are just living other people’s lives; people who are afraid to let go; people who are afraid to do things which might anger the society; these people have lost their freedom if they ever had one.
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