Fear

An animal cannot choose to be not fearful, it either is or isn't fearful depending on the situation. Animals are programmed to respond based on instinct. That is that they do what they do because they are compelled to act in a certain way. Humans have some of the same instinct tendencies that animals have, but with the capacity to rationalize our situations, we can, no matter what the threat, real or perceived, choose to fear or not to fear.

Fear is an Emotion

Fear is an emotion, just like sadness or happiness or joy. If you have read the essay on depression you will see that what we are thinking of governs our emotions. Remember the example of walking down a dark street. If while you are doing that you are thinking the boogie-man is just around the next corner, then you are going be thinking you're in danger, and your emotion of fear will be reacting. That is why in a situation like that you are going to be finding yourself running very soon. But you would be running from what? A real threat? No, you would be running from a phantom. Something that isn't there.

It's precisely this kind of fear that I would like to address here. The kind which is based not on a real threat, but on what our minds manufacture as a threat. What kind of threat would that be. Well it could be that feeling of dread we sometimes get when you come into work in the morning and the boss grunts at you? You think to yourself, "Boy, there're mad at me, I guess I'm in trouble".

Or a better example comes from my experience while I was in the Army. One day the First Sergeant called me out of a formation and told me I had to see him in his office at 4pm. This was at 8 am in the morning. Now the problem was that you didn't want to see the First Sergeant on a good day even for a really good reason. I had no idea why he wanted to see me, but I had a real guilty conscious.

So you know how my day went. I searched my memory for things I might have done, as well as for other things I might not have done but could be blamed for. It was the most horrible eight hours of my life.

By the time 4pm rolled around I was fit to be tied. I crawled into the First Sergeant's office and stood in front of his desk waiting to be killed on the spot. The First Sergeant growled at me, "Here, you need to sign this log for your barracks room key!" I quickly signed the key log and left his office, relieved but still shaking.

As you can see there was no reason for me to fear the meeting, except in my mind. I had let my thinking thoughts of being in trouble with the Sergeant cloud my reason which allowed fear to manifest.

This happens to all of us a million times a day doesn't it. Lets say you get fired from your job. It's not a good experience, and it is a valid cause for concern. But while losing your job is a reality, what reality is really going on in your mind? Well, you have lost your job that is a real occurrence. Yet in your mind you begin to see yourself losing your home, your family. You begin to see yourself out on the streets, selling pencils, begging for bread. Homeless and helpless. There is only one problem.

None of which has happened yet. This is the problem with most people, they fear the future. The future which isn't here yet. In the interim our minds race with all the consequences most of which are speculation, and quite frankly might never happen.

Some people are so paralyzed by fear of the future that they develop other problems which psychologist look into. Problems like depression that begin with fear which develops into anger which when prolonged leads back to depression. Its like a statement I read one time, "Depression is the impression left by fear." When you talk to a person that is depressed you sense both the fear and the anger along with the depression, they are all so closely related.

Yet when we understand how closely related our thinking is with our emotional responses we begin to deal with the problem at the root.

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