IS FEAR AN ALLY OR A FOE?
The topic of fear has gotten a bad rep understandably, It is such an emotion that can easily be qualified as a negative emotion. Many people have had not-so-pleasant experiences with this emotion but at the same time, we need a deeper understanding of this emotion if we are to overcome its pitfalls.
Ever since the early history of man, fear has in fact been a survival instinct, scientists even coined the popular term "fight or flight". When faced with a potential threat, our brains analyzes situations in microseconds and decide if we should run or stand our ground. Such instincts were very crucial to our species. Imagine our ancestors sighted a blood-thirsty predator, survival instincts such as hiding, camouflage, or running were all based on fear.
IS IT A LEARNED BEHAVIOR?
Humans are social creatures, we wouldn't have survived without this trait, It is very possible that instincts such as "fear" are passed down to us from our ancestors. Even scientists discovered a theory called Genetic-memory A phenomenon whereby we know things we were never directly taught from birth. As the saying goes "Like father like son."
It is such learned behaviors that made us survive the harsh climate in earlier times, I would argue that it is such primal fears that drove us towards modernization, we had to insulate ourselves from the harsh elements with our fancy buildings and fancy clothes, this need for safety and security is strong even in today's age, anything that threatens that is often feared and avoided.
Although due to modernization, we might have less dire circumstances to fear compared to earlier generations but taking a deeper look at this, we might observe that we seem to have traded some old fears for another. Nowadays we have different names and types of what we call phobias, A term which was not popular ages ago.
WHAT DO WE REALLY FEAR?
I spent a lot of time analyzing this question. In my deep thoughts, I had to self-reflect on when I had my earliest years, what was my earliest memory of fear... where did it all begin.
I stumbled on an experience that might be shared by everyone reading this. As a growing child, it is pretty common to be scared of the dark and the shadows. On the surface level that seems so simple.
A kid scared of the monsters in the closet at bed-time sounds so cliche but the topic gets deeper when we ask the simple question of WHY? are we really just scared of the dark or is there more to it? is this where all other fears stem from? Why do so many people share the early childhood experience of being scared of the dark?
The answer to this question lies in our nature as humans, we are very inquisitive creatures, we want to observe and know everything around us. It is very common for a little child to point all around asking for the names of objects in the surroundings. I remember as a child I would ask my parents the same questions again and again... "what is this? what is that?"
The quest to know, the urge to seek knowledge is deep within us but what happens when we don't know, what happens when we are in the DARK.
IS THIS OUR BIGGEST FEAR?
I think our deepest fear is the FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN, I think this fear has driven a lot of our base instincts, all other fears seem to be rooted in this DARKNESS.
Personally speaking, each time I wanted to take a huge step in life, the first thing that hinders me is this lingering thought of "Do I know what will happen next" "Am I sure this is gonna be a wise decision."
This uncertainty dwells in not knowing the probable outcomes, at times we get stuck in overthinking the probable outcomes and become frozen.
I think one way we can overcome these instincts is to be comfortable in "not-knowing everything" but I also know it could be a pretty daunting task.
lovely response.. yes fear of the unknown seems to be somehow bred into us..
Yes indeed... thanks for passing by my post sir :)