When someone says they are afraid...what are they actually saying they are afraid of, most of the time?
Fear of moving country, starting a new job, starting a new relationship, ending an old relationship, fear of spiders, fear of the outdoors, fear of the dark.... the list goes on.
What do these all have in common?
Of course there are times that fear is good. It is our brains way of alerting us that danger may be near and that we might have to take action.
This is where our 'fight or flight' response kicks in.
If it is a REAL threat then we HAVE to take action immediately, when our body has been pumped with adrenalin and the blood is sent to our limbs so that we can utilize them efficiently. If we do nothing then we will very quickly go into 'flight' mode and our body will shut down and we will simply freeze.
'I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.
The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.'
Nelson Mandela
To me, this relates very closely to life in general.
If we do not take immediate action when we feel that fear, we very quickly begin to settle into complacency and a false, numb sort of security.
But... back to what the above fears had in common... have you guessed it?
Sure you have. We have all felt it at some point.
Fear of Change.
This of course means what we really fear is the unknown.
Most of the time when actually confronted with our fear, it turns out to be,
not quite as bad as we actually thought it was going to be.
Have you ever seen an old Black & White horror movie, where they drag out the suspense and you never actually know who or what is the bad guy??
Compare that to today's gory, nearly grotesquely comical version of a horror.
To me that's more shock the fear factor!
It's your imagination that gets you really frightened!
And so it goes in life also. We tend to blow things up in our mind to overwhelming proportions. Imagining the worst and creating gigantic, terrifying monsters in our heads.
'What scares us has nothing to do with the content of our thought, and everything to do with the fact that we are thinking them.'
Michael Neill
Well, I say go and face those fears, those imaginary monsters,
because most of the time those monsters are only in the confines of your mind and not actually out there.
In fact, why not then, create wonderful thoughts with your imagination instead? Really cool, delightful monsters?? It is after all, YOUR Imagination Isn't it? Yes it is!
You may just find it's not such a bad place after all.......
With all my 'fight' (-;
Danielle x
neurocombatives@gmail.com
www.mindart.ning.com
For more on this and overcoming fear, you can check out my other blog
http://neurocombative.blogspot.ie/2012/10/the-courage-to-do.html
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