Some days ago one of my friend posted a photo about the mouse in Facebook and many women commented that this is awful creature and they are scared of it. And I thought that how is this possible that anyone can fear such tiny lovely animal?! After that I came to think about fears. I was afraid of spiders when I was little. I remember climbing up to the chair if I saw one and waiting until it was gone. As a teenager I was scared to go to basement because all these horror movies I watched with my best friend. And if I ask myself, what I fear the most now, then I think about wars, and death and loss of loved-ones.
Fear is so common feeling for humans and it’s not all that bad. Because it can prevent dangers. The fear response serves survival by generating appropriate behavioral responses, so it has been preserved throughout evolution. Fear is judged as rational or appropriate and irrational or inappropriate. An irrational fear is called a phobia. ¹ So, there are fears that can save you and fears that can disturb you, fears that can hold you back doing what you want and interfere your normal life.
Some fears go away with time. For example, now I love spiders and if you send me to the basement to bring jar of pickles, then I happily go. Some fears don’t disturb your daily life if you don’t think about them (in my case these are death and wars). But some fears are not going anywhere if you don’t conquer them. It’s essential to face your fears, unless they can easily end up controlling you. How to do it, depends about the fear, but the most common way is through exposure, where you face the thing or situation you’re afraid of. You can discover, that behind some fear, there are tiny things, which just seem bigger and scarier. Here you can learn little about about facing the fears, with nice illustrations. 🙂
I personally think about making a parachute jump, because this is one of these things which gives me goosebumps if I imagine doing it. :S 😀
And finally, my favourite quote about fear:
“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
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