FEAR
artist: Edward Munch
“Fear is one of the most
powerful emotions. It has an extraordinarily strong effect on your mind and
body.
Fear can create strong signals
of response when we are in emergencies – for instance, if we are caught in a
fire or are being attacked.
It can also take effect when
you are faced with non-dangerous events, like exams, public speaking, a new
job, a date, or even a party. It is a natural response to a threat that can be
either perceived or real.
Anxiety is a word we use for
some types of fear that are usually to do with the thought of a threat or
something going wrong in the future, rather than right now.
Fear and anxiety can last for
a short time and then pass, but they can also last much longer, and you can get
stuck with them. In some cases, they can take over your life, affecting your
ability to eat, sleep, concentrate, travel, enjoy life, or even leave the house
or go to work or school. This can hold you back from doing things you want or
need to do, and it also affects your health.
Some people become overwhelmed
by fear and want to avoid situations that might make them frightened or
anxious. It can be hard to break this cycle, but there are lots of ways to do
it. You can learn to feel less fearful and to cope with fear so that it does
not stop you from living.” (Mental Health Foundation.)
Having read a booklet about how
to overcome fear and anxiety, I am noting how our human and natural world are
changing. We are undergoing a series of severe crisis like Covid-19
(coronavirus). The climate change crisis and political leadership that is
eroding our expectations of what is democracy and truth. Surely there is hope
that the vaccines now available are cutting down some of the spread in some
countries but the tragedy in India, Brazil and most of South America and Asia
is still severe.
The other dangerous global issue
is the climate crisis, a global event that is severely damaging our planet due
to overuse of fossil fuels. The production of plastic and polluting the air
with manufacturing. The world leaders seem to be more interested in doing short
term decisions and business is only caring for income and unsustainable
development.
There may be more challenges in
our time, but I am reflecting on the two global issues that are creating more
and more FEAR among the population. Of course, there are climate denialists,
skeptics and all sorts of false theories that are floating around the social
media. However, FEAR is behind all the many expressions of feelings and
thinking currently in vogue.
So, I decided to reflect on the
word FEAR. We all know “fear” as some sort of uncomfortable inner feeling, but
few reflect about the origins of fear. As the quote above indicates, researchers
tend to define the fear as certain behaviours and link the feeling of fear with
anxiety. Yet, I want to know about the original source of fear.
Recently I found a video
recording I made of an event in a 'kindy' where my 5-year-old son was attending
every day. I was observing the children (some as young as one year) reacting to
a dance show projected on the wall. I noted that one child suddenly screamed
with fear and went to the teacher to hide his face. Another child simply looked
at the light coming from the projector and still another just looked bored and
did some other activity ignoring the show.
This event stimulated my
reflections as to how we, humans express the feeling of fear at a very early
age. Perhaps the feeling of fear was inculcated by some family members, or
experienced in school, work, relationships, crisis events etc. Life meant to be
fun and productive, but we seem to respond to many events in life with this
sense of fear. This indicates to me, that fear is a powerful resource for
learning and creating.
Michael Meade, my mentor, and
mythologist, speaks of fear in terms of the response to this feeling and that
our response depends on how we develop wisdom or become more creative or be
more foolish and living in anxiety. Therefore, fear is a powerful resource for
growth and personal development in a world filled with shifts and changes. This
fear resource also works with collectives, institutions, and countries.
Meade speaks of the “inner voice”
as we experience fear, that says: “ I
cannot do this” … “I cannot go on”... “I am stuck”…and that is our ‘little ego’
taking that is in charge of our daily life. But, as things turn bad, the little
ego starts to feel powerless and when events turn to be challenging, the
‘little ego’ cannot deal with such disturbances. Our deep Self or true Self is
connected to our deep wisdom or soul and that is the place where we can
creatively develop solutions to all crises.
As we connect with our wise Self,
we develop what I call Perspective. Fear may be the reaction to our
insecurities or disruptions and by connecting with our Wise Self, we develop a
positive Perspective to challenges we may face and discover our sense of
curiosity or simply disregard the importance of the disruption in front of as a
temporary or an event of no consequence. Fear is multidimensional, on one hand
we may suddenly suffer greatly from fear, or we connect with our wise/deep Self
and discover a creative solution.
In the current global pandemic,
fear has permeated everyone at all levels of society. Fear promotes a reaction
of negative emotions by suddenly seeking a solution by dividing people (and
nations) into “them” and “us”; This fear is linked with hatred and even war. On
the other hand, we may develop a perspective that takes us to the discovery of
something new.
This idea is not new. Since
ancient times reactions to fear promoted wars, destruction of whole societies
and promoting extreme leaders both in politics and religions that dominate and
control entire populations promising solutions to the dread and fears. Today,
the Pandemic created all sorts of distrust in the democratic leadership, in
modern science, seeding paranoia everywhere.
In the absence of trust, people
seek to believe in something to feel safe. This ‘something’ is filled with
false news, bad answers to problems, faith in false beliefs and conspiracy
theories. People seek those answers in social media and religious dogma.
Fear is not just a ‘fight’ or
‘flight’ response from our animal part of the brain but also a loss of self
(little ego) when we do not connect with our deep wisdom, curiosity and
awareness of the deep Self that can implement a new and creative solution to
our crisis. I still remember the panic buying of toilet paper where some people
would fight to get a toilet paper bag at the store.
Fear can be considered as a “voice”
that is calling us to wake up to our creative energies and contribute to the
wellbeing of all and not just us. When I purchased a big package of toilet
paper, I started to distribute single rolls to people waiting in line at the
store (only a few could enter) and many begun to smile and some to laugh.
Finally, I like to reframe the
word ‘fear’ into an emotion. E-motion has a direction while ‘fear’ is a
constricting energy. Being closed in, I start to panic and try to break out,
while emotion gives me a direction towards a solution. Emotions move us as they
carry energy to ACT. Repressed emotions tend to become fear and grow into a
depression in our body, mind, and soul. Fear quickly becomes a body symptom or
a neurotic pain or addiction or all at once.
A proverb: “Whenever one
suffers from fear, winds up suffering from fear” and
“Courage is most often
engendered by fear”.
