Overcoming Fear

Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles among other things, also known as the fight-or-flight response. The stimulus could be a spider, a gun pointing at you, an auditorium full of people waiting for you to speak or the sudden thud of your front door.  Fear is inevitable, but the way you understand it and react to it is the key. Overcoming your negative reactions to fear, panic, anger, powerlessness and all that accompany it is an important part of becoming a better person, of discovering your true purpose.

Fear can be a conditioned response.  The most powerful way to defeat fear is to go through it, rather than turning back at the beginning, the worst part is the anticipation. When you are afraid, step back and just notice it. Do not try to analyze, criticize, judge, evaluate, understand or figure it out. Just notice it. That is all. When you just notice, you disengage a lot of the pretext that your fear has on you.

There is a difference between feeling fear and being mastered by it. There is a difference between being afraid and being immobilized by it. Question its value and validity.

• Does fear make you stronger? 
• Does Fear give you good Judgment?
• Does fear keep you alive?
• Does fear help you focus?
• Does fear help you perform?

Separate what is real from what is imagined.  For example, if you say something silly and it embarrasses you, the embarrassment is real but your deep seated feeling that if everybody sees how silly I am then nobody will take me seriously and if nobody takes me seriously then I will lose all my friends and my job and I will end up alone in a back alley being eaten by roaches is most likely imaginary.

Things go wrong in life. It is a given that eventually they will, and this is where you will be tested. When Jesus came to his disciples on the stormy waters and said, "Fear not, for I am with you!" I do not believe he was saying; do not let fear cross your mind.  No, he is saying, In the face of fear, recognize He is always with you. Take courage to see the face of fear and then choosing to call out to the one who insures that it can never have us, our great I AM. Dare to see the face of fear and refusing to have it be our master. Do not let fear stop you from what you are called to be.

In thinking about fear; it a rational thing which operates in different areas of your brain than your conscious self does, and very often our larger, subconscious self has an agenda counter to that of our consciousness.  We are conflicted about fear, its nature, and what we should do about it. Question your fear;

What do you think about fear? Share your thoughts in the comments below!