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Fear is Inevitable
But you can control how fear impacts you.
Long ago, fear was a necessary response to protect us.
Human beings, when we were hunter-gatherers, needed to avoid predators like all the other animals on the planet. Fear told you to run and hide to survive.
As we evolved to become arguably the top of the food chain our fear also evolved. But that evolution moved from tangible to intangible fears.
Fear is not just an emotion. It’s a combination of emotion, instinct, thought, and subconscious wiring without a clear definition.
Tangible fear is a reaction to danger. The unexpected cliff you reach on a hike, the roar of a lion or similar predator, slamming on the breaks to avoid an accident, and so on. Danger causes fear and your reaction is intent on preserving your life.
Intangible fear is often about possibility. It’s not the matter, emotion, idea, situation, or thing — it’s the suffering that it will cause that we are most afraid of.
In the wise words of Paulo Coelho from his must-read work The Alchemist,
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.”
