NatteAsbak
07-12-09, 05:04
Hello guys.
I would like to share with you, a personal revelation that came to me a few days ago and which has helped me to cope with anxiety, and hopefully rid me off it once and for all. I will not claim to have found a miracle cure, but the effort I made to scrutinize the concept of what fear is, has certainly helped me and I can tell you honestly, that I haven't felt this good in years. I hope it lasts and I hope it will help you too :)
To start off, I have suffered from anxiety for about a year now. It started in the winter of 2008, with some severe panic attacks and has been persistent ever since.
A couple of nights ago, while I was lying in bed and trying to sleep, I very calmly and patiently tried to answer myself, why it is that I/we feel fear. To answer that, I needed to first understand what fear is.
I came with the conclussion, that fear is an emotion. An emotion is a response, that our brain gives us, when stimulated in one way or another. It is no more complex than that. Realizing this, we must ask when we feel fear. What stimulates this response? Thinking about it, I believe that fear only comes to us when we are afraid that we, someone or something we love is in some kind of danger. Period. This is fear. You do not feel fear, unless you are convinced to some degree, that something bad is about to happen. Must of us know this.
Concluding this, I know understood that fear in its own nature is completely rational. Also that, regardless of what may have stimlulated the emotion of fear, the emotion itself it the same. Thus, the way the emotion chooses to express itself whether it may be physically, mentally or both will always be rational in nature.
This rational process is the source of one kind of fear the fear that we feel, when the perception of danger is real and it provokes a response. For instance, if someone points a loaded gun in our face or if we were thrown into the lions cage things that might actually hurt us. This fear is rooted on a subconscience level. We cannot control this kind of fear. We can supress it, but never get rid of it.
However, most of us deal with another kind of fear. The irrational fear. The fear that comes, when we are convinced despite the illusory assumption and conscience understanding that this is not the case that something which cannot hurt us, might hurt us. Some of us are afraid of birds, even though birds can't hurt us. Some are afraid of small rooms, same story. Some are afraid to go out in places with alot of people. Some are generally just afraid, thinking that the/their world might come to an end any second. These are all irrational fears.
But how can fear be irrational, when fear is rational in nature? This question requires a complex answer and I will not try to give one. What we must understand however, is that the choice is now our own fear is a rational response, which we have provoked in an irrational situation. We do this on a conscience level, which was never the way that fear was meant to work on natures behalf, where it serves a purpose.
Because we do this on a conscious level, the choice to feel fear and the power to change it, is now within our grasp. We control our fear, because we are conscious of where and when we feel it; because it comes to us in certain, selective situations, which we are aware of. You might call this staged fear, because the situations where it appears are seemingly staged for us to provoke it.
Now that I undestood this, I told myself consciously I choose not to be afraid. I usually feel anxiety when I go out, with alot of people. Now that I came to realize this staged process which I have invented, I chose not to indulge in it. I chose not to be afraid.
I hope some of you can make use of this guide and come to seize the grasp of your own fear. If you have suggestions or comments to the approach, I would really like to hear them.
Best wishes
- Jarl.
I would like to share with you, a personal revelation that came to me a few days ago and which has helped me to cope with anxiety, and hopefully rid me off it once and for all. I will not claim to have found a miracle cure, but the effort I made to scrutinize the concept of what fear is, has certainly helped me and I can tell you honestly, that I haven't felt this good in years. I hope it lasts and I hope it will help you too :)
To start off, I have suffered from anxiety for about a year now. It started in the winter of 2008, with some severe panic attacks and has been persistent ever since.
A couple of nights ago, while I was lying in bed and trying to sleep, I very calmly and patiently tried to answer myself, why it is that I/we feel fear. To answer that, I needed to first understand what fear is.
I came with the conclussion, that fear is an emotion. An emotion is a response, that our brain gives us, when stimulated in one way or another. It is no more complex than that. Realizing this, we must ask when we feel fear. What stimulates this response? Thinking about it, I believe that fear only comes to us when we are afraid that we, someone or something we love is in some kind of danger. Period. This is fear. You do not feel fear, unless you are convinced to some degree, that something bad is about to happen. Must of us know this.
Concluding this, I know understood that fear in its own nature is completely rational. Also that, regardless of what may have stimlulated the emotion of fear, the emotion itself it the same. Thus, the way the emotion chooses to express itself whether it may be physically, mentally or both will always be rational in nature.
This rational process is the source of one kind of fear the fear that we feel, when the perception of danger is real and it provokes a response. For instance, if someone points a loaded gun in our face or if we were thrown into the lions cage things that might actually hurt us. This fear is rooted on a subconscience level. We cannot control this kind of fear. We can supress it, but never get rid of it.
However, most of us deal with another kind of fear. The irrational fear. The fear that comes, when we are convinced despite the illusory assumption and conscience understanding that this is not the case that something which cannot hurt us, might hurt us. Some of us are afraid of birds, even though birds can't hurt us. Some are afraid of small rooms, same story. Some are afraid to go out in places with alot of people. Some are generally just afraid, thinking that the/their world might come to an end any second. These are all irrational fears.
But how can fear be irrational, when fear is rational in nature? This question requires a complex answer and I will not try to give one. What we must understand however, is that the choice is now our own fear is a rational response, which we have provoked in an irrational situation. We do this on a conscience level, which was never the way that fear was meant to work on natures behalf, where it serves a purpose.
Because we do this on a conscious level, the choice to feel fear and the power to change it, is now within our grasp. We control our fear, because we are conscious of where and when we feel it; because it comes to us in certain, selective situations, which we are aware of. You might call this staged fear, because the situations where it appears are seemingly staged for us to provoke it.
Now that I undestood this, I told myself consciously I choose not to be afraid. I usually feel anxiety when I go out, with alot of people. Now that I came to realize this staged process which I have invented, I chose not to indulge in it. I chose not to be afraid.
I hope some of you can make use of this guide and come to seize the grasp of your own fear. If you have suggestions or comments to the approach, I would really like to hear them.
Best wishes
- Jarl.