Fear is a much-needed emotion that has helped us survive the adversities we face throughout history, both personal and our species, it is fundamental, it is an ally, it is a friend. It’s the alarm that helps us identify what can be dangerous to our survival.
However, that so-called friend can also stop being all those things and become an enemy. The reality is that he never intended to be an enemy, he always wanted to help us. We have made you a rival, an adversary that we must kill to live in peace.
- When a danger crosses our path.
- Fear activates a series of defense mechanisms that help us emerge victorious from this situation.
Some of these mechanisms are: it makes us sweat to make our skin more slippery, because if a predator bites us, it will be easier to let go; it also carries blood from the stomach to our hands and feet so we can run faster or fight harder.
The goal of the human being is to survive in this world, and all this helps us to be safe. Nature, which is wise, has given us the means to do so.
The problem is that it is of no use to say that you can not bear to be afraid if you need to live with it, fear wants to be your friend and warns you that it can be hit by a car, which can be bitten or attacked by a dog As we have already said, to give these warnings needs to activate its mechanisms, the only ones you know.
Do we interpret these mechanisms as terrible, unbearable, horrible, and so, once again, they come close to save him. This time, the danger lies in their own symptoms that just want to help you.
What a contradiction, isn’t it? Even if it’s paradoxical, it’s exactly what happens to a lot of people. In panic disorder, for example, the person begins to feel the manifestations of fear and interprets them as dangerous, because he thinks, “I’m having a heart attack. “” “I’m going to die here!”
This obviously causes more terror, which increases palpitations, perspiration and tremors, thus confirming catastrophic interpretations, this becomes an unbearable vicious circle and consolidates the fear of fear itself, which incapacitates us to live normally, because we are actually afraid of our own. Shadow.
There’s a way to cut off the vicious circle of fear, even if you have to accept that you’ll be a little afraid. Yes, another contradiction! To get rid of your own fear, you’ll need to accept it and integrate it as part of yourself.
To achieve this acceptance, the first step is not to judge it and let it stay. Feel and accept fear, talk to him like you would a friend you’re trying to reconcile with.
Remember that fear does not want to hurt you, but simply protect you, do not take it away from your being, from your life, invite it to stay, although sometimes it bothers you, it is a great life partner in the background. .
The second step, once you’ve accepted your feeling, is to argue with it, but always with acceptance, fear will make you interpret this as dangerous, but now you know it’s not, if you feel it’s dangerous it’s because believe it, even if it’s a false belief.
He talks about anxious thoughts: how do you know it’s a heart attack, isn’t it much more likely to be symptoms of anxiety, if this has happened to me many times and I’ve never fainted, why would it happen now?
Once you have answered all these questions frankly, you will realize that your interpretations are responsible for these unpleasant reactions: fear activates your defense mechanisms more intensely or timely than necessary, the only thing we have to fear is our own fear.