Understanding Fear of Unknown
We are living in a world where anything is possible. A very close relative can kill their relative for wealth, an earthquake can eradicate an entire city, or a deadly disease can kill thousands of people. Day in and out we hear these kind of horrific real stories, and it makes us very anxious about our future. Future is indeed unknown and unpredictable. We feel something bad will happen either in the next moment, tomorrow, or in the future. Fear makes the unknown and unpredictable future a little known by predicting something bad will happen. It is important to check how many of our predictions actually come true, and do they help in preventing the mishaps from happening ? I thought I was overall a fearless person, very bold and courageous. I was shocked to find out through meditation that I possessed countless fears within. I also understood that timidness was taking away a lot of my energy and confidence. My aim is to fearlessly and enthusiastically breeze through every storm of life. It has been a very interesting and accomplishing journey so far. The goal is huge, journey is tough at times, but my motivation to achieve the goal is unshakable due to the knowledge received at Brahma Kumaris. It has developed an unwavering faith in me that I (with all humility) can be completely fearless.What is fear?
The emotion of fear gets created through fearful thoughts. A bunch of negative thoughts that something bad will happen in the future makes us fearful.
Does being fearful help or cause damage?
- It causes the mind to accelerate in creating gazillion thoughts which results in loss of focus. We start jumping from one negative thought to another. The mind creates innumerable scary questions that remain unanswered. It causes complete exhaustion and hopelessness in us.
- Our intellect is analyzing hundreds of options and cannot make any decisions. If a situation is bad, we need to make the right decision to move forward and figure out a solution. Fear prevents us from making a decision, or if it does the decision is short sighted and delayed.
- It prevents us from thinking creatively, innovatively, or taking risks. We tend to compromise and take an easy route that causes bigger problems in the future.
- Fear negatively impacts every cell of our body, heart does not receive enough blood, and many cells are deprived of oxygen due to tampered breathing. Is there any doctor that prescribes fear for a healthy life?
- Efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of work drops significantly. A fearful person due to pressure might accomplish a task, but it will be haphazardly done at a very slow pace or left incomplete
- Our spirit, the soul, loses power every time it creates fear. This emotion is an indication that self cannot handle life and this realization causes the self to lose its courage, will power, confidence, and enthusiasm. Isn’t life like a dead fish when it does not have the water of enthusiasm around it?
- A person that is fearful tends to instill the habit of fear in others knowingly or unknowingly. Kids at a very young age are fearful without even experiencing anything in life. Will they ever be able to try anything new or take any challenges if fear has been deeply rooted in them.
What are few habits and believes that increase fear in us?
- A belief that, “Fear of failure leads to success” will cause us to sustain the emotion of fear in us. It is important to keep a clear understanding that fear does not help in any way. How can something that shakes our core, takes away our power, make our actions powerful and enable success?
- An excuse that it is normal to be fearful as everyone is fearful or the world is so negative also sustains or enables more fear in us. Indeed most people are fearful and the situation of the world is very bad, but being fearful will make things worse. Then, why practice something that is not useful?
- Food has a huge impact on our emotions. Eating meat causes fear to grow in us because animal goes through a lot of fear before its death. That emotion gets transmitted to the person who consumes it.
- Not speaking truth causes us to automatically be very fearful. People feel it's hard to survive in this world without lies because most people are using this trait of lying heavily. We have to use many lies to cover up one lie, so the amount of fear we experience increases in us.
Isn’t living in fear like inviting trouble to our lives or creating a curse for the self?
What is the root cause of fear?
The reality of the world is that everything around us, including our body is perishable, constantly changing, and out of our control. One moment our body feels great, and the next moment without any warning the body could start feeling pain. It is our responsibility to eat healthy food and exercise. Inspite of taking care, the reality is that we cannot control the way body feels or that it stays imperishable forever. Similarly relations, finances, job, and everything else around us is constantly fluctuating and beyond our control. Fear develops automatically when we make such fluctuating, perishable, and out of our control things the basis of our happiness. We all know the reality of this world, yet that reality is not in our awareness, and hence we get attached to these things. We create thoughts that we can be happy only when everything around me stays forever, and nothing bad happens to them. Is it really possible? Fear develops when we are not fully aware of the reality of the world.
We create fear because of doubting our abilities to face the ever changing nature of life. We lack the power to face, tolerate, and deal with challenges. Is there anyone in this world whose life is constantly stable? Would one fear or worry if they had the power to cope with the constant changes in life? Fear cripples us in every possible way and we need lot of strength to deal with crisis. Is fear the right emotion/way to deal with crisis?
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