Let’s do some thinking about fear this morning.
Fear is a core spectrum of emotions that help us respond to our perception of threats. These threats can be either real or imagined. Regardless of the source the physiological response is the same. Hyper focusing of the senses, quickened breathing, tense muscles, and increased blood pressure and heart rate.
Frears come in some unique packaging. We have innate fears that get passed down in our biology and let us know when we are in a dangerous situation like a fear of heights, deep dark water, or enclosed dark spaces. Some of our fears are learned or conditioned through our experiences with life, society, and culture. Sometimes fears reach the level of phobias which are fears that create disordered behaviors and keep us from living the life we want to live. Finally, there are existential fears like the fear of the unknown, lack of purpose and meaninglessness, or death.
Perhaps one of the most important things to understand about fear is that it is a key driver of our behaviors by activating the sympathetic nervous system and putting us in a state of fight, flight, or freeze.
The fight response is a direct engagement with the thing we fear either physically, figuratively, or both. Sometimes this comes with a surge in other powerful emotions like anger or disgust.
The flight response involves behavior that moves us away from the perceived threat. We may physically flee from the area, or in the case of interpersonal relationships pull or push the other person away to create social or relational distance.
I like to describe the freeze response as being stuck physically, mentally, or emotionally. We may have a desire to act but find ourselves cognitively incapacitated or physically paralyzed.
The fight, flight, or freeze responses are not inherently good or bad until we place them into the situational context in which our actions occur. However, chronic or intense fear can have significant negative impacts on our lives. Especially if left unaddressed, we can develop anxiety disorders, avoidance behaviors, or PTSD.
The good news is there are ways we can engage with fear to insulate ourselves from potential negative outcomes.
- Mindfulness and breathing exercises – Mindfulness increases our awareness of the fear we feel while breathwork gives us the chance to exert influence and control over our nervous system.
- View fear as a challenge – This reframing helps empower us to take on fear as an opportunity for growth and development.
- Cognitive Behavior Therapy – A good counseling relationship with a CBT practitioner can provide the chance to engage with and restructure irrational thoughts and other problematic thinking associated with fear.
- Exposure Therapy – Helps to desensitize our conditioned response to fear triggers giving us more space to understand and regulate our emotional response before deciding how to act.
I hope you found this exploration of fear useful and would love to hear your thoughts and perspectives about how to manage fear in order to live the life you want to live.
