What is fear? A quick search of the word fear leads to the following result.
Fear is a feeling induced by perceived danger or threat that occurs in certain types of organisms, which causes a change in metabolic and organ functions and ultimately a change in behavior, such as fleeing, hiding, or freezing from perceived traumatic events. The keyword here is p-e-r-c-e-i-v-e-d. Most often than not, its just a perception which is only psychological. By affording fear, I mean to say that the perception of fear is only with those who can afford it. If you can't afford the condition that fear of something or someone brings with it, you will not be afraid of that something or someone. Sounds confusing is it?
Let me try to explain it with a simple real life example. We all have female member in our family who would scream their lungs out when they see a cockroach. Same was the case in our family. When I was a school going kid, I used to believe that all females are afraid of cockroach. I believed it because I was told so. One fine day another such incident happened in front of me. My mom was screaming at the sight of a cockroach, and generally she was calmed by my father who used to throw the cockroach out of the house. But, this time since dad was not at home, the drama continued for longer than it generally does. Fortunately, there was our maid who had come to work at our place, she saw my mom screaming, calmly picked up the cockroach and threw it out of the house. I was watching in utter disbelief. I could not believe that a lady can do such a thing. I had to ask her how and why she is not afraid the same way like every female does. She simply said, we can't afford to be afraid. If we are afraid of cockroaches, we wouldn't be able to live. There were hundreds of those tiny creatures at the places she stayed and since she was a widow she had to deal with those herself. Her answer really taught me a big lesson at that young age. Yes, she was right that she can't afford to be afraid of those creatures. Same logic applies all kinds of fears. Fear is anyways a fake psychological perception. Only those people who can afford to be afraid are afraid.
There are tons of examples in this world to prove this point. Most of us are afraid to go near the dead or be around a dead body even when it's the body of our own family member. Have you ever imagined what a person whose job is to assist in doing post-mortem of dead bodies go through? Can they afford to be afraid of dead bodies? The answer is a big NO. They have to do their job without any fear and only then they can provide food for themselves and family. Can a watchman of the cremation ground afford fear of dead bodies? Absolutely not. So, it is only because we can afford it, we are afraid of fear. We can actually apply this to any kind of fear that we have.
So often the fear of failure keeps us away from trying. But, again we will only fear till the time we can afford it. Once you understand that your fear is more harmful to you than the consequences that you are actually afraid off, you give up your fear. There is so much material available on the internet on how to overcome your fear and there are people available for help. All you have to do, is make up your mind and ask yourself, can you really afford to be afraid? Once you figure out that the answer is NO, you will be the first person to help yourself give up the fear and then go ahead to win over it. And believe me there is no bigger win than winning over your fear. As someone has very rightly said in Hindi "Dar ke aage jeet hai!" meaning there is victory ahead of fear. So, lets overcome all our fears for now and for always.
Fear is a feeling induced by perceived danger or threat that occurs in certain types of organisms, which causes a change in metabolic and organ functions and ultimately a change in behavior, such as fleeing, hiding, or freezing from perceived traumatic events. The keyword here is p-e-r-c-e-i-v-e-d. Most often than not, its just a perception which is only psychological. By affording fear, I mean to say that the perception of fear is only with those who can afford it. If you can't afford the condition that fear of something or someone brings with it, you will not be afraid of that something or someone. Sounds confusing is it?
Let me try to explain it with a simple real life example. We all have female member in our family who would scream their lungs out when they see a cockroach. Same was the case in our family. When I was a school going kid, I used to believe that all females are afraid of cockroach. I believed it because I was told so. One fine day another such incident happened in front of me. My mom was screaming at the sight of a cockroach, and generally she was calmed by my father who used to throw the cockroach out of the house. But, this time since dad was not at home, the drama continued for longer than it generally does. Fortunately, there was our maid who had come to work at our place, she saw my mom screaming, calmly picked up the cockroach and threw it out of the house. I was watching in utter disbelief. I could not believe that a lady can do such a thing. I had to ask her how and why she is not afraid the same way like every female does. She simply said, we can't afford to be afraid. If we are afraid of cockroaches, we wouldn't be able to live. There were hundreds of those tiny creatures at the places she stayed and since she was a widow she had to deal with those herself. Her answer really taught me a big lesson at that young age. Yes, she was right that she can't afford to be afraid of those creatures. Same logic applies all kinds of fears. Fear is anyways a fake psychological perception. Only those people who can afford to be afraid are afraid.
There are tons of examples in this world to prove this point. Most of us are afraid to go near the dead or be around a dead body even when it's the body of our own family member. Have you ever imagined what a person whose job is to assist in doing post-mortem of dead bodies go through? Can they afford to be afraid of dead bodies? The answer is a big NO. They have to do their job without any fear and only then they can provide food for themselves and family. Can a watchman of the cremation ground afford fear of dead bodies? Absolutely not. So, it is only because we can afford it, we are afraid of fear. We can actually apply this to any kind of fear that we have.
So often the fear of failure keeps us away from trying. But, again we will only fear till the time we can afford it. Once you understand that your fear is more harmful to you than the consequences that you are actually afraid off, you give up your fear. There is so much material available on the internet on how to overcome your fear and there are people available for help. All you have to do, is make up your mind and ask yourself, can you really afford to be afraid? Once you figure out that the answer is NO, you will be the first person to help yourself give up the fear and then go ahead to win over it. And believe me there is no bigger win than winning over your fear. As someone has very rightly said in Hindi "Dar ke aage jeet hai!" meaning there is victory ahead of fear. So, lets overcome all our fears for now and for always.
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