What Creates Fear?

What creates fear? Is it public speaking, flying in a plane, the future, spiders, animals, the dark? there are many things which can have an impact in our ability to feel fear. For most people fear of the unknown is what holds them back from going forward and embracing a better life. However for some people fear is not an issue. When we were kids we seemed to have little fear. Truth is fear is there to protect us from harm, the challenge is when fear hold us back from becoming our best.

Fear can be enhanced when we don’t understand something, yet fear is not completely knowledge based. Our past shapes how we view fear today. If your parents were overprotective your more likely to become a bit more conservative than someone who’s parents let them have little boundaries. Same is true today, if you and I are spending time with people who are fearful, then you are at a greater risk of being fearful also. We become like those we spend the most time with.

When we were kids we’d come home from school change our clothes and go out and play for hours, only to come home when the street lights came on, that was a signal it’s time for supper. Thinking about where we went and how far we would travel seems like a dream, Our parents were strict yet allowed us to roam around as we wanted. Back in those day’s there were no cell phones, pagers or computers to communicate with our family, they simply didn’t exist. Playing deep in the woods, assembling a tree fort and spending hours protecting it from strangers.

Today as parents we tend to treat our children as we were treated when we were their ages. I would never let the kids go into the woods for hours unsupervised, there is many people in the world looking to kidnap, or harm another person. But we cannot go around fearing people, we need to leverage fear in a way which pushes forward. If fear is not addressed than fear will use you. It is not just facing your fears and being fearless. We need to be aware of fear and continue to go forward even when we do not feel like doing the task.

Our fear can help us in many ways, seems an unlikely that fear is good for us, when we fear something it hold us back, however fear is a teacher if we slow down and analyze what is making us fearful. It can teach us a lot about ourselves as well as help build our strength to overcome a fearful situation. Have you ever heard of people walking on a bead of coals, sometimes referred to a fire walk, it teaches people to overcome their fear of achieving anything in their lives, a chance to push themselves to an extreme.

Same is true for those people who push themselves to climb a mountain, once they reach the summit their sights are set looking for the next challenge. As with any challenge you must mentally prepare for the experience. If you give into fear it will appear in other areas in life, not just the challenge at hand. Fear is not limited to age, it can be overcome at point in life. Facing a fearful situation helps us grow and move ahead in all areas of life. No matter how big or small overcoming fear is a chance to take control and face challenges which make us feel uncomfortable.

Instead of walking away from fear face it and focus on the good it will bring you in your life!

~Stay Strong~