Behind Fear Hides Opportunities To Grow Up

Sometimes our fear disguises itself as logic so as not to let us see the real reason we avoid challenging situations:  fear of the unknown. The feeling of uncertainty and expectations can come to paralyze us. They will even push us to avoid situations that are necessary to grow taller. But it is only by facing them that we will succeed in discovering the opportunities that lie on the other side of fear.

In addition,  knowing how to manage our terror gives us pleasure, to a certain extent, and reduces the chances of suffering from disorders associated with anxiety. Because no one likes to be afraid, but if we can understand it and control it, we will feel relief after the tension gone through; we will be able to ensure that it does not affect our health and we will discover a new way to continue to grow on a personal level.

Let us not forget that we now face without blinking many situations that paralyzed us in the past. Examinations, oral presentations, connecting with other people, etc. Behind each of these situations, there has always been a motive that prompted us to confront them despite the thoughts of avoidance and paralysis that arose in the face of stressful experiences: our capacity for evolution and personal growth. Let’s take a closer look at this point.

“Fear is always willing to see things worse than they really are.”

-Tite-Live-

Only one thing makes a dream impossible: the fear of failing

Why do we feel unadjusted emotions when we face new situations? The reason is that  our body, during these times, tries to defend itself and, when faced with feelings of uncertainty and fear, its response is to prepare us for an immediate flight  to save ourselves. Thus, we find at the physical level an absence of blood flow in the upper part of the body; the blood goes to the lower extremities with the aim of facilitating rapid leakage. This is why our first reaction to this type of situation is to avoid or flee.

So even though our first natural reaction is to dodge these kinds of situations,  the capacity we have over ourselves and over our thoughts gives us greater room to make more rational and less intuitive decisions. And it is within this margin that we find the opportunities that lie behind fear and, ultimately, new situations.

Therefore, the fear of failing in the face of new challenges is something intuitive, which comes to us from a phylogenetic inheritance from our ancestors. But the desire to achieve our goals is something more personal, which is hidden in each of our thoughts and emotions. This struggle between genetics and what we think will lead our decisions down the path to success or failure and ultimately make us realize our dreams or not.

Do not be afraid of prison, nor of poverty, nor of death. Be afraid of the fear itself.

The things that scare us are the things that end up making us happier

We’re always told that if we want something we have to make it happen, but why do the things we want the most scare us? Sometimes we back down just because we’d rather stay with our unrealistic expectations to keep dreaming about what might happen if we get to have what we really want. At other times, the mistrust and the effort involved in the quest for happiness can be stronger than our dreams and we prefer to live in an invariable state with ourselves, without great outbursts …

The key is knowing that the more things we do, the more we can do. This is the circle we have to enter if we are to overcome our fear and achieve the things we really want. Fear is just one emotion that, once understood, makes us discover that it is useful in a very limited range of situations and which we will rarely experience in our lives.

The majority of the fears we experience are irrational thoughts and concerns  ; the longer we delay in identifying and putting up with them, the less we will be able to enjoy the things that are really worth it. Because, behind our fears, there are always opportunities that deserve to be known so that we can continue to grow and overcome our mental barriers.

“Life is not a problem that must be solved but a reality that we must experience.”

-Soren Kierkegaard-