What Is Fear?

Fears and phobias are linked to anxiety. A fear is an unpleasant emotion or thought that we have when we are frightened or worried something dangerous, painful, or bad is happening or might happen. In other words it is the anticipation of something bad. We are so used to worry that it is rooted in our subconscious. It is also linked to the fear of change and when we change, it is unknown. And because it is unknown we start to worry and we feel the fear. 

A fear becomes a phobia when it is out of proportion with the real level of danger in a situation and when it leads to reactions that are extreme. For example, texting can become extreme because it is a fear of losing connection. The fear of losing connection causes the anxiety or inner stress and this leads to a cortisol production in the body that then becomes an addiction. For some people, phobias can significantly interfere with their lives and their happiness. Also fears mean that you are not in control and a human need is to be in control. Thoughts control feelings and feelings control actions. Actions control events and events are the outcome. When you change your thinking, you change everything. 

But here's the thing...

Because the worry has become an addiction which is stress and anxiety, the mind loves the familiar and avoids the unfamiliar. Every habit of action is run by a habit of thought (The Rules of the Mind by Marisa Peer). Phobias exist in our subconscious and are learned responses. We avoid certain activities because it is a subconscious phobia meaning, you're not aware of it anymore, making it harder to understand or accept. People only consider help when it becomes a serious problem or significantly impact their lives. A phobia is a response that is an irrational fear. phobias are far more common than many people realize. And this phobia leads to self- sabotage.

It is very important to fully understand that it is not related to what you might logically believe you are afraid of. It all comes down to what you have experienced as a child and what opinion you have formed about yourself. Often times, those opinions are far from flattering and because of our own rudeness towards ourselves, we come to low self esteem. We often see a phobia as something that happens outside of us, like a fear or phobia of spiders, a fear or phobia of flying, a fear or phobia of needles, a fear or phobia of elevators, a fear or phobia of heights and so many more. But we also need to understand that we have internal fears and phobias. Because what exists outside of us must also exist inside of us. Fears and phobias help us to survive and help us to avoid and escape threatening situations. The stress behind fears and phobias is the negative consequence to lower self esteem, avoiding challenging tasks or even cheating. 

Factors that contribute to fears are unhealthy parenting, parental neglect, early traumas, and societal influence. But we also have a fear centre in the brain that is responsible for getting emotionally hijacked. The limbic system is responsible for our fear response and it draws from our experiences and storage of truths and untruths to fuel its fear. When these two areas of your mind work together, they become your own personal saboteur. However, when the fear is related to untruths that are harmful and hinder you, it will have a detrimental effect on your life and wellbeing. This feeds the anxiety and anxiety is the result of not dealing with the limbic system's stress reactions. Beliefs play a crucial role in this all. It is a very important aspect of self-sabotage. Because we can become absolutely convinced that our learned experiences and untruths are truths. So much so that they rule the conscious and subconscious mind. Even if we manage to exercise willpower for a while, we eventually revert to our belief system (CoE-Psychology of Success Diploma). We cannot think straight and all of the thoughts whether true or untrue gets so mixed up that we feel down, we show irrational behaviours and ultimately it blocks our success in life. 

The question becomes - what is your unconscious programming that hinders you from achieving success or greater successes in your life leading to an UPGRADE?

What activities are YOU avoiding because you don't believe that you can achieve more because maybe no one has ever encouraged you?

Most people have a fear of success. Whilst it sounds appealing to be successful, the inner mind cannot comprehend greater success and therefor, you do something that will not allow you to move forward because simply, you trip yourself up and you can say with utter confidence - you see, success is just not for me! 

Voila!

Change your thinking, change the opinion you have about yourself and praise yourself more. This is a very good start.