Saturday, March 7, 2009

Fear: Will you let it eat you alive?

Fear.

No, i'm not talking about the overhyped game franchise.

We don't need to be taught to fear something, so I guess it's a hardwired instinct in all of us. Heck, even primitive cavemen feared wooly mammoths and all the other whatnots.

But that's besides the point.

As I was saying, fear is an instinct. It triggers several reactions, when we see something that we are terrified of. These include, but are not limited to, escalated heart rate, heavy breathing, and perspiration.

However, I acknowledge that some fears are uncontrollable, no matter how hard you try. Even for myself. This could be due to a traumatic experience, such as a fear of water due to almost drowning, or it could really be innate. It could even be caused by our social circle, for all you know. Fear has many origins.

However, there is no shame in fearing something. It is, after all, the most primal emotion that has gotten humans thus far. I admit, I myself have many fears. But when properly conditioned, these fears can be turned into a form of motivation, a driving power to excel.

Let me share with you another one of my personal experiences.

When I was still a slave of nation *AHEM* I meant full-time national serviceman, I was assigned to the Singapore Civil Defence Force. I honestly, honestly admit that, before I enlisted, I used to fear blood. I used to fear the loss of lives. I was just like any other civilian walking down the street, I felt that I didn't have the capabilities to save a life, neither did I have the courage to shoulder that responsibility. The training administered to us, taught me to be more confident of my own abilities, to be able to think calmly in a crisis, to apply the most logical solutions to the situation. To save lives.

My fears were supressed. I was conditioned to save lives. True enough, I did attend to a few traffic accident cases, and successfully saved a few lives. Amazing how conditioning yourself to resist fear, can have such a different outcome, from not doing anything about it at all.

Will you let the inner beasts mutilate your defenseless self, or are you going to throw them back into their cages, and throw away the keys?

6 comments:

  1. fear is a requisite for survival.
    it's fear that keeps us alive and allows us to differentiate dangers.

    of course extreme fear leads to phobias. irrational thoughts that leads to unjustified amounts of fear that interferes with our daily lives.

    but fear as a motivation?

    i think that is difficult. overcoming your fear is one thing on itself. once you have overcome it, it's just an experience and a phase on it's own.

    it's the stage where you overcome your fear that builds your confidence. it's like defeating your demons and then moving on stronger in life.

    what can't kill you makes you stronger.

    fear might apply to that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In my personal opinion, fear isn't something that we can easily overcome because sometimes a mental enemy can even be more powerful than a physical enemy..

    Although everyone has their own personal fears, not everyone will be able to overcome them since will power and determination varies from one person to another..However, having said that, how do we even know that we have overcome our fear? Does it mean that if we are doing something we previously fear, we have overcome our fear? Or does it just mean that we have a higher fear threshold now as compared to before? Just a thought I have in mind..

    ReplyDelete
  3. In my opinion, fear can be eradicated as long as we have strong mental ability What makes up fear is our on thoughts, worries or consciousness. For example, as we always see on reality programme 'Fear Factor'. The contestants are all afraid of the stunts that they are going to attempt but as soon as they set their mind to winning the monetary reward, the fear is gone.

    I also agree with the comment said by puwet as not everybody is mentally strong to put away thier fear but this is only due to thier lack of confident or support from the inner circle.
    That is all i have to say about Fear.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I feel that your essay requires more facts instead of just personal opinions...unless it is a personal essay that is in which that would be fine...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Food for thought:

    What is fear?

    We feel fearful when we believe we do not have the ability to cope with something. This fear may be grounded in reality, as when we fear being knocked down by a car when trying to cross a busy road. Or the fear may be irrational as when we fear a tiny harmless spider.

    Many of our fears are a mix of reality and misinterpretation of our ability to cope. When there is a large degree of of misinterpretation it is likely that it is a phobia rather than a fear.

    So to overcome fear (based on the definitions above), we should focus on addressing our abilities to cope with situations. If you know how to cross the road safely, you will have least fear crossing the road. You only start to fear more when you do it recklessly

    Pikachu~~

    ReplyDelete
  6. fear, its in all of us. cause its an emotional response, i would say.

    just like you've mentioned, fears can be conditioned, depending on the degree. i guess fear can be conditioned if its a mild case, but not extreme.

    whatever so, to overcome a fear is a process of learning.

    all that we need is courage. :))

    ReplyDelete