Last update: 31 March, 2018
Perhaps the problem does not lie in the real danger we may face. Maybe we are the most afraid of what the situation creates for us; in fact, at times, our mind can be our worst enemy since it creates, starting from a real image, those imaginary dangers that we have all suffered at one time or another.
When we are invaded by the sensation of fear, the body activates an internal circuit to protect us and be prepared for escape. The heart beats faster in preparation for a possible run, more sweat is produced, breathing accelerates, the digestive and immune systems stop wasting energy preparing to fight or flee, and a large amount of blood concentrates in our feet to to be able to run.
All these reactions happen thanks to our sense of survival, a system prepared to react quickly in the presence of a danger. It is for this reason that fear puts us on alert and keeps us active.
The problem with fear in today's society is that many of the responses we should be giving to counter the perceived threat are not physical responses. We are no longer chased by lions. Well, on the contrary, many times the most adaptive responses are intellectual ones or do not require any physical energy. However, our bodies have continued to react in the same way for centuries.
In this sense, waste of energy is useless in the face of imaginary dangers. What if the plane crashes? Will I lose my job at the end of the year? Is anyone following me? Will my children be able to go home alone? Will my partner leave me? All these imaginary dangers trigger the described circuit and keep the body alert, causing unnecessary blood pressure spikes, because we won't have to rush.
Useless waste of energy in the face of imaginary dangers
As scientist Robert Sapolsky explains, imaginary dangers generate physiological and psychic waste due to the unconscious associations that we reinforce if we realize them frequently. It is curious to think that in animals the mechanisms of fear are activated only when the danger is real. All of their circuits only start working when their life is in danger.
Just as the imagination can activate these circuits, we must use the same imagination to be able to interrupt them. If we are able to imagine all the negative things that can happen to us, we can also put our imagination in gear to calm our body, that is, by imagining all the positive things that can happen.
We have the power, through the control of our thoughts, to hold back the incessant rush of our heart, the shaking of the muscles or the sweat of the hands. These manifestations are all unpleasant and of little help when we are faced with an intellectual problem.
Fear can reach very high levels
Fear protects us, but it also prevents us from leaving our comfort zone. Supported by the survival instinct, the brain activates the fear circuit whenever it finds itself in potentially dangerous situations, to prevent it from suffering from the damage it anticipates.
On the other hand, knowing our fears will lead us to take them into consideration, but we will not give them the power over what we do. It's about listening to the emotion, not listening to it with your eyes closed. We value the dangers we can run when we enter a domain that we do not manage, unknown, but we also put on the scale what we can win. In many cases the risk is worth it.
We cannot escape every time the fear circuit is activated. We must acquire the tools that allow us to manage situations in which fear is present, so that the result ends up being the best.
Fear is an emotion that in no case we must or can kick from our emotional palette, but we have the power to identify when it indicates a real danger or when a stimulus that produces it is only a threat to our imagination. Fear protects us, but sometimes putting it aside or giving risk a chance allows us to keep walking.
