FEAR The destroyer of achievement 

There are all types of fears, from spiders to fear of public speaking, the commonest fear of all. They all have the same features in the way we respond whatever the trigger.

An American woman known to medical science as SM has a rare condition. The part of her brain where we experience fear, The Amygdala, is now missing. The Amygdala is that part of us that is designed to highjack your slow conscious thoughts and replace them with instant, unconscious reactions. When a tiger appears before you on a path , you don't need to think about what to do next , its either fight or run and you need to do one of these right now.

But SM has a unique reaction to scary things, she can be amused or curious about them but she is never frightened, always remaining calm.

One evening she was attacked in a park, a man held a knife to her throat and threatened her. At that moment a church bell tolled in the distance and with absolute calmness SM told the man, “If he was going to kill me you will have to go through my guardian angels first”.

This spooked the guy so much he ran off. Next evening she walked through the park as usual with out a care in the world.

FEAR you see exists only as a concept in our minds. Although what SM experienced was actual danger, almost all our fears are just 

Fantasied 

Events

Appearing

Real 

(FEAR)

We create sophisticated images, scenarios and fantasies in our conscious minds that stimulate the amygdala and this in turn creates the appropriate physical responses. It stresses us with a raised heart rate, increased breathing and lots of adrenaline to create strength that will enable us to either fight or flight.

Daily worry and stress in our lives does exactly the same, it stimulates the amygdala. We worry about that report we are late with, is our child ok out on their own? Will I be affected by the layoffs? Our response to these non lethal events is the same as any real and present danger, in the mind its all the same.

The mind cannot tell the difference between a fantasy or a reality, its all just mental projection, its is just thoughts. We behave as if the event is actually happening, even if its never happened yet or could happen in a weeks time. Almost all that we fear is never actually going to happen at all, we just have a habit of pretending that it is.

If it does come to pass, it’s usually nowhere near as bad as our fantasy and we deal with it as all our fears come to nothing. Even if it actually happens it somehow doesn't seem as bad as we had thought. Our minds are capable of creating horrific scenarios that a hollywood director would be proud of, they would love to be able to elicit these amazing reactions in people

Fear take place in our sub conscious minds and transfers to our consciousness. One solution is first to be aware that your fears are rising and then to consciously take stock and be in the moment of now, where nothing is actually happening. Count to ten staying in the now and then asses how you feel, if the fear is still rising, remind yourself you are ok right now, nothing is actually happening, count to 10 and reassess

By staying in the now we stay in control and when we are consciously in control our amygdala has no job to do if there is no real danger present.