If It Does Not Create Fear, It Is Probably Not Worth It
Sometimes you have to negotiate with fear in order to achieve your dreams . You have to live with your fears. Not all fears block you, nor do they limit you to giving up your goals. Many produce a feeling of dizziness that indicates that you are squinting from high cliffs. This lets you know that you are full of adrenaline and unknown emotions.
That feeling of insecurity and anxiety arises when something really motivates us. Fear shakes the routine out of us. Because it wants to transform your life into something meaningful. Fear shows the path we should follow. It enables us to continue to test the boundaries between what is possible and what is impossible. It does this to try to make it a reality.
Fear – the feeling that scares us
In his book Biologie Der Angst, Geral Hüther explains how we are not afraid of something as much as the fear itself. However, it is precisely this feeling, with all its nuances, that sets our intellectual and emotional developments in motion. Fear produces a stress reaction within the brain. This creates appropriate conditions for intellectual, emotional and physical behavior.
We should be able to find the line between friendly and protective fear and pathological fear. The latter is the type that leads to panic attacks and anxiety.
Our brain sometimes gives us the same reactions whether something is happening in the real world or in our imagination. So we suffer in exactly the same way from the effects of stress and other biological mechanisms whether we experience something, expect it or simply imagine it.
The complex cycle of fear in our bodies: a mixture of stress and pleasure
As we have just mentioned, fear manifests itself as a maladaptive emotion when it becomes a continually suffocating emotional state instead of an alarm signal for potential threats from the external world. It suppresses people in a circle of their own uncomfortable feelings when it can no longer distinguish between instances of alarm and relaxation.
The complex process and the physical and hormonal cycle of stress are activated by stimuli through sight or hearing. These send information to a part of the brain called the amygdala. This structure connects to the hypothalamus to be able to reach the memory and see what happened in similar situations in the past. It also sends electrical impulses to our muscles.
On the emotional front, the pituitary gland will secrete stress hormones. These activate us and produce two other hormones: cortisol and adrenaline. Adrenaline dilates your pupils and increases breathing. Cortisol, on the other hand, increases blood glucose levels, which generate more muscle energy.
The most interesting thing about this complex circuit is that it ultimately generates dopamine. This is a neurotransmitter that is associated with pleasure, which comes in conjunction with the feeling of fear, risk and triumph.
When it stops working: a sign of disaster
Knowing this complex cycle of fear is important not only for our survival but also for our emotional well-being. It is normal for people who have suffered after being scared to feel that this warning signal is not so valuable. Because even if they discovered the danger, they still could not do anything.
For example, people who fall victim to aggression. If the damage they experienced is not processed emotionally, their fear will remain permanently activated, even for events that do not pose a threat. People can also experience this if they have witnessed an act where the resources used to escape have not worked.
To make it an ally to achieve pleasure
In cases where the fear has not functioned as an adaptive sign, but rather as a generalized feeling that causes uncomfortable feelings, it should be treated properly. In cases where trauma has occurred, techniques such as EMDR together with other techniques can give promising results. In any case, the best advice we can give you is to see a specialist.
Fear is a kind of expectation, never a way of living your life. As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, it is most ideal that it is a feeling that shows us new paths.
It should be similar to the fear we feel when our goals seem unattainable, but as we know it is not. This is what someone feels before embarking on a career that requires years of study. Or what a runner feels who is trying to break a new record.
So the opportunity to transform fear into your ally can, if you can materialize this, become a great achievement. You will be able to appreciate the warning signals it gives you without following them blindly. To feel an alarm feeling as real and real, but also to know how to deal with this and how to cope with it. One day you may not be able to avoid what you are afraid of, and you will not be able to confront it, but you will have to cope with this experience in order to live life.
If there was no fear, there would be no sense of success. If you avoid one, you will avoid the other, with the result that you avoid life. Let yourself experience and tolerate this feeling. It will bring interesting things into your life.
