FEAR

 

Fear, the utter of the word makes some of us cringe.Now try this. Take a moment and think of it: Recall the situations that you have really enjoyed and were rewarding and brought immense joy. I bet, those experience were accompanied by fear of many “What if”s.It is funnier to know that despite the win, we still let the fear dominate us.Indeed, Once Jack Canfield said, “Everything you want is on the other side of fear".Yes, fear stops us from trying something new.

Fear, is simply the feeling of inadequacy that is often accompanied by a feeling of being threatened and due to this we often land up in chaos.Fear is antithetical to distinct people. It differs from an enthusiastic youth to a frowning old man. To a student fear means vigorously staring questions in much awaited question paper, To a teacher a call from the principal stimulates in her the fear, to a young man fear means to glance at the father’s grinding teeth after returning jobless, empty handed, to a software professional the hair stand on end when his boss declares the month as project less one.

          Yes, fear seems to have no bounds. Once a teacher asks a child quivering and shivering in fear watching a catapult. Surprised,she enquired the reason behind his act, the child in Topsy turvy flummoxly said, “I threw a boomerang six years ago and it never cameback. I am afraid, it may straight away thrash me up.Yes, and obviously fear is the mind killer, the eradicator of potential, the eraser of personal progress. It builds in us the fake and negative expectations. Fear establishes a perspective of failure and makes a person to visualize failure rather than future. This familiar devil enervates and enfeebles us and increases our tendency to befool ourselves.

Anyone who has ever experienced fear would always like to overcome it. A widow cries and weeps aloud not because due to the death of her husband but because due to the fear of future. Franklin Roosevelt had once quoted,”We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”I would like to support and hold it up by narrating a small fable. There once was a small kingdom full of zeal, zest and happiness which was one day stuck by a giant monster. His wild red eyes of fire and pitch black skin had made all the citizens of the kingdom to stand awestruck. The king however recollected some courage and asked the reason behind his appearance. The giant opened his mouth, as big as giant wheel and summoned the king to either surrender or send a fighter to defend the kingdom and threatened to munch away the whole kingdom in a champ otherwise. The king had no other way but to invigorate all the soldiers to fight the giant. Who would agree to die of Course? But they had to follow the orders and sacrifice themselves. As the time went on, a brave and handsome prince entered the destined kingdom by chance and he bravely accepted the proposal of the king. The time came and the prince with his lustrous sword and brave smile walked at the giant and raised his weapon to see the condescend giant, at a blink reduced to a speck. He finally wailed and shouted, “I was the monster of fear and nobody except bravery could kill me.”He then died.

Being bold and brave helps us in overcoming the fear. The courage has thus acquired a respectful moral place in the human life. Fear has the capacity to hold us in the grip so tight that we feel as though there is no way to escape and thus we adapt ourselves to it and waste half our lives there. The fear starts right from adolescence when we fear of being bullied except some audacious ones. When we step into the shoes of a youth we would be in incessant fear of not getting a job. Even in the pulchritudinous occasion of marriage, we will be in the perpetual fear of parting ways from our near and dear ones and confront the world all alone. Then comes the age of parenting when you constantly worry and fear about your child’s academics and so on. And when we step to the seventh age, as Shakespeare says, “sans everything " but in real not “sans fear” because when we grow old we will be in the constant fear of death, loss of independent survival and so on which has no end. 

Naturally, we are born free of fear. It is a learned behavior that benefits self-preservation; we need to be fearful of things that have the potential to endanger our lives. But fear also has the power to control us to an unhealthy level of restriction, and as such is too used against us without our knowledge by the higher powers that be. Fear is the ultimate weapon because it is capable of controlling people without them realizing it, keeping them locked in a certain place, mindset and ideology. Fear stops you asking questions, of yourself and others.

In the sea of the life . We spend half of our lives in fear. This four lettered monster has adulterated our life despite the presence of friendliness, love, affection or even fondness. This fear has paved way for us to lose everything and pass out all, straying among negative beliefs, that we are fond of and have left us in the abjected state in which we are deprived of all the delicacies despite its gracious presence.

Life is too short to have spent asking ourselves “what if” queries. All of us were delivered by our mothers to the world with all the near ones anxiously asking each other the “What if " queries. Fear is a simple way of ablution from all the delicacies of life and this fear makes our lives surreal and tacky. But there are some greatest and most influential people in the history of the world who were willing to take risks. One example is Christopher Columbus, people laughed and sighed at him when he said that the world was round. But after the modern technology proved his statement, we all pay tribute to the great person who exhibited bravery putting aside the fear of rejection. This fear has stolen the splendor of our lives.

 Let’s say we have made up our mind to try a new thing. I bet my bottom dollar that this idea will be accompanied by a host of fears regarding fear of failure: What if they think I am totally wrong?, What if I mess up?, What if people laugh at me?, What if I come last?, What if I disappoint everyone? Fear interferes in whatever we do. Why doesn’t the courage stick to us as the fear will? This is because we all have the negative mindsets which have cobbled a way for apprehensiveness and dismay in our lives and thoughts. Fear can overcome everything except courage. 

Fear only takes on a reality if we let it stop us taking action. Kick it to the curb and bring out the best in you. We spend every minute with a fear of something. A life spent in fear is a life half lived. For instance, if we emulate in an election fear intrude our minds and then on “what if " questions begins. We fear of not winning the elections, we fear of facing people and so on. In case if we win, fear obtrudes us and we start fearing about the responsibility that we ought to face. Fear neither has absoluteness nor has brink. Fresh ones come in and old ones stay on, threatening us at each step. When we think we come across worries and worries lead to these phobias which straight away grabs from us the opportunity to savour success.

  So, is fear that bad?

Yes, we all now agree to it that the sleazy fear has stolen the splendor from our lives. But does that mean that we should be fearless, dauntless and unshrinking? No, fear is intrinsic and indispensable in life. But they say that fright puts us in danger!!Indeed, fear is an essential evil. Being fearless does not mean that when a ferocious tiger with sharp glistening teeth and eyes as red as setting sun comes to grab you, you should graciously and dauntlessly welcome it!!

The worst fear is the emotional fear which we bring upon ourselves. It is the expectation of evil or the apprehension of impending danger.Indeed,truly we all are so used and lost in our own worlds that we don’t know whether we have become a source of fear for many others under us. We don’t even dare to create a world for ourselves where there are only positive expectations and beliefs and where there is no way for the enigmatic fear to curb us down. When your boss or your authority sends for you, firstly you think of what misapprehension or mistake you have done but you won’t think of what good deed you have done.Yes,this implies that fear not only reduces our potential but also accompanies our mind and fills it with negative thoughts. But without fear the morally admirable world does not exist. Incidentally all our moral excellence would have been called as a below standard ethics or decency. The fear of supernatural being conceived as the perfect omnipotent originator and ruler of universe keeps our world within limitations. It stops us from doing abominable jobs and indeed fear is vital and trivial in our lives. We have fear of god which stops some of us from doing undesirable jobs .Fear is thus a personal issue. There are various ways to deal with fear including becoming aware of it, identifying the ways you express fear, recognizing the situation which triggers fear and using behavioral techniques to reduce fear and stress. There are infinite phobias in the world which constantly interferes in our lives .But every problem has a solution.

This alone gives formula to overcome it. Fear is of many kinds such as fear of failure, fear of life, fear of heights, fear of crowd, fear of water, fear of open space and so on. Fear also plays a vital role in our lives. Fear for responsibility can be called way to excel in life. As students we work with a fear of final exams. We plant saplings with a fear of losing breath due to pollution.Yes,We need fear in some situations of our life to be responsible.

Creeps, intimidation, alarm, horror and shudder are results and causes of fear which is of multiple character and which is different to different people. Dark creeps as light falls, in the same way fear creeps as confidence falls. But poor fear should not always be punished because it is sometimes needed to excel but it’s excess may deplete your happiness.

Do not control the fear but overcome it, but at  times let it flow.