The Results of Fear
By Robert Elias Najemy
Overcoming Fear Part 2
1. Fear and insecurity are synonymous. When we feel insecure, we
naturally become concerned and spend great portions of time,
energy, thought and money toward establishing external security.
We focus on acquiring and protecting our sources of persons,
food, shelter, love making, money, possessions, prestige or any other
external factors which will help us feel secure.
2. This type of thinking and living is often, by necessity,
ego-centered and maintained at the expense of others. We do not
feel secure enough to love and give, but need to take. When such
a psychology permeates our social and national psyche, it can
lead to conflict and war.
3. When we feel insecure, we seldom feel the confidence to try
something new; we tend to stick to old habits and familiar ways.
We fear the new and the unknown. Our lives become stale, boring,
habitual, meaningless and without growth.
This boring, habitual kind of life leads to inertia; a waking
sleep, a living death. Much time and energy are spent on
satisfying our security addictions and there is little or no
energy left for emotional, mental or spiritual growth.
4. Fear is also the cause and result of a feeling of
vulnerability and mistrust. When we feel insecure, we feel
threatened by unfamiliar situations or people, thus explaining
the development of racial hatred, religious intolerance, and
international tensions and war. We mistrust each other and act in
defensive and often offensive ways in order to protect ourselves
from the imagined danger.
5. When we fear, our reason is nullified and our imagination runs
wild, creating the worst possible scenarios, which are usually
far from the actual reality.
6. Perception is distorted and we misinterpret others_ intentions
and actions. When our reason is sufficiently overcome by a
panicking imagination, we are moved to prejudice,
narrow-mindedness, anger, hate, and in extreme cases aggression,
violence, cruelty and war. Even in cases where we do not get
carried to such extremes, our relationships usually suffer. It is
not possible to be open and loving when we are insecure and
fearful.
7. Such irrational behavior reaches its climax in the mob
mentality. When many human beings gather into in a large group,
their mentality often tends to be reduced to that of the lowest
of the group_s members. This can be likened to a chain, which is
as strong as its weakest link. Large groups of people are not
much different in their instinctual reactions from herds of
animals and flocks of birds. If one panics in fear, all follow.
We often hear of hundreds of persons injured and even trampled to
death at soccer matches, demonstrations, and other large
gatherings.
8. Living in fear means living with a constant underlying
tension. There will be frequent secretions by the adrenal glands
as unfamiliar persons and events will cause alarm and elicit the
"fight or flight" response. This is exhausting for the nervous,
immune and endocrine systems. The pituitary gland and
hypothalamus are thrown out of balance, and the immune system
becomes run down, setting the stage for a variety of physical and
mental illnesses. Health and happiness flee from fear.
9. Perhaps the most unfortunate result of fear is that it acts
like a magnet, literally attracting to us to the very things that
we fear the most. Fearful thoughts are like magnetic waves which
subconsciously interact with the world around us, attracting to
us those exact situations and experiences that cause us to be
frightened. If we fear thieves, we increase the possibility of
encountering them. The same would be true of dogs, roaches,
spiders, etc.
We do not, however, create the death of a loved one by fearing
that. We do not create the others_ reality.
Attracting what we fear is actually very useful for our growth
process because it forces us to face and become familiar with the
things that we fear, which is the first step towards overcoming
them. Many of us have discovered by experience that our fear of
an event had been out of proportion to the problem actually
created by that feared event, and that our fear was entirely
unnecessary.
10. Fear is also our greatest obstacle to moving forward in our
lives. Every fear is like a closed door that prevents us from
researching, growing and developing in many aspects of our lives.
We will investigate the causes and solutions to fear in the
remaining sections of this series.
If we care for our bodies and minds, they will care for us.
Be Well
Robert Elias Najemy is the author of 20 books which have sold
over 100,000 copies. He is the founder and the director, for 26
years, of the Center for Harmonious Living in Athens, Greece with
a membership of 3000 clients and 600 students. He has lectured
over 25,000 hours and has produced over 500 cassettes and
videocassettes with an abundance of information or human harmony.
You can find over 800 articles, ebooks, cassettes and videos at:
http://www.HolisticHarmony.com. His books "The Psychology of
Happiness" and "Remove Pain" can also be found at Amazon.com
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