Fear as a Teacher

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt Taking a deep breath as I am typing these words about a topic that is inherent in the human condition. I consider myself a pretty brave person, having faced deaths of family members and friends, injury, an ectopic pregnancy, financial challenge, a heart attack, shingles, kidney stones, job layoff, illness, relationships ending, and loss of my home in a hurricane. These are all common life events; some expected, most arriving out of the blue. When they have occurred, I have, like many, shaken my head and muttered WTF? I questioned, “Who thought this one up?” as I hastened to find a solution to these erstwhile dilemmas. Hard to imagine the idea of fear being helpful, since it is an emotion that most people would rather avoid. We are born hardwired with the fight, flight or freeze response which comes in handy when we are faced with physical danger such as fleeing someone brandishing a weapon or needing to merge lanes on a major highway. Fortunately, I have only experienced the latter and hope never to encounter the former. According to Gleb Shumyatsky, PhD, an assistant professor of genetics at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, fear is genetically oriented.  He says, “This is a major advance in the field of learning and memory that will allow for a better und...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Anxiety and Panic Self-Help Success & Achievement Source Type: blogs