F.E.A.R
Renown as one of the greatest orators of his time as well as a motivational speaking grandee, Zig Ziegler had the most apt acronyms for one of man’s most prominent and inherent enemies - FEAR. He described fear as “False Evidence Appearing Real” which can either prompt one to “Forget Everything And Run” or “Face Everything And Rise” based on our choices.
Adaption to survival has been at the fulcrum of our existence since human evolution commenced circa two million years ago. As such, we have developed a counter-intuitive relationship with fear which in turn has become arguably the most limiting of our myriad challenges throughout our existence. Contrary to its original biological function of being an a help, fear has become a hindrance for most of us - “Fear kills Dreams”.
Imagine you were driving and all of a sudden, a warning light indicated on the dashboard, one’s natural reaction wouldn’t be to abandon the vehicle and flee the scene. Typically, the average person would take a moment to look and analyse what the warning sign is trying to draw their attention to (e.g low fuel or tyre pressure) and then act accordingly to address the situation. Similarly, FEAR is a signal or trigger in our subconscious mind to alert us that a real or imagined danger has percolated in the brain. As such, just like the warning light in a vehicle, fear ought to be an early warning mechanism for perceiving possible or imminent danger as opposed to a self limiting mechanism.
The limiting effect of fear is based on our learned counter-intuitive relationship with it otherwise known as our “fear response” which makes our brain trigger a reaction automatically based on our thoughts and experiences. The fear response part of our brain activates our sympathetic nervous system which causes one to either fight, flight or freeze. When a specific response to fear is learned repetitiously, it creates a habitual neurological pathway in the brain which makes us react the same way every time we perceive fear.
So how do we recalibrate our fear response mechanism? John Assaraf highlights two key steps in his book innercise. He explains that similar to how the human body achieves transformation through exercise, the human brain can also transform how it responds to fear through innercises whenever we find ourselves in a state of doubt, anxiety or stress;
Take Six, Calm the Circuit - Take six deep breaths. This will calm the sympathetic nervous system and activate the thinking faculty of the brain.
Awareness - Having awareness your thoughts, emotions and sensations without any judgement, blame or shame empowers us to observe the situation
Intentions - Once in the aforementioned observational mode, reflect on your intentions with a degree of clarity
Action - With clarity of intention, one can then take small actions towards one’s goal(s)
When practised consistently, these innercises can transform our brains by interrupting our learned fear response pattern and in turn develop new neurological pathways for how our brain responds to fear.
Remember - “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt
Peace, Love and Light,