Fear & Negative States

All negative states - anger, frustration, anxiety, depression, greed, sadness.... the list goes on, have at their core an underlying assumption of fear.

What is this fear and where does it come from? Fear is generated out of a psychological contraction which sends a message via a chemical reaction in our brain to our physiological make-up. The message is; there's something wrong here. Our instinct or the 'fight/flight' response kicks in.

Back in the day when we were hunter gathers, we needed this basic instinct to protect ourselves from danger. However nowadays, we use this fear to drive negative states such as the feelings described above. Basically there are 3 forms of fear.

1. Pathological Fear: this is caused by history, past events or past trauma. This effects us in that when anything from a past trauma is simulated in our current context, the fear that we experienced then can be triggered in the same way now.
2. Current or Circumstantial Fear: this is fear that arises in the moment. Our current context results in a contraction which drives negative states.
3. Existential Fear: this is caused by the unknown or concern or worry about what's going to happen in the future. This causes fear to arise which can give way to emotions like anxiety, stress or overwhelm.

The thing we don't realize is that the brain perceives all these sources of fear as exactly the same. Whether its caused by past events or current circumstances is irrelevant. The brain only recognizes the fear, the idea of something wrong and this causes the chemical reaction (fight or flight) to kick in. In this instance it's the negative state that drives our behavior often causing us to make bad decisions, or behave in an immature way or not get the results we were looking for.

So how to transform fear? One way would be to deal with the pathological nature of fear - the past trauma. One would need to, with the help of a psychologist, recreate the events of the trauma. The feelings that came up at the time of the event could then be acknowledged, felt and, over time, transcended. This process takes long though.

A much quicker way is to transform fear in the moment. But for this you need to undertake the necessary training. You have to learn to be very present to fear. You have to learn to feel fear fully in the moment in order to transcend fear. There has to be a higher level of self motivation or intentionality to transform resistance to the uncomfortable nature of fear in the moment. 

To develop self-mastery, you have to take full responsibility for the nature of fear. The greater your intention, the faster you will progress. What you resist persists. Accept the fear, surrender to it, to transcend the fear and all its associated negative states. Then you will be able to act with calmness, clarity and purpose.