Well I think we all have learnt more so than ever that we live in a world of uncertainty. It’s a fast and furious place of ever-changing technology and culture, and it seems like we cannot count on anything being predictable.
From our radios, newspapers, televisions to our political conversations, we are inundated with messages of fear. We feel more afraid of the world than we have in decades. But all this fear isn’t good for us. In fact, according to neuroscience, fear is killing us and we need to take back control!
Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energised muscles, among other things, also known as the fight-or-flight response. The stimulus could be a snake, a car accident, a room full of people waiting for you to speak, the creak of a floorboard in the middle of the night or the Coronavirus!.
If we live in chronic fear, the world looks scary and our memories confirm that. Most importantly, fear can interrupt processes in our brains that allow us to regulate emotions, read non-verbal cues and other information presented to us, reflect before acting, and act ethically. So essentially fear impacts our thinking and decision-making in negative ways, leaving us open to intense emotions and impulsive reactions. As you can imagine these aren’t helpful in stressful unknown times.
So being inundated with messages of fear from people around us and in the media and constantly processing them prompts tons of negative consequences for your body and psyche. When people live in constant fear whether it’s from physical dangers or their environment they can become incapacitated and make very bad decisions!
On a much larger scale, fear can influence groups, communities, countries, even the world. It can consume us, depress us, lead to poor decision-making, and make us open to knee-jerk reactions… and in its worst form, fear can incite hatred and violence.
The great thing to know is – You can beat fear; you just need to train your mind how to deal with it – I call this mental fitness!
So what are We So Afraid Of? I found an interesting article that highlighted this study. It’s conducted annually by an American University. The Chapman University Survey of American Fears Wave 5 (2019) and it was a survey conducted of just under 1,200 randomly-selected adults who were asked what they feared most. The resulting list of fears comprised 98 different items. A sample of the top 25 fears is shown here:
So with this all in mind the team and I decided that we would make this issue about Fear and what you can do to help yourself. We hope you get some gold nuggets from the posts
Lastly I’m going to be doing more live videos on Facebook and Instagram so please watch out for those as they are going to be all about ways to help yourself in these turbulent times.
One of the greatest things you can do is to ensure connection with others via phone or visits – keep talking, sharing and connecting because as the saying goes a problem shared is a problem halved!
