He fear It is probably the most popular human emotion in recent times, especially since social networks They became our main means of communication. We share videos and phrases about fear and we constantly tell each other that we should not be afraid, we bet on a life without fear, we consider it our worst enemy. What would happen if human beings were never afraid?
Fear is one of the most basic emotions of humans, as well as of any mammal. It is an emotion that plays a fundamental role: survival What would happen if we lived without fear? There is only one possibility: we would die. Without fear, we would live so recklessly that we would endanger our lives and we would die within a few days if we were not afraid. Fear has a very important use in our lives. Our big problem with fear is that we live with dysfunctional fears.
Let’s delve a little deeper into what this instinctive emotion is and what it is for.
According to experimental psychology, there are six primary emotions: joy, surprise, anger, sadness, disgust, and fear The experiments find these six emotions since they find six different facial expressions, although there are many more emotions depending on the culture and the vocabulary with which we describe those emotions.
Fear, however, is a basic and primary emotion, since it is found in all cultures and feeling it has great consequences on the body. It’s an unpleasant emotion, since it makes us feel bad (although not negative, since feeling emotions is always positive, whatever they are). It is also a passive emotion, since it tries to withdraw us from what is happening. When we feel fear, it leads us to also feel helpless. What happens when we feel fear is that we withdraw.
Fear is often characterized as a negative emotion, something to avoid and that is linked to unhappiness. However, the truth is that, if fear is an emotion present in practically all the cultures that have been studied, it is possible to infer that it is there for a reason. Does it fulfill any relevant function? What is fear for?
In short, fear serves to survive, it is an adaptive mechanism to an environment that, sometimes, gives us reasons to fear it. What fear is for has to do with our ability to react quickly to dangerous situations, since thanks to it we retreat when there is a threat. This threat can be to our life, or to our self-esteem, our security (according to our beliefs about what is safe or not), our self-concept.
So fear is just an emotion that reacts based on our mental patterns, our beliefs and thoughts. Fear in itself is positive, it helps us distance ourselves from an event for which we are not yet prepared
When is fear a problem?
Fear is a problem when it is dysfunctional It is important to clarify that there are no positive or negative emotions (this is said in manuals where, what is intended, is the psychological diagnosis and such orthodox and wrong concepts are still used). Feeling emotions is positive, it is always positive to feel any emotion, since they have some kind of use and we should feel our emotions freely instead of repressing them or trying to control them.
The problem, with any emotion, is when our beliefs and interpretations cause us to feel fear in a way dysfunctional, that is, what happens as a result of feeling that fear is even worse than what would happen if we did not feel it. Example: many times we do not do what we want and it is really important in our life because we are afraid of what may happen (travel, go to another country to live, start our own business, start a romantic relationship, do something new for ourselves). media, public speaking, dancing in front of other people, etc.).
If we manage our fear in a dysfunctional way, it will hold us back too much. Remember: fear is not a problem, it only obeys us… The problem is what we do with fear
Things that make us afraid (phobias)
There are several aspects of life (situations, ideas, objects…) that generate fear in many people Below you have a list of different phobias; By clicking on the title you can access a detailed report on each of them.
And for a more general review of the different phobias that exist and their characteristics, you can visit this article:
How important is fear?
Fear is such an important emotion that we couldn’t live without it Our happiness and well-being depends on the decisions we make in our lives and how we interpret what happens. We are the ones responsible for being well and making our lives a fascinating experience.
Fear helps us regulate how big our steps should be at any given moment… like a kind of prudent mother. Again, this happens when we manage our fear functionally, that is, we have some fear of what can really be a problem for us now and we still need some training or waiting time to be able to face it.
Ask yourself what you would really like to do and don’t do. What would you like to live and you don’t live? How you would like your life to be and you don’t do what is necessary to get there. All those fears: what are they based on? In your beliefs? In an event from the past? What could you do so that this fact would never affect you again?
An emotional management process, to increase your level of emotional intelligence (which would help you manage your fear in a functional way and understand that of others and help them) is probably the best way to jump to dysfunctional fear. This note will not end with a “don’t be afraid”… but with a “Live large despite your fears”
