In principle, emotions are a basic element of human psychology precisely because they are universal. This means that fear, as an emotion, is present in virtually all societies and members of our species, and has been for thousands of years, as it is an essential aspect of our species’ behavior.
All ethnic groups and tribes experience fear and express it in a very similar way, with the same facial gestures, and this reveals that emotions arise, in large part, from a series of biological predispositions that arise from a process of natural selection. . Simply, the inability to feel fear was too costly for the genes that produced that phenomenon to be transmitted to subsequent generations.
Now, emotions have different layers of complexity; It is not the same to feel afraid in the presence of a tiger as in the idea of losing your job. That It makes many people suffer from fear without even knowing very well what causes it ; and in some cases, they even go so far as to deceive themselves to pretend that they do not feel that way.
Fear can be a multi-layered psychological experience.
All the mental processes that arise in our consciousness do so while mixed with a series of abstract concepts. For example, that means that We never experience emotions by themselves, in a “pure” way ; In all cases, we experience them through the interpretation we make about what is happening to us. We are incapable of experiencing our emotional side in a way completely disconnected from our use of language, except in exceptional situations in which there are a series of neurological anomalies or neurodevelopmental problems.
Therefore, if managing our own emotions is a challenge, it is precisely because we do not have exact knowledge about their origin. The ability to think abstractly is a great advantage for reasoning in very sophisticated ways and taking into account many possibilities, but it also causes us to sometimes get lost in our own feelings and emotions, without knowing how to analyze them.
If our mind were occupied only by the stimuli that our senses capture, we would have a much lower level of intelligence, but in many aspects, our lives would be less complicated; But having a great facility to generate abstract concepts in our minds (for example, the tranquility of a sunset at the sea, or the delicacy of a flower), complex ways of experiencing emotions also arise, including fear.
The importance of self-knowledge
There are many reasons why the root of our fear is not evident to us Sometimes this is because what disturbs us is a taboo subject due to social pressure. On other occasions, because we do not dare to address an internal conflict on which we have built a life project that is beginning to falter. At other times, it is simply due to ignorance; because we don’t understand something that makes us feel threatened for no reason. But in all these cases, the problem is linked to a possible solution that can be developed in psychotherapy, while if time goes by and we continue to feed that inertia of not enhancing self-knowledge, the discomfort intensifies and a crisis can break out. emotional crisis.
In the case of fear, there is an added problem: Daring to examine its origin can be so intimidating, so uncomfortable, that it is something we constantly put off Not leaving the comfort zone has a high cost in terms of emotional balance.
How to develop that ability to know yourself?
It is clear that we will never be able to know exactly what is behind fear every time we feel it on a daily basis; However, that should not be our goal. To achieve a good level of mental health, it is enough to have a level of self-knowledge that allows us to understand the general logic behind our way of experiencing emotions. This involves learning to observe ourselves; both what we do and what we feel in the key moments of everyday life.
Some useful strategies to achieve this are to fill out a personal diary, talk openly about our emotions with our loved ones, and expose ourselves to new environments and experiences to learn more about ourselves instead of always being in contact with the same types of situations.
In any case, The most effective way to make progress quickly and stable over time is to go to psychotherapy With the help of a professional, you will have personalized treatment adapted to your particular case. Therefore, if you notice that you have a complicated relationship with your emotions and with fear in particular, I encourage you to contact me.
