Fear is a very paralyzing aspect of our subconscious. Fear in many cases is something the subconscious uses to prevent us from attaining something, prevent us from going somewhere. Many people are stuck at a certain point in their lives and can’t progress any further because of fear.
In the animal kingdom as an instinct fear serves a purpose-self-preservation. If there’s a giant hairy monster with huge sharp teeth and fangs chasing us, nature says we should be afraid. But in people fear gets distorted into many complex aspects. It has many different aspects that need to be observed.
Fear has many different manifestations such as worries, stresses, anxieties, nervousness, phobias, difficulty in social situations, etc. Some people might underestimate fear by thinking “I’m a man. I’m not scared of anything”, but fear doesn’t have to literally be running away screaming. When you look further, you discover that fear is responsible for all kinds of different things in our lives.
Fears can operate on a very subconscious level. Some people can have a fear of being alone. And that could cause them to make poor relationship decisions and they won’t even realize it. Some people just worry too much what other people think. And that causes them to always try to please people, stay out of trouble, gain other people’s approval and fit in with other people.
Fear can be triggered by various other emotions. For example there are all our desires and wants and attachments. As a student you can get stressed as you’re having trouble keeping up in school because you want to get good grades. You can get stressed as you’re falling behind at work because you want to gain a promotion. You can get worried managing your finances and investments during a recession because you want to build wealth.
What is the largest fear that we all collectively share as humanity? It’s Death. What is the fear of death? It’s a form of attachment to this body and this material world. We all know this body of flesh and bone isn’t going to last. Yet the biggest fear that we have is the fear of death, and that just represents an attachment to everything around us.
Another emotion that often triggers fear is pride. If we have a particularly low self-esteem it can make us feel self-conscious and really worry about what other people think. That can manifest itself as a fear of rejection, not being accepted, afraid of how others see you etc.
Imagine going back to our teenage days. We all had somebody that we really liked and wanted to ask out, but we were always afraid. Well what was the fear that was there? It wasn’t life or death, but it was related to self-image, fear of rejection, not being accepted. This worry of “what other people think” then becomes the root cause of so many anxieties.
Anxieties are strange. You could be sitting and waiting for a job interview and you’re nervously tapping your fingers and biting your nails and your palms are sweating and your heart rate is increasing. That’s the fight or flight syndrome, where your body is acting as if it needed to fight for its life in a situation that doesn’t warrant that. Again it’s triggered by your low self-esteem making you “intimidated” by the interviewer and worried about how they will perceive you.
After death the next biggest fear among humanity is public speaking. People stress about public speaking like it’s absolutely terrifying. We can be standing on stage about to give a speech and we’re sweating, our heart rate is increasing, we’re shaking, and our body releases adrenaline. That’s the fight or flight reaction as if we needed to fight for our life, but out of place. What is so fearful about public speaking? It’s not a threat to your life. It’s not going to kill you. It’s not going to make you sick. It’s not going to cause physical pain. Why is it so feared? If you analyze it, you’ll discover it also traces back to having low self-esteem and worrying what other people think.
An off chute of fear is various phobias. People are afraid of snakes and spiders and insects and mice and rats. Most of these creatures are fairly harmless. However, something about their appearance and movement just “creep” people out. People are so disgusted and grossed out by insects and spiders and rodents that they get scared of them. As they continue identifying with that fear it continues to sustain itself and grow and develop into phobias.
Probably the most subconscious way in which fear sustains itself is through the concept of resistance. Fear is obviously a very unpleasant, unwanted, painful emotion. Nobody wants to feel fear. Therefore, on a subconscious level, we resist fear. We want it to stop. We want it to go away. We are bothered by fear. This implies that we are afraid of fear itself. And this keeps us stuck in a trap where fear continues to sustain itself. The more you resist it, the stronger it gets, the more control it exerts.
And fear for some people can be a really problematic aspect of their subconscious that holds them back in life. Many people get held back and miss out on all kinds of opportunities. It prevents them from reaching their full potential because they don’t know how to deal with it.
We have to use self-observation to see how fear manifests in our lives and spend more time letting go of resistance to it. As we go through our day-to-day activities working with self-observation, try to spot as many different aspects of fear that you can. Try to see how fear influences your decisions, what you think, say and do. Watch for manifestations in your dreams as well. When things get out of control, focus on surrendering and letting go. The more you observe and uncover, and the less you resist, the more you will free yourself from the control that fear exerts.