Facing Your Fears

Flight-or-fight is a basic neural response, having been conditioned since primitive ages. As Daniel Goleman puts in his book on emotional intelligence, it’s the way we are wired.

Whatever be the biological reasoning behind possessing fears, the truth that in most cases it handicaps you is undeniable. Some might argue that it can also protect you if one chooses the flight response, but if the fear starts to hinder the execution of everyday activities, it certainly is a handicap.

There have been discussed multitude reasons behind the inception of fear in our minds. Some of the common ones could be enduring a life-endangering incident that brings back the memories every time similar circumstances occur, hence constraining one to go through the situation. Others could have their roots in the way we have been treated during childhood.

Though understanding the reason behind the conception of the fear is important, what’s more important is making a proactive effort toward eliminating it. This brings us back to the ultimate maxim of all times, the realization that it’s all in our mind. The difference between the one scared and the one not is the allowance given to the mind to take over. The first step hence is to practice not allowing the mind to keep us hostage. This can be achieved by deliberately being in the situation and proactively conditioning our reaction toward the desired. A wise friend once advised me to do what scares me the most at least once a day and soon I discovered that it does not scare me anymore.

Because of the huge personal impact from practicing vipassana, would quote how one can overcome fear experientially. When one is scared the body undergoes some physiological changes, which at higher awareness levels can be experienced as sensations surging and ebbing all through the body. Combining this with the basic philosophy of vipassana that everything is temporary, one realizes that this overwhelming sense of fear is also ephemeral like those sensations fading away after a huge surge. With regular effort it becomes a natural reasoning and response in any fearsome situation.

There is no escape, if we wish to overcome them we need to face our fears audaciously. There is a pose that my yoga teacher introduced us to called ‘Hanumanasana’ or the pose of lord Hanuman. It is a full split of the legs that most learners usually find intimidating. She beautifully explained that the way lord Hanuman took a giant leap to save goddess Sita, we need to take a huge leap forward to overcome our fears which at the end of the class, after excruciatingly overcoming the fear of standing on our heads upside down, we could appreciate and derive benefits from. It surely is true that the only thing we need to fear from is fear itself.