Question # 1 How do people express fear?
Examples of how people can express fear: Worry. Anxiety. Confusion. Panic.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2768418051 page 115.
Fear sometimes appears in disguise. Examples: When we postpone things. When we seek perfection. When we have low confidence. When we make excuses.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1918959132 Location 2200.
If we’re experiencing increasing fear, a natural human reaction is to compensate by focusing the attention of others on what we’ve accomplished, i.e. boasting ourselves. I don’t know about you, but I have a definite sense that many of us use social media to share the amazing places we’ve been and people we’re spending time with in an effort to reassure others that we’re doing really well.
https://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_perspectives/2019/01/feel-the-fear.html
Anger is often a manifestation of fear. If you feel you’re being threatened, it’s natural and understandable that you’ll feel anger towards those you believe are threatening you.
https://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_perspectives/2019/01/feel-the-fear.html
Stress is often a by-product of fear, especially if we feel we’re in environments that don’t allow us to express our fear. Now we have to hide our fear as well as deal with the events that are producing the fear.
https://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_perspectives/2019/01/feel-the-fear.html
Question # 2
What’s good about feeling fear?
Fear is a vital response to physical and emotional danger. If people didn’t feel fear, we could not protect ourselves from threats, which in the ancestral world frequently resulted in life-or-death consequences.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/fear
If we kick fear out of the window, we lose our focus and our intuition.
Without fear, we would be endangered at all times.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2768418051 pages 6 and 136.
Fear increases your ability to respond effectively to new or
changing situations. It does that by scanning your environment and your stored memories when you need it.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2768418051 Page 36.
When your fear flows well, it will bring you intuition and help you
feel focused, centered, capable, and agile.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2768418051 Page 36.
If you can rely on fear's calm, listening, sensing stance, it will help
you read people and situations empathically.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2768418051 Page 36.
Question # 3 What’s bad about feeling fear?
In the modern world, people often fear situations where the stakes are much lower, but our body and brain still treat the threat as lethal. This can trigger an extreme, and often unnecessary, fight-flight-orfreeze response. As a result, we may find ourselves avoiding challenges that
could benefit ourselves in the long run or hanging back during social interactions for no good reason.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/fear
Fear speaks only one word: No. 3 examples: No, I will just fail. No, I would rather wait. No, I don't know anyone there.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1918959132 Location 2200.
Human beings have loss aversion. We fear losses more than we value equivalent gains.
http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/overcoming-a-bias-against-risk
When days grow shorter, people feel less and less like taking risk.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3024600/bottom-line/how-seasonal-affective-disorder-twists-our-decisions http://www.businessinsider.com/psychological-reasons-people-take-risks-2014-8
People have narrow framing. We weigh potential risks
as if there were only a single potential outcome – as opposed to many outcomes in the long term.
http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/overcoming-a-bias-against-risk
Question # 4
What can you do to feel less fear?
When you communicate about your fear, for example by talking with another person and/or writing about your fear on social media, you become less afraid.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2175860816 Page 185.
Preparing well can help you reduce fear of exams / tests.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2175860816 Page 187.
When you help other people and focus on giving, you become less insecure.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2175860816 Page 73.
To overcome fear, try to do the opposite of fighting the fear. For example, if you are afraid of not being able to sleep, try to stay awake as long as possible.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2372299403 Page 128.
When parents let children know that they do not judge them, they signal that they accept their emotions. Thereby, parents also help children to calm down and not feel neither fear, shame or guilt.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1918959132 Location 3000.
Exercise to tame fear Step # 1 Ask each person in a group to write on a sticky note the biggest fear they have about themselves. Example: “I am afraid of being in big groups.” Step # 2 Put on some music. Ask people to put the sticky note on their chest and to go introduce themselves to others. Example: “Hi, I'm afraid of being in big groups.” The exercise helps people to create more space to be themselves and tame their fears. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1918959132 Location 1350.
Courage building exercise 1. Think of a situation when you felt afraid – and chose to act. 2. What were you most afraid of? 3. What did you do to get rid of the barriers that stood in the way of acting? 4. At what point did your fear start to go down? 5. How did you feel afterwards?
Adapted from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-mindful-self-express/201208/the-six-attributes-courage