Fear is one of our fundamental emotions. Fear is vital for human self-preservation, as the reaction of fear can prevent us from dangerous, life-threatening situations. But more and more often people tend to be afraid of things that are not life-threatening, and in such a case, fear can lead to anxiety, stagnation, and life dissatisfaction.
According to the Statistic Brain Research Institute, 60% of things feared will never take place, 90% of things feared are considered to be things of insignificant issues. These numbers speak by themselves: the majority of things we are afraid of are either insignificant or are unlikely to happen, so the unjustified fear can turn into the mental obstacle for doing things that are important to us. As the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman has put it, “fear is arguably the most sinister of the demons nesting in the open societies of our times.”
Impact of Unjustified Fears
Unjustified or irrational fears can prevent individuals from taking action in life, stepping out of one’s comfort zone and using one’s potential to the full. Besides, being under negative impact of the irrational fear, one could lose lots of opportunities in life and come to wrong life-decisions.
So, it’s definitely worth getting rid of such fear in order to live the life of one’s dreams. Of course, it doesn’t mean that one should completely eradicate the feeling of fear, as it also serves the necessary purpose of self-preservation and danger avoidance. It’s all about finding the golden middle, embracing the fear as part of our life and as an inborn emotion that can help avoid the dangers and at the same time fighting the ‘unnecessary’ fear that impacts one’s life in a negative way.
Learn All About the ‘Enemy’
In order to fight the enemy, one should know the enemy well; in case of fear, it means understanding the main causes of the fear, analyzing them and understanding rationally whether this particular situation is a real threat to one’s life or rather a mental construction. Once you understand your fears better, it would be much easier to fight them.
Main Phobias in Contemporary Society
In contemporary society, there are a number of intense fears that can take the form of a phobia. Psychologists differentiate five basic fears: the fear of extinction, mutilation, loss of autonomy, separation, and ego-death. They form a single hierarchy, and all other fears can derive from these five.
But as the society is changing, new types of unjustified fear start appearing. In today’s world, there’s a danger to live in constant fears, as we have easy and constant access to the information that can sometimes take distorted and exaggerated form. For example, more and more people are being afraid of terrorism or plane crash, when, in fact, there’s a higher probability of dying in a car crash when the seat belts are not tightened.
Another great fear is associated with judgments by others. This is, probably, why 74% of US population is scared of public speaking. But as soon as we realize that public speaking isn’t a dangerous situation and no one is perfect, it will get much easier to overcome this fear.
Also, there are great fears associated with failures. In the society, in which success and self-esteem are becoming closely interconnected, it might get too difficult to correspond to the social norms of what it’s like to be ‘successful.’
Since nowadays the world seems to change too quickly, a lot of people might experience the fear of such rapid changes and new technology developments and, thus, ignore them, as it seems something unknown. And it’s rather common to be afraid of something that we aren’t familiar with, - it’s called the fear of the unknown.
So, how can we fight the fear?
First, of all, acknowledge that fear. When we want to appear perfect and strong, we might not even notice that we fell victims of the irrational fears. The minute we acknowledge it, we would be able to differentiate between the fear of something really dangerous and the fear of something that is too unlikely to happen. And remember that it’s easier to fight the enemy when you can see it.
Then, try to rationalize your emotions and find the main cause of your irrational fears. You can even use the humor to fight your fear, - and don’t expect to get the victory rapidly, simply take little steps in fighting the fear.
If you are scared of new technology and rapid changes in contemporary society, don’t panic, - you are not the only one. One of the ways of fighting this type of fear is by seeking advice from the experts. For instance, if you are interested in crypto market, you might use the services of the experts from the Pecunio company, the decentralized investment medium, which focuses on the cryptocurrencies as well as blockchain benefit hedge funds. As CEO and founder of Pecunio, Reinhard Berger, a former business architect for worldwide consulting firm Accenture, redefined the worldwide banking system for customers like Invesco, Credit Suisse, and UBS. So, instead of disregarding the new technological developments, it’s better to take advantage of them by either educating oneself or by seeking professional advice.
In the digital world and the Internet availability, one is often bombarded with so much negative information, that one might get a feeling that the world is too dangerous place. But in fact, it isn’t, and we should be able to differentiate between real threats and manufactured ones. True, we don’t have control over the future, but groundless fears are not going to influence it positively, - and so it’s better to get rid of them and try to live happily rather than let those irrational fears interfere with one’s life satisfaction.