Allowing Fear
Prasanna Shivakamat
Head of People Development at Atos | Reinventing my mid-career and sharing everything I learn along the way.
As I started to write about fear, I had many thoughts and ideas in my mind. I wanted to start with the importance of fear for our evolution and how fear is a powerful survival tool. How does the amygdala activate the fight, flight and fright at the sight of a threat stimulus? But then, I fear losing track and getting disgraced in many other topics. Also, we are no more hunter-gatherers; thus, today's threat stimulus in an office, school or house hardly allows us to fight or flight. Instead, we only have the possibility of fright, and the thereby physiological response to fear can be intense. So let me come back to one specific aspect of fear. That is, what happens when we accept fear.?
When I was 6 or 7 years old, my father would take me and some of my friends to teach us to swim every morning. I feared water, and this fear got associated with a Subbulaxmi Suprabhatam music which a Temple would play on our way to the well where we went swimming. This association of fear got reinforced every day. The music was divine and spiritual for everyone around me, not for me. It would bring tightness in the chest, shortness of breath and sweating on cold mornings. At that time, I could not share this with anyone, nor did I have any other coping mechanisms.
After a few days, I realised something that changed the whole scenario. It was this simple thought; "If I allow fear to be there, fear will allow me to go in the water to swim". So, the mornings were still there; that music was there, my fear was there, yet I went day after day and learned to swim. I learned to swim not only in water but also in my uncertainties, anxieties and fears.?
We hear a lot about being fearless, but it's time to unlearn that. It is okay to be fearful. The more we push and resist fear, the more engrossed we will be with it. The moment we accept and allow fear to be, it allows us to be.?
领英推荐
"Courage is not the absence of fear.
It is feeling the fear and doing it anyway.'
- TJ Hoisington
Head of Pre-sales Instructional Design @ Apposite | Driving Learning Innovation
2 年Hi Prasanna, your message on fear is insightful and thought provoking... I would like to add that though fear is a significant tool in human learning and evolution, fear can be overcome through a shift in perspective. Human beings have the capability to remove themselves from situations and see the larger picture, which shows them the objective truth behind the situation that caused them fear to begin with. Awareness does cut short the existence of fear!