Fear is Friend Leverage It

We all experience the "sense of fear". It can be emotionally very stressful. Fear signals the brain about a perceived threat (material/physical) close to the present time. It triggers the defense mechanism (subconscious mind) and drives actions which under normal conditions one could have done differently. The subconscious mind acts automatically, and consumes much less energy compared to the conscious mind - making "sense of fear" an effective safety mechanism (Friend) to deal with these challenging situations (Threats). 

For example, the "fear of failure" in exams, forces a procrastinating student to study in the last minute, the complete syllabus, which normally would have taken a much longer time to complete. The famous Parkinson's law  states that the "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion" is a true reflection of the "emotion of fear" active under the time constraint.

However, our ability to perform in such situations is dependent upon the sharpness of the "subconscious mind" to execute under the "influence of fear". Fortunately, the "subconscious mind" has been trained by "nature" to deal with most of the life threatening challenging situation that we face. One can find several stories where ordinary person has behaved extraordinarily under the "emotion of fear". Recently, an Article was published in Scientific American - "When Fear Makes Us Superhuman", is an interesting read.

The human mind has grown over millions of years of evolution. The situations posing challenges to man in the ancient times largely remained identical. This has empowered the "subconscious mind" with specific skills to deal with similar situations - like in the face of an impending accident subconscious mind triggers the body to secrete chemicals which manages blood pressure and pain. But, apart from the physical threats the modern man has to face many mental threats and these are totally different from what our ancestors had faced. On top of it, the experience of the modern man in dealing with these situation is very less, due to the vast changes in social norms - an outcome of modernization. Hence, training the subconscious mind is an important perquisite so that it can perform effectively under the "influence of fear", as it (subconscious mind) is the one that is dominant under the influence of fear compared to the "conscious mind". This can be achieved by cultivating new skills, managing expectations and internalizing these repeatedly so that these get strongly entrenched into our minds as habits.

Today, the fabric of social interactions have become very complex. It is impossible to visualize all challenges in advance that one might face. Some of these might be totally new. These challenges threaten us with loss of stake and thereby triggers the "emotion of fear". Our ability to deal with these threats effectively depends upon the sharpness of our "subconscious mind" which is loaded with skills that we have consciously practiced over the years. The subconscious mind applies these skills effortlessly under the influence of fear and bails out of the difficult situation- making "Fear" an emotion that one should learn to effectively leverage, rather than being overwhelmed by it.