Blogpost 4: Fear can be Good and Bad

What is fear's purpose? How do you handle it? For instance, fear is something we've all experienced and most of us would label as a negative or uncomfortable emotion. While I am studying in college, I meet students on an almost daily basis who are influenced by negative fear thoughts.

Thinking about why people do this, makes me wonder about the purpose of Fear emotions. I really started wondering as to how many people really do allow Fear, anxiety, worry, etc. to freeze them into inaction in everyday life. They achieve a very negative result, one which I have to think, is not what they really want.

          I read an article entitled “Mastering Fear” written by Rabbi Noah Weinberq. In this article it is said that fear is like any other emotion—there are both positive and negative aspects. Negative fear is debilitating. Positive fear is exhilarating. With fear, you are out of the dream world and 100 percent into reality. It means negative fear make (someone) weak while positive fear make (someone) feel very happy. Personally, I look upon fear as a positive emotion. I know that uncontrolled this emotion can breed many negative results. But when controlled, this emotion can spur you into action like no other I know of. And I think that this is truly the reason for fear. Think of it as your best friend, preparing you for progress. Make friends with the unknown.         
       
             As I know that good side of fear is it alerts us to threats. Sometimes our fear can be a really useful gut-response that helps us anticipate and respond more quickly to a genuine threat. If something is unfamiliar, it might be dangerous, so, whenever we’re in unfamiliar territory, fear crops up and alerts us to pay attention. And of course, from a survival point of view, that’s really useful. Whereas,  Bad side of fear it takes away our creativity, imagination, freedom and peace. Fear stops us from pursuing our dreams. Fear destroys relationships and can make us physically ill. These four letters, FEAR, represent the most powerful negative emotion that exists.

         I read an article entitled “Fear-Good or Bad? Eliminate?” by Kevin Hogan. According to this article Fear evolved early in animal-kind and human-kind to keep us alive and to survive. Fear is a feeling, often intense and can cause you to feel anywhere from avoidant, to nervous, to panic, to phobic, to terror. It has two messages: Fight or Run. Fear is without question the most important of all the emotions. Fear can be triggered by thousands of different stimuli. It means that every time we do something we counter fear.

For me, Fear is positive when it motivates you to get out of a bad situation such as an animal chasing you or getting out of a burning car. Negative if it controls you and makes you avoid every situation so that you can't enjoy life. We should acknowledge the fear we are experiencing. Allow that it is a positive thing within us that warns us of some impending danger or harm. And then, analyze it to see if it is real or imagined, justified or not. When we recognize it's positive intent, it is no longer something to immobilize us, but quite the reverse, we can jump into action to remedy 'why' we are fearful.

This is only one person's opinion, but I feel it is better to believe in something beneficial that I can take control of, rather than be at it's mercy!.