Have I Had Fear?
Fear is a part of confidence. There
is fear thinking about what might happen in the future, and there is fear in
events happening in the moment. The first fear is more of a mind game. That is,
you may have a fear of flying and you think up scenarios that have negative
potentials. These mind fears don’t have a physical aspect to them, or at least
that is what I think.
Then there are the times when you are
in a situation that the fear transitions to actually impacting you physically.
You are on a plane now and it is going through turbulence. Your heart rate and
blood pressure are probably up, maybe even way up. You could even be
hyperventilating. This fear brings about these challenges because it is
happening right now to you and is not something that could happen later.
It is very difficult to tell someone
to calm down when every sensory input is giving them very heightened signals. In
this case, until the turbulence subsides the person may not be able to come
down.
I wouldn’t want to go into battle
with someone who says he is fearless. To me that person would be reckless. Fear
has its place in everyone. I haven’t yet to meet anyone who when asked and is
honest will not relate a situation where they felt fear.
In my youth when flying for the Navy
there were many times at night when the weather was bad. We still had can land
the plane on the aircraft carrier. Hell, just about every night landing brought
with it some level of fear, evening cloudless full moon nights.
How this fear was dealt with was I
was so concentrated on flying the plane that the voice in my head could not get
a word in. The moment I trapped on board the ship, a big relief came over me.
The fear was forgotten. As we used to say “we cheated death again.”
I think the difference between my
fear during night landings and someone whose fear of flying is amplified during
turbulence was I was in control of the plane whereas the other person was
riding along.
Where is my fear that brings the
physical aspect? It is when I am up on a ladder or walking on the roof of my
house, yes, a fear of heights. Sounds funny that I can be up in a plane and
have no fear looking down but put me on the edge of my roof even 10 feet off
the ground and my heart rate is up.
To me the most destructive fears are
those of the mind about something that may happen in the future. Those fears
can stop you from trying something. I know it has for me. The fear of failing
was almost crippling. I could talk myself into what I thought was a worst case,
when in fact it really wasn’t one.
How have I addressed those types of
fears? I guess it was just the realization that not trying meant automatic
failure with no chance of success.
Fear of the future battle I have with
that voice in my head has not gone away. The voice just doesn’t control me like
it had in the past. Now if I can just stop my heart from racing when on the
roof, then I will be making progress.
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