Causes of Fear
What are you afraid of? What puts fear in your heart? Is it the fear of losing your job and its attendant financial security? Similarly, is it the collapse of your business and financial turmoil? Or is it the fear of a debilitating disease that leaves you bed-ridden and totally dependent on others for the most basic of everyday tasks? Could it be the fear of a failed relationship or where married, divorce? As a student, are you afraid of failing your impending exams? Or could it be the fear of death, either of your own death or the death of your loved ones? Or could it be the fear of the uncertainty of the future?
How to Overcome Fear
No matter the cause of your fear, here are some ways to overcome it:
1. Pray to God and have faith
One way to overcome our fear is to pray to God and to have faith that all will be well. The Bible states in “2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 7 as follows: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind.” As such, fear is not of God and we should rid ourselves of it. The Bible also states in Psalm 34, verse 4 as follows: “I prayed to the Lord and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears.” When we pray to God, we let go of our worries and fears. As a result, we are at peace.
2. Do a worst-case scenario analysis
Another way to overcome our fear is to do a worst-case scenario analysis and to prepare accordingly. A worst-case scenario is the most unfavourable or undesirable outcome that could possibly occur in a given situation. It is used in planning and risk assessment to identify potential problems and to prepare for them.
Are you afraid of financial insecurity or turmoil? Why don’t you consciously try to save for a rainy day? In addition, it is useful to have multiple streams of income. As such, when one stream of income has challenges, the others are there to provide a buffer. Above all, we should remember that it is not about how much we earn but how much we keep. We should strive to violate Parkinson’s Law of expenses always rising to meet income. Otherwise, no matter how much money we are able to earn, it will all be dissipated in endless expenditure.
To address the fear of a debilitating disease, we can only do our part by striving for a healthy lifestyle. We should watch what we eat, get adequate excercise and sleep and avoid the vices of excessive alcohol intake, smoking, and other risky behaviour. If we do this, we can, to some extent, reduce the probability of bad health. Barring a terminal disease or some other genetic disorder or a sudden life-changing accident, we can safely expect to be in good health. To all these variables, we should add prayer to God for good health.
To address the fear of a failed relationship or divorce, it is useful to bear in mind that no condition in life is permanent. Similarly, human love, for all the joy it brings, is not perennial. Human beings are likely to be fickle-minded. As such, their interests and desires may change. In the absence of both parties in a relationship making a conscious effort to keep it going, break-ups do occur.
If we keep it at the back of our minds that human relationships are not perennial, we will be less devastated when a fallout happens. Rather than being afraid of what is a probability, why don’t we ensure that we have our own interests and can stand on our own two feet when the other person is no longer in our lives? There is an inherent danger in allowing your life to revolve around a person who can be out of your life tomorrow.
To address the fear of death, we should bear in mind that it is inevitable. Once we are born, we will surely die one day. The Bible states in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verses 1 and 2 as follows: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die;”. For his part, the French novelist, Albert Camus in his novel, “The Stranger”, addresses the concept of death as a mathematical certainty.
If death is so certain and it is a fact that we will all die one day, why should we waste time being afraid of it? Rather than focusing on death, which will come when it will, why don’t we focus on living our lives to the maximum and making sure that our lives count on this earth? The stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius, in “Meditations”, states, “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
3. Keep yourself busy and be productive
Another way to overcome fear is to keep ourselves busy and to be productive. This is not to promote hyperactivity to the point of burnout. This is rather to promote having something productive to do each day. It could be a simple task such as cleaning your house or assisting someone in need by running an errand. Whenever we are engaged in a productive activity, we feel a sense of accomplishment and a sense of being in control of the situation at hand.
Also, being active leaves us with very little time to be apprehensive of the future. Dale Carnegie expresses this view in his quote, “Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” W. Clement Stone expresses a similar view in the quote, “Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.”
In conclusion, failing to overcome fear prevents us from fully enjoying our lives. When we are paralysed with fear, we fail to take advantage of several opportunities which may come our way. This, in turn, prevents us from achieving our full potential and we take our untapped talents and potential to the grave.
According to Les Brown, “The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry out their dream.”
To fully enjoy life and to make life worth living, we should seek to overcome our fear. According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, “He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.”
Let us endeavour to overcome our fear every day!
