After exploring the direct and indirect influence that you, the individual, have on the world around you, it makes sense to move our focus on to practical ways with which we can improve ourselves, ways to upgrade our software and become the best versions of ourselves possible. The first and perhaps the biggest topic to tackle if we really want to get our existential shit together is fear.
Fear and it's function
It's not as if fear serves no actual purpose. At early stages in the development of an individual or a society, fear manifests as the biological instinct to survive. In a new and unfamiliar environment fear can help us to take necessary precautions to ensure our own well being in the face of immediate danger. Once we are safe and sound however, fear becomes nothing but a destructive agent both in the psyche and in its physical manifestations. We have much to gain from thanking fear for serving its purpose as we decide to say goodbye to it.
How fear messes us up
After establishing that there are no immediate existential threats, fear ceases to serve its purpose. If we allow it to linger inside, it will cloud our judgement, limit us and hamper our ability to reach our true potential. It creates a divide between our concepts of realistic and idealistic, preventing us from taking chances and making the best of our time here on earth. It prevents us from truly connecting with each other and forms rifts of mistrust, that at their worst perpetuate situations in which we are encouraged to revert back to survival mode. A better world, or even a better personal situation, is only possible if we believe it is possible. Survival mode only allows us to survive, never to prosper, both individually, and collectively.
What are we so afraid of?
Fears vary from person to person, but most can be traced back to certain beliefs that do not serve us. In the last entry in this series, I mentioned the belief in victim-hood and how it holds you back. The fear of being alone is common and stems from the belief that being alone is bad, or even that there is such a thing as being alone. Fear of failure is another common fear and it stems from a belief that failure is entirely negative or that it could possibly define you as an individual. Fear of the unknown, as if we could truly know anything from a limited perspective, is also common.
Fear of death is perhaps the mother of all fears though, and it can take time to overcome. The utter inevitability of it makes this fear such a common underlying theme for most people. But is it natural to fear something so natural? We associate death with a million things, but it is rarely depicted as something positive outside of certain forms of religious fanaticism. Our understanding of life is incomplete without an understanding and acceptance of death. I often wonder how vastly different society would be if we had a required course in school called "Accepting death and embracing life".
Instead, we are encouraged to act as if this integral aspect of life does not exist, until it becomes inevitable, at which point, we continue to see it as something regrettable. Why regret something which we know nothing about. Fear of death and fear of the unknown go hand in hand and allow us to revert back to a state of mind in which we are no longer capable of making the best decisions.
Questioning your beliefs
What about being alone scares you? Would being alone scare you if you knew that it could be a great thing? What if every failure was an opportunity for a greater success? Would death scare you if you knew it didn't exist, or that with it came a feeling of peace? Would any of your fears really make sense from a higher perspective, one beyond that of your five senses? Are you sure that you are not something more than what these senses allow you to perceive? We are not entirely sure of anything, no matter how inclined we are to assume.
Even if something seems a bit far fetched to you, consider it. See how it makes you feel. If it can soften some fear that resides within, perhaps it would be a good thing to explore it and play with it a bit. You don't need to hold on to it for dear life and of course, there is no benefit in denying evidence that points in another direction. Just revel in how little we actually know for sure, ponder the possibilities in a way that allows you to move forward as an individual. What's stopping you? Your fear of being wrong?
Fear lingering inside of you far after it has served its purpose tangles into a knot. As you ask yourself whatever questions might help you to move forward, imagine those knots untying and the creative juices will begin to flow, allowing you to reach levels of success and fulfillment that you never thought possible.
Overriding basic instinct or a natural progression?
There are many who assume that because fear does serve its purpose that it can not or should not be overridden. We are however entirely capable, in most situations more capable, of making sound judgement even after eliminating fear from the equation.
At one point we were forced to deal with rugged environments and a lack of understanding of the world around us. We are progressing as a collective in the same way that we do as individuals and now we are reaching a stage in our development where abundance is just within our collective reach.
Consider the possibility that our scientific and cultural advancements will allow us to see a new side of human nature that we have never seen before. We seem to be late at realizing that we have progressed beyond the need for existential fear, even as we face some of our greatest challenges. As we discover more about the nature of our reality and learn to produce greater abundance, we will find more and more that cooperation and compassion come natural to us and that there is nothing to be afraid of.
What fears are you holding on to? What beliefs might be causing those fears? Are you willing to challenge those beliefs? Share in the comments!
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Optimism at the end of the world 1 : Empathy
Optimism at the end of the world 2 : You Fucking Matter
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