Treat fear as a gift

Fear is "an unpleasant emotion or thought that you have when you are frightened or worried by something dangerous, painful or bad that is happening or might happen." Most people in the modern world live eternally in fear of their lives. They fear incurable diseases such as AIDS or cancer. Then there are so many other things that compel us to live in fear. Killers, rapists, robbers and snatch thieves are some of them.

Psychologically fear is a form of stress. It is one of the most extensively researched emotions of the last decade. Scientists say that fear has a biological upside and downside. This can be explained in simple terms. When a person is in imminent danger, fear acts as a survival instinct. When a potential rapist enters a woman's bedroom, her body's warning system will be activated.

In primeval times, if you ignored fear, you were certain to be killed by a predator. Civilisation has taught us many tricks to avoid dangerous situations. Today, we are on full alert at the first sign of danger.

When a tsunami warning is given, we leave almost everything behind and run for safety. Science and technology have devised many gadgets to protect our lives and property. But we still live in fear. Even after 50,000 years of civilisation, the genetic imperative of fear is still with us.

When you read newspapers, you get the queer feeling that the world is full of killers, thieves, swindlers, rapists and terrorists. So, naturally you are gripped by fear even when you are at home or on the move. Then there are those who foretell the end of the world on December 12, 2012! If you take such people seriously, life will come to a standstill.

Apart from such speculative fears, sometimes we are gripped by fear in real-life situations. What will happen if a venomous snake or a rabid dog comes at you? On such occasions, your senses will send a signal to your brain's alarm system. If the threat is sufficiently grave, the hypothalamus will activate a cascade of hormones, including adrenaline, the fight-or-flight hormone.

Almost all of us have experienced such situations. Think of such a situation when your heartbeat and blood pressure increased. Your muscles would have tightened and your respiration would have slowed down. Intense fear will compel you to hold your breath so that you can see and hear better. These are common psychological responses to fear.

Although fear is an unpleasant emotion, some people love to be scared.

For those who go for Dracula films and read horror stories, fear becomes a gratifying experience.

Psychologists say that we are physically programmed to respond to fear and its effects. But how do we know what to be afraid of? It is true that some fears have been encoded in our genes so that we are aware of certain dangers. However, most of us were taken unawares when the tsunami hit the coastal areas in 2004. When the water receded in the ocean, some people thought that it was a fine occasion to pick something from the ocean bed!

For most of us, fear is a constant companion. It is always there hidden in some dark recess of our mind. Some philosophers, notably J. Krishnamurti, have considered whether it is possible to be completely free of fear. Krishnamurti said, "If one is going to understand and be free of fear, one should understand pleasure; they are inter-related."

Modern man has been conditioned by the culture of fear. As a result, it is a problem for him even if he thinks that he has solved this problem. What happens then is that the question of fear keeps on popping up in different forms. If he thinks that he cannot get rid of fear, he is simply blocking himself.

Although we normally think of fear as something unpleasant, Garvin de Becker, a modern psychologist, treats fear as a gift. He says, "Like every creature, you can know when you are in the presence of danger.

"You have the gift of a brilliant internal guardian that stands ready to warn you of hazards and guide you through risky situations."

Some of us have forgotten to rely on our instincts to protect ourselves. We should not leave the issue of violence to the police and other law enforcement authorities. Also we should not depend too much on technology to protect us from danger.

Unknown to many of us, we have all the information we need to warn us of certain suspicious people and situations. You might call it intuition or gut feeling. Although our gut feeling is quite strong, sometimes we are not prepared to rely on it.

There seems to be a close affinity between fear and courage. You can use your fears in a positive way. Courage requires the presence of adversity. That means, if there is no fear, there is no courage.

Once the former British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan undertook a trip to Africa where he was met by a huge crowd of angry Negroes carrying signs protesting against segregation. Spotting one man holding a sign upside down, Macmillan walked up to him and said, "I say, old chap, would you mind holding this right side up so that I can read it?"

The angry crowd appreciating Macmillan's courage, burst into gales of laughter and applauded the man they had come to picket. Macmillan treated fear as a gift and tested his courage admirably.