There is not a man who would have never felt fear. Even the brave and courageous man something so afraid from time to time. It may be different, so we do not always realize that we are afraid of something. And in order to defeat him, we must first understand what fear is and what it is all we need. In other words, just knowing what is the psychology of fear, you can find an effective weapon against him.
Why are people afraid of?
Fear is a natural instinctive reaction to a real or imaginary threat. We have expressed, and it is perceived as an emotional reaction to any object or situation. This is one of the most important emotions experienced by us as well as animals have a highly developed nervous system. Fear is an expression of our self-preservation instinct, and is necessary in order to serve as a warning signal about the existing danger and instability and encourage us to meet face to face the threat (or, which is preferable in order to preserve the life or health, try to avoid it).
Even in nature, used to intimidate male animals to establish their own dominance over other individuals, subdue them (I must say that men also use this method to establish their own dominance, even if they do not realize it). Most often, we are afraid instinctively: we have time to get scared before are aware of the reason for this. The experience of suffering and pain of each person through fear teaches the latter to find ways of defense against unwanted situations and the memories associated with them.
We experience fear as physically (it appears shortness of breath, heart palpitations, cold sweat, muscle tension) and psychologically
. And if you compare one with the other, the psychological experience of fear is more problematic because it can be caused by not actually existing, and located only in our imagination the cause; and as a result, such a far-fetched panic causes a strong effect in the body
. In a sense, the fear that arises in our mind is the root cause of the fact that there is the fear that we experience on a physiological level; that is, one fear is able to produce another equally strong fear
. Our fear is mixed with other feelings and emotions in our mind is so strong that the objective of the struggle with our deep-rooted fears may seem too complicated and time-consuming
. Such is the psychology of fear - we are not only afraid of something, but we are afraid even to deal with their own fear
.
Fear as the driving force of human evolution
Fear is perhaps the most important factor responsible for the development of our civilization. The modern human society is a product of our collective efforts, aimed primarily at self-preservation. Fear of the unknown man, the dangers, and his vulnerability when he remained alone, led to the appearance of communities and eventually led to civilized life. In the old days all kinds of leaders and rulers ruled their subjects, using people's fear of the authorities and to God - the most effective tool for managing the masses. Fear of punishment and social stigma continue to be major constraints, without which the maintenance of law and order in modern society would not be possible.
Fear dominates all emotions. Indeed, one does not know firsthand what fear is. Most of the thoughts and actions of man he dictates the fear. There is no exaggeration in what we spend our whole lives trying to cope with our fears. Ask such a purpose, you can easily track our progress and achievements, our behavior and reactions, our relationships and interactions associated control anxiety and fear, hidden deep within us. Depending on how to react to it, fear can act as destabilizing or motivating factor in human life.
Manifestations of fear
Each person has a fear manifests itself in different ways. It is responsible for the disorder and personality variations in behavior. As a rule, the fear gives birth attendant problems: anxiety and nervousness, panic attacks, tension, insecurity, inferiority complex, timidity, shyness, indecision, lack of initiative, and so on.
The constant fear of something causes a negative reaction and heavy emotions such as low self-esteem, neurosis, inadequacy, conformity, aggression. Fearing something, people tend to try to avoid a collision with the problems that come with their fear, and they begin to lie, create delays, to present all kinds of other claims. Sometimes the fear can manifest as aggression - a subconscious defensive reaction to anything that makes a person emotional discomfort, fear and uncertainty. Aggressive people - it is usually quite timid, not to say - cowardly personality.
Types fears
Sometimes the simple fear that most of us experience in our everyday lives, and there are fears of more intensive, caused by extreme conditions and situations that expose us to danger or intense instability. There is another kind of fear - phobia. Phobia - a deep, persistent and irrational fear of certain objects or situations based on our past, and depending on the current reality. Some examples of phobias - fear of the dark, crowded places, heights, spiders, fear of closed space - the list can be endless.
Our attachment can also give rise to fear. The possibility of losing what we like, and the prospect of dealing with the fact that we do not like, produce feelings of anxiety, fear and pain. When we are attached to our memories, we can not enjoy the present and fear of the future. Anxiety arising from our awareness of time as a linear movement, makes us fear the constant aging of our bodies, disease and death, and often there is not only the fear of his own death but insane anxiety for loved ones.
Fear knows no age limits. We are different fears in different stages of our lives. As time goes by, we leave behind some fears and acquire new ones. And sometimes faced with the fact that the fear gets its extreme form - the form of terror, when emotions are used by some people to coerce and control over others.
The reasons for our fears
While some phobias are based on our past experience, the emergence of the common fears influenced by the following factors:
Extreme. People suffer from fear and anxiety when they are exposed to extreme physical stimuli, such as extreme cold, flooding or hostile environment; something that carries with it a danger and threat to life.
Ignorance. We tend to worry and not to trust, as we have no prior knowledge. People are usually afraid of the unknown, the inexplicable and the unknown.
Lack of information. When we have enough information about the event or situation, we are suffering from anxiety and fear so much, how much we value this information.
Uncertainty. People who are familiar with the stock market, know how uncertainty affects the volatility of the stock price. Uncertainty causes anxiety and fear, and this was the reason why so many of our contemporaries is committed to all kinds of astrologers and fortune tellers - they just want to feel more comfortable, "knowing" about the future.
Past experience. Many of our fears are born of experience - our own or other people. If we find ourselves in a situation where fear and tested and have not found a way out, and we will continue to repeatedly experience the fear in such situations.
How to cope with their fears
Yes, the psychology of fear is based on our instincts - it is a response to a perceived threat, it is real or imaginary. Yes, its purpose is to be a protective mechanism to rescue us from the dangers of life. However, fears are able to interfere in our lives and to severely limit our ability to achieve its goals. But we can learn to live with confidence, to make a conscious effort to overcome fears.
We can manage most of them through self-knowledge. You just need to listen to ourselves and to understand the situations in which our fears arise that activates them. This knowledge will help to learn how to react to our inherent fears, will help to break the stereotype of thinking associated with our fears. And when we once again find ourselves in a situation that frightens us, we will have a choice: to give our emotions to take control over us or maintain composure to fears ceased to have power over us.
Very interesting technology to combat fears practice Tibetan monks. If we try to translate into a language understandable to us "instructions" of this technology, we have turned to: "Give yourself at the mercy of fear, and you shall drive out of himself to his demons." The essence of this method is as follows: a monk is immersed in something like a meditation, and begins to think of something he very much afraid. He tries to visualize all their horror, and thus draw in the imagination as he gives himself to the full power of your fear. Monk imagine the worst thing that could happen to him. When the imaging procedure is over, he comes to his senses and stop being afraid of what used to induce the horror of it. After experiencing extreme panic, it stabilizes your mind and let your fears.
We can also gain control over our fears, like practicing visualization. To do this, do not need to go through the cemetery, if you, for example, fear of such places. You can do this without leaving your home, right here and now. You can practice this technique in any situation, no matter what you are. Conjures up vivid images of objects and situations in which you experience the horror and try to build a script, so that in the end everything was in your favor. This will help you learn new ways out of terrible situations.
You can also use visualizations to change their thinking and attitudes towards their fears. Simply draw the scene in his mind that cause you fear the worst, and imagine that you manfully to overcome them and become a winner. So do you get your subconscious to believe that we were able to overcome their fears. And you can really make them disappear power of your own thoughts!
