Conquer your fears
IAM terrified of heights. I don’t know where it came from. My mother never told me if I suffered some kind of childhood trauma involving falling off from a high place (but I am still suspicious). When I walk on high levels of tall buildings, I stay away from the ledge. I don’t understand why people enjoy bungeejumping. I don’t even like bridges. I would probably never skydive unless you knock me unconscious first.
Two weeks ago, I found myself somewhere in the north of Greece. Before I continue, let me first say that I had no expectations of Greece, and yet it surprises me.
Greece is a beautiful country with so much to offer, especially if you enjoy the outdoors. And boy, do I love the outdoors.
Now back to the north of Greece. I had plans to hike and see the Vikos Gorge, which is apparently the second deepest canyon after the Grand Canyon in Arizona, United States.
But here’s the catch. To get to the hiking point, I must first drive up along the steep roads of the National Park with my rented semi-automatic car.
I dreaded this. There is nothing worse for an acrophobic than having to drive on a narrow road right next to a deep cliff.
As I drove up to the hiking point that morning, my knees were shaking so badly I probably burned a lot of calories from it alone.
Furthermore, the car kept reversing every time it came to a complete stop because I had to navigate the narrow curves.
I was having cold sweat as I had mental images of myself driving off the cliff and dying as my head cracks open from the fall. I still shiver when I think of it now.
But eventually I made it and I was able to hike and see the beautiful canyon with my very own eyes. It was made even more special from the fact that I had faced my fears and was rewarded with that stunning, once-in-a-lifetime view.
EFFECTS OF FEAR
The experience made me think about fears and how these things affect our lives. We all have different kinds of fear. A fear of commitment. A fear of losing things or people. A fear of being too different. A fear of failure. After all, it’s only human nature to feel some form of fear, one way or the other.
But I have also learnt that fear can be a paver of the course of our lives. I sometimes think about the things I never did because my fears superseded them.
It’s the same case for the most of us. Unfortunately, we sometimes make life choices based on our fears of what people would think. We don’t chase dreams because we are afraid of failure and we chicken out from being adventurous because we are scared of leaving our comfort zones.
As an experiment, try listing down three things you would really like to do, and then think about the reasons of why you’re not doing them. Chances are the reasons are driven by your being afraid of compromising something else in return.
And unless you’ve been in a coma, you’ll agree that a lot of things have happened in the past two weeks. Beyond our own personal lives, it was an opportunity to observe how fear has the ability to affect things on an even bigger scale.
The past elections exhibited this perfectly — fear has the power to even drive ideologies, whether it is the fear of losing rights or gaining privileges, regardless of which side you’re on.
DON’T LET IT TAKE CONTROL
Don’t let fear control you. Well, that’s a common generic life advice but it’s easier said than done, isn’t it?
From a different perspective, perhaps it’s a way for our guts to intuitively tell us that something is a bad idea. But on the other hand, aren’t most of the amazing things in life a little scary at first?
If you’re not afraid now and then, it means you’re not taking chances. And we all know the old-age saying that most of the things we end up regretting in life are the things we were too afraid to attempt. All right, maybe that’s not exactly how the saying goes but you see my point.
When I stood at the edge of the mountain and stared at the stunning view — a vast landscape wrapped in lush greens, eroded into valleys by the river — I was reminded of how facing our fears can lead to amazing rewards.
I have a long list of them; fear of heights, fear of being trapped in bad relationships (we’ll leave this to my shrink to resolve), fear of gaining weight and fear of being judged for my beliefs, to name a few. It’s a work in progress for me, as we all know that bravery is a lifelong learning curve.
I am glad that I conquered my fear that day in Greece, when I drove up with the car while reciting all the prayers I could recall in my head. Otherwise, I would probably be sitting here wishing I had seen the Vikos Gorge instead of reminiscing how beautiful it all was.
How about you? Which fear would you dare to conquer next?