Face fear head on

FEAR comes in many shades and forms, but we tend not to take too much notice of its presence.

We learn to live with it until it dominates our life, and may even lead to some form of physical sickness.

The greatest fear of all is the fear of death, because all physical relationships and material possessions are lost.

People are terrified of untimely death, and this fear is growing because of the increasing uncertainties of life today.

Scientific advancements have made life more comfortable. However, insecurity has also kept pace with progress.

While we do reconcile the death of innocents in natural calamities or accidents by telling ourselves that it was willed by fate, or that it was beyond our control, acts of wanton killing carried out by humans often leave a deep scar within us, because they undermine our trust in our fellow human beings.

We need to drill into our minds that one only loses by giving in to fear. It paralyses the mind, and renders it incapable of doing what it can easily do otherwise.

The behaviour of pigeons illustrates this well. Frozen with fear when they see a cat, pigeons just shut their eyes instead of flying away. The result? They get killed.

However, when we human beings take on any situation calmly and with courage, we will be able to change our tendency to get frightened by unexpected or adverse circumstances.

Another change needed is in the way we look at adversity.

All the tests that we face in life, regardless of whether we pass them or not, make us stronger, and equip us to face more challenges in future.

If we dodge these tests for fear of failure or loss, we will no more advance in life than a student who refuses to sit for examinations out of examination phobia.