Don’t let your fear intimidate you

I hope most of you might have watched the old Tamil movie, by the name “Thenali” in which Kamal Haasan plays the role of a fear and phobia victim, in which he seems to encompass all the different types of fear.  It is a comedy movie, but it also showcases how many different types of fear, we humans can encounter. If you make a search in Google, for “List of Fears and Phobias” you will be surprised to see how many of them exist. Some may sound real and we can relate to it, but many of them appear strange, silly or weird.  But the truth is, whoever is experiencing it, is having a difficult time.

Don’t let your fear intimidate you. Be aware of your fear, the reasons behind your fear, accept it and deal with it. Human beings have survived the most difficult of times and this is just another such difficult time, which we will emerge out of too.

 

Irrespective of growing up to adults, a lot of us carry a number of irrational fears. I have a lot of fears too, like the fear of ghosts, darkness, street dogs, snakes and insects. We are afraid of so many things, right from the big wild animals such as Lions and Tiger, to the small ones including Snakes, Rats, bees, and the Corona virus which is not visible to our eyes. The overwhelming feeling of fear can often be intimidating.

 While trying to understand the concept of fear, I realized that “We are afraid of anything we don’t understand”. We are afraid of the darkness, but when the light comes, fear disappears. Similarly, fear is a sort of our ignorance. When awareness and understanding come, the fear disappears. How we react or respond to fear depends not just based on our logical understanding but also on our emotional conviction, because fear is an emotion.

 

So, let’s first accept that fear is natural and something common. It is a human’s way of survival. If human have survived the prehistoric days, it is not just through their valour but through their preparedness in the face of fear. It was the fear, that kept the human’s alert and sharp to warning signals, which helped humans to be cautions and intelligently deal with it. So, there is nothing shameful about fear. However, too much of fear can also paralyze us, which we should not let to happen.

 

The fight-flight-freeze response is our body’s natural reaction to danger. It’s a type of stress response that helps us react to any perceived threat.

 

With context to the Corona Virus, let’s see how each works:

 

Fight – It is often more difficult to fight an invisible enemy, than something big in size. However, there are the Doctors and Healthcare workers, who are working to support the recovery process of COVID infected patients. And there are Scientists working hard to find a vaccine to end this threat. So, efforts are on to combat the deadly virus.

 

Flight – This is what we were advised to do, during the lock down… Just stay indoors and avoid any chance for exposure.

 

Freeze – Our lifestyle has come to a slow move mode or almost freeze mode, especially for people, who have lost their jobs and don’t know what to do next.

 

In addition to the tree modes, there is also the 4^th F option, which we can call the Face mode.

 

Face – Facing the situation is about taking all the safety precautions like social distancing, wearing a mask, hand wash etc and doing our best to go about living a normal life.

 

This has now, more or less come to practice, yet the threat stays. Each person may take a different approach, which he/she feel suitable and think is the right thing to do, while facing this pandemic. So, it would be wise not to comment which one of the above, is the best, no matter what our choice may be.

 

While we are experiencing the fear of the virus, let us remember fear by itself has the characteristics of the virus, which is the contagious nature.

 

   

 D. Senthil Kannan,

  Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

  Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

  Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com