Fear Is Only Powerful When We Fuel It
Fear is one of the things that has kept several people from achieving their dreams in life. It is something that only exists in our minds and imaginations yet has the power to terminate destinies.
Many times I wondered what fear truly is, something invisible but when it comes upon you, it can make you do crazy things.
Left to me, fear comes on us when we give it the chance, it is something that occurs as a result of consciousness. What you don't know can not scare you.
Back then when my kid sister was still crawling, she loved to play around our local lantern, you know it used to be very hot. My kid sister, because of ignorance, will try her best to play around the lantern, and if you try to stop her from doing so she will cry.
One day, while she was making an attempt to touch the lantern and I kept changing positions for it, my mom said "Leave it." Huh? "But she's going to get hurt," I replied. Mom said "Yes, but leave it there."
When I left it, my kid sis touched the top of the lanterns and it burnt her hand, she cried like she wasn't going to stop, after that day, she never played around lantern again, even if there was no light in it, if you bring it close to her, she cries and run away.
Many things can cause fear but the common one is consciousness, some of us grew up hearing certain stories about certain things that ended up affecting our psychology. Each time we see such things even if they are not harmful, we get scared and try to be careful.
Truth is carefulness resulting from fear, always ends up ruining things. I watched a horror movie. A medical doctor was taken to a nearby area to carry out an investigation. When he arrived at the scene with many soldiers, zombies started attacking those at the front line.
This doctor was still standing close to the plane, with many soldiers firing at the zombie but fear wouldn't let him be, he tried to run to somewhere only he knew and in the process, he slipped and broke his head, that was how he died.
Sometimes what we fear doesn't even have the Potency to kill us but the fear we allow to shroud our mind is what might end up causing us harm.
I was wondering, what if we don't know that certain things are dangerous or difficult? Do you know who would play with those things and attempt to do them without any second thought? But once you know so many people have tried this and failed or ended up a certain way. It becomes a big issue.
But don't get me wrong, fear is not entirely bad, there are times it also helps us escape danger and prepare very well for the tasks ahead of us.
My Experience With Fear
While I was growing up, I dreaded talking in public. I can do anything for you, but to talk where there are many people I don't find it easy.
Even if I know how to solve a certain problem, as far as it has to do with explaining to a crowd, I freak out. I am a fast talker and if I persist, I begin to stammer. I ran away from so many opportunities because of that.
I was supposed to be the head boy of my school during high school days but because I knew the responsibility has to do with talking to the crowd. I begged my mom to change school for me when there was just one term left for us to be handed over responsibility in the school.
I was hurt but I was scared, I didn't want anyone to discover my weaknesses. So I covered up by running away.
In the year 2019, I joined a prayer band in my church, we were just ten if I am not mistaken. I didn't know if our leader noticed I was scared of talking in public or something but a church vigil was organized, and funny enough, he said "Emreal, you are going to be leading prayer in the vigil."
"What?" I screamed. I tried to talk him out of that idea but he encouraged me and said I should just give it a try. Imagine I was a teacher then but still facing this challenge.
Well, I agree. On the day of the vigil, the church was filled with people. When I was given the microphone, I almost fainted but some minutes later, I discovered that I didn't die. I performed the tasks and people were amazed.
Since then, I have known that fear is an empty threat, we are the ones making it look as if it can kill us, well, actually it will kill you if you yield to it but when you decide to face it head-on, you will notice that there was nothing there. You were the one stopping yourself from going forward all this while.
After that day, I became bold, I could speak anywhere, except if I didn't want to. The fear of people laughing at me, the fear of saying something out of point, and the fear of losing my prestige died off. I discovered that trying to protect my class was even the reason why I was losing it. When I decided to let it go, I became a better person.