Fear and Opposite Action

Fear is a natural feeling that we all have at one time or another.  Evolutionarily speaking it was completely essential to the survival of our species.  It is primal and seeks our survival.  It kept us from being eaten by Saber Toothed Tigers.  In the present its message still is, "If you do that, you will die."  When I tell this to clients they often laugh because the extremity of the message is radically disproportionate to the situation they are dealing with.  Fortunately, most of us are not in a position on a daily basis of making decisions that will imminently lead to our death or that of another.   When we learn to separate the feeling of fear from the message of extinction, which leads us to tell ourselves "I can't (ride the subway, have a healthy relationship, stop drinking, change careers, etc.)," we are in a position to take our power and agency back.  It's not about not having the feeling of fear, it is about keeping fear as a feeling and not allowing it to direct our lives.  We can have the feeling of fear and take opposite action in the face of it.  Every time we take action even though we are afraid and do not die we change our brain by providing experience that is different from its assumption.  Thus, the assumption changes little by little and we become less fearful.   I recommend we be gentle, brave, and firm with ourselves.  If you suffer claustrophobia it is not a good idea to go to Time Square on New Year's Eve.  Choose an action that is out of your comfort zone and not extreme.  The point is to take action and live.  The more our actions are based in the choice to live fully and not be confined by fear, the freer we become.  Take the action.  Your brain will catch up.