Fear is something that we all have to deal with and manage in our daily lives. We have worries, have to deal with unknowns, or face something that is truly life threatening. Some people want to illicit a fear response in us. They do this because either they want control us or they themselves have insecurities. They feel by causing you to fear them they in fact are becoming more secure and dominant. This gives them a sense of power and helps them to better cope with their insecurities. I will eventually talk in greater length about individuals who struggle in this area.
I always love to give definitions so I am going to do that like in so many of my other articles. So what is the definition of fear? Fear: an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.
We can feel fear even by the thought of situation. We can have anxieties about certain situations, events, or thoughts. This can lead to a fear response. For some individuals this can lead to disruption in their daily life.
So how do you live without fear?
One way to live without fear is to have a firm grasp on self awareness and a full array of effective coping skills/interventions. Support structure and healthy friends can be of great benefit. Turning to a higher power can be another great support for you. Finally counseling can be another positive way for you to develop effective ways for dealing with the fear you may be feeling in you daily life.
I am going to explore deeper into how your faith can help you with dealing with fear. I often am confronted with individuals who talk about unknowns. Unknowns often are very difficult to cope with because our mind can run with the unknown. Unfortunately we often go to the darkest and most fearful thought when facing an unknown. This creates havoc in our mind and body. So how can faith help? If you do a simple Google search you will find an article by The Heritage Foundation. When reviewing the article they have a paragraph that states: "It improves health, learning, economic well-being, self-control, self-esteem, and empathy." If you read a little further in this paragraph you will find that it lists that religion can help with anxiety.
So how does religion or faith do this? How can it provide so many benefits? It provides a framework. It provides a list of morals to conduct your life within. A religion often provides a support structure of people to lean on. The church provides a group of people that you can meet and form social bonds with. Religion also explains the unknowns. If you follow the teachings you will know the outcomes you will face. It even lists if you fail to follow the teachings the bad things that will happen. The hitch that many people struggle with in religion is the fact of having faith. With so many things in life we have to have faith. When we get married we have to have faith that the person we are marrying will continue to work for the relationship and hold up their end of the commitment. This is often where people fail. The struggle with the faith of what they are doing or involved in.
So how do you live life without fear. You first have to have faith. With faith you can have hope. With hope you can make changes in your life. When you have these things in place you end up not fearing the unknowns because you have the faith, hope, and resilience to move forward in life. We each should strive to meet each of our life domains and have them as balanced as possible.