Types Of Fears

Fear comes daily and often in our lives in the form of stress, worry, anxiety and in a variety of other wasteful and negative forms. Let us look at some of the types of fear human beings suffer from:

* The unknown - for example, death or a new situation.

* Loneliness - sometimes people fear loneliness to the extent that they cannot bear their own company, preferring to lose themselves in superficial (artificial) relationships and activities.

* The future - as the problems of the world increase, whether political, economic, environmental or social, this creates, or adds to, personal and collective fear of the future.

* Illness - sometimes because of fear of disease, people make their sickness worse than it is, or live in fear of inflicting (getting) something horrible.

* Other people - usually this is the greatest fear of all: fear of others' anger, rejection, judgement and violence.

* Failure - some people avoid doing something, or choose not to act, because their fear of failure weakens initiative and confidence.

* Authority - this can be fear of a parent, of a boss, even of God. Because authority has often been misused, in order to control and suppress people, it is a normal result that fear, in the form of suspicion and mistrust, has become such a negative force, both personally and collectively, in society.

There are many reasons for these types of fear, but the main ones include:

* Past experiences, which brought disappointment, insecurity, or wariness (caution).

* Lack of faith in one's self and in others.

* The need for approval, to belong, or to be accepted.

* The habit of seeing things negatively.

Observing But Not Absorbing

To observe means we take a new, appropriate mental position in whatever situation, or in whatever relationship, we find ourselves.Observation is a silent skill — a skill we need to learn if we are to assess clearly what positive changes are needed to be made in the self in a particular situation or relationship.

If we fail to learn this art of observing, we are likely to react and absorb ourselves in the negativity of the person, or event. We get lost in the quicksand of 'what's wrong?' which prevents us from putting things right.  As we absorb and fill ourselves with negative emotion, we become heavy and remain helplessly rooted to the ground.  The gravity of overload does not allow us to rise above a situation and to understand the reality of what is happening. As a result, we lose perspective and overreact.

If we wish to understand how the mental position of observation gives us the power of perspective, we can look at the example of the bird and the ant. The ant, extremely busy, running here and there, scrambling over everything in its rush to find and collect food, will see only what is in front of its nose. The bird, on the other hand, leaves the earth and, as it flies higher and higher, starts to see the bigger picture, compared to when it was on the ground, or on the branch of a tree. Seeing the whole picture, it has a completely different perspective. It is only then that it can truly see where to go and what to do. When we get absorbed in a situation or relationship, we lose perspective, we are like the ant, we get too involved in the details, missing the 'obvious', and cannot imagine, or think of other possibilities.

BK Sister Shivani - Personality Development - Happiness