A Healthy Fear
Working for a courage building company, we spend a lot of time discussing how to get more courage, how to cultivate it in one’s self and others, as well as the negative aspects of instilling fear. As fear is an antonym of courage, I decided to explore it further. Roosevelt told us that we have “nothing to fear but fear itself,” but do we really need to fear fear?
We all know what fear feels like. It comes in many forms from the nagging fear that whispers and distracts you, to the paralyzing fear that wakes you up in the middle of the night with an elephant on your chest and your heart in your throat. It can manifest in an extreme form as a phobia and can even render us motionless like an animal stuck in headlights as the vehicle hurtles toward it. Fear can stop you from speaking up or from leaping from a precipice. Fear can also be exhilarating. Every day humans intentionally expose themselves to fear through a variety of methods including roller coasters, horror movies, bungee jumping and even diving head first out of airplanes.
