"It's a windy, dark night and you just missed your train, and sadly, the next one doesn't leave for another hour. The train station is deserted, and you're the only one there. It's cold so you pull your jacket closer and sit down on a bench. The wind makes strange noises as it whips through the station and the sole functioning light swinging in the wind, flickers bravely. You fish out your "moby" (cell phone) only to discover that the battery is flat. Your eyes scan for a payphone just in case; and there's a phone booth, but the phone is missing".
Often in situations such as the one just described, we may experience anxiety, panic, or fear accompanied with emotional and physical manifestations. The heart starts to beat faster, our mouths become dry, our eyes dart here, there, and everywhere, scanning for potential danger, as we go in to a "flight or fight" response, ready to deal with a perceived threat. Fair enough, how else would we survive one may ponder.
So, back to the story......"Suddenly you hear someone cough nearby. You quickly try to ascertain where the sound is coming from. Cough, cough...again. You can't see anything, your eyes scan the platform, the phone booth, the stairs, nah...nothing. Where is the person? Your heart is beating twice as fast as normal and you feel extremely uncomfortable. You start to walk towards the sound, because although you are really scared, you have an even stronger urge to find out exactly what your perceived threat is so that you will know what you need to do to protect yourself. Cough, cough....Slowly you draw nearer to the sound. The hair on the back of your neck is standing up, your mouth is as dry as the Sahara desert, and your heartbeat could give a death-metal drummer a run for his money. You still keep going."
Maybe you wouldn't? Maybe you would view flight as a preferred option? Anyway,.....let's carry on with the story.... "Quickly you glance at your watch; another 15 minutes before the train arrives. Cough, cough....There's a sudden movement behind one of the billboards. What is it? Slowly you edge yourself closer. "The train for Lexleigh will arrive in 15 minutes on platform 2".. suddenly comes over the loudspeaker and you nearly jump out of your skin".
In fight mode all our senses are at peak level, adrenalin is rushing through our system, and our muscles tense and ready for action. Maybe fight is your preferred option?
"You nudge your way towards the billboard...cough, cough again. Hello? you say. No answer. Hello! a bit louder now. Still no answer. HELLO!!!! you shout as you come around the corner of the billboard".
The human imagination is a wonderfully creative and limitless resource. We don't need to be R.R Tolkien or C.S. Lewis or even J.K Rowling, we all have enough imagination to create monsters, heroes and villains, flesh eating zombies or bloodsucking vampires all of our own.
"Steven? Sitting on the ground with headphones plugged in and rocking along with the music, is Steven, your neighbours son. -'Oh, hi' he says, smiles at you and keeps bopping his head in time with the music in his earphones. -'Hi' you reply and take a deep breath of relief. You can feel your body relaxing, your heart beating regular again and you walk back to the bench and sit down while the loudspeaker announces that the train for Leixleigh will be arriving in a few minutes".
"Fear is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger. Fear is apparently a universal emotion; all persons, consciously or unconsciously, have fear of some sort. In short, fear is the ability to recognise danger leading to an urge to confront it or flee from it (also known as the fight-or flight response)." (from Wikipedia)
Fear, whether real or perceived, can become a controlling element in our lives if we allow it free reign in our consciousness. Anxiety is often fear of future events outside of our control, experienced as unavoidable, and panic can come from an alarm-response to earlier fearful, "scary" experiences.
Remembering how scared we were, we can experience panic just at the thought of experiencing/feeling it (whatever it was)again. Having said this, let us also remember that fear is a normal human response that protects us by making us aware of potential dangers and alerts us to prepare ourselves for dealing with it.
If we have a fear of the unknown, (lets face it, many of us do...)maybe we can brake "the unknown" down in to smaller, specific pieces and deal with those one by one?
If we fear different "known" phenomenon/feelings/things, maybe we can arm ourselves with understanding as much as possible about those?
Perhaps we can start with finding possible root causes for our fears? For example; if I'm scared of thunderstorms, am I scared of the thunder, the lightning, the loud sounds, the damage those can cause, or maybe something happened during a thunderstorm that now is only remembered as "fear of thunderstorms"? Fears can be scary!!...... however.......if we can imagine monsters, ghosts, and all sorts of hair raising beasts and a plethora of catastrophies, then maybe we can also imagine ourselves as courageous and monster slaying heroes and heroines.
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