Fear (Swine Flu)

Lately, I see quite a bit of fear associated with this disease called the "Swine flu". It seems to have taken hold of most everyone around me.
I also, have recently been overwelmed by the energy associated with this fear in others to the point that I said things I regretted later.
It made me realize how strong this thing called "fear" is and how it affects society.
I submit the following article from
http://next-generation-leader.com/the-disease-called-fear-and-its-cure.html
for your review if this subject interests you.
I found it helpful.
Peace and Blessings,
WhiteShaman


The Disease Called Fear and Its Cure

Fear has gripped the world like a giant octopus, spreading its tentacles across society and deep into people’s life. It is affecting people’s psychology largely. None of us is untouched with fear; we are affected by fear in some or other way. If you analyze your own action, you would find many of the actions are respond to a deep-rooted fear in you. If I take an analogy, I would say, Fear is a highly contagious disease and it is hereditary. We pickup fear of various forms from our society every day. Pickup a newspaper and the first page of the paper will scare you to death. Parents pass on fear to their children’s, many leaders spread fear in the society to ride that fear to grab power.
People do everything to get rid of their fears. They toil to exestuation for financial security, put electronic alarm in the house to protect the family. The atom bomb is made to protect countries. But the fear grows deeper and bigger in various forms. With growing age, the fear grows, with new kind of fear added to peoples life, and by end, life is restricted to a small shell, overwhelmed with fear. People become doubtful, suspicious, and their behavior becomes erratic and incomprehensible many times.
Fear takes away the essence of life. It does not allow to express the inner self in the world, and that defeats the very purpose of the God’s creation. So there is no bigger sin in the world than fear. Fear transforms itself to all other negative emotions like anxiety, anger, frustration and jealousy. It is only by getting rid of fear that one can enjoy the life fully. People who are under perpetual fear would never be able to understand the blissful feeling that emerges when they live the life without fear. The benefits of living life void of fear are immense and it affects all area of life. It reduces the stress level; It improves health, interpersonal relationship, financial status, and image in the society. It is a birth right of every human being to live a life void of fear.
The relevance of this article here is that a true leader has to be void of fear. A person can only be true leader if he/she can get rid of the fears. No one follows a scared person. People expect the leaders to take away their fears. To do that a leader has to be fearless himself. That is most important attribute of a leader.
Understanding Fear
Fear is a life saving neurological mechanism that works in all organisms. This allows animals to prepare and respond to the life threats. It works very well with animals and saves their lives. We human have also got the same mechanism working in our mind, and that is meant for the real threat to life. Unlike ancient world, in modern society the real threats to human life are very rare. It is not wise to live in the fear in the modern society; It does more harm than the protection it gives.
Many of the fear are the byproduct of the modern lifestyle and many are perceived or imaginary fears. Many fears have over lived its lifetime. Many a time people get so used to a fear, that they do not realize it. Origin of such fear could be somewhere in the past, or it might have built up over a period of time.
Let me give couple of example of fears that are common among many people that I have come across, It will be easier that way to tell you what kind of fear I am talking about.
For example, fear of not being recognized. Kids do things that please the parents and get praised from them, it feels good. When they grow up they do things to teacher teachers, friends, spouse, boss, society, and then from children’s. That becomes such a habit that people can’t live without a constant praise from someone. If they are not recognized by the boss they give-up job. And if spouse fails to recognize the effort of the other half, the relationship goes bad. Many put all their effort to be something, and they won’t know what that something is. All they want is a bigger praise from people around.
Another common fear among the working lot is of losing the job. Ninety percent of the working lots are in the grip of this uncanny fear. How much ever the market go down the there will be enough for all and there will be job for all. Life doesn’t end with loss of one job. The fear might be valid for ten percent of the people but not for ninety percent of the people. This fear creates havoc in a work place. This is a fear that takes away the courage and professionalism. People tend to follow the boss and do whatever pleases him/her to retain the job. Many a time this takes the focus away from doing the right thing.
There are many fears which become self fulfilling prophesies. For example fear of failure. Whatever undertaking a person takes if there is a fear of rejection, or fear of failure, it affects the outcome. The focus is completely taken away from the success strategy to the mitigation of the fear. The fear that gets the attention and energy does take shape to reality.
There are many fears that actually add fuel to the cause of the fear and make it bigger. It is a proven fact that fears of ill health does cause ill health. Whatever a persons lifestyle is, if he consider himself healthy and do whatever a healthy person does and enjoy the health, it will make the person healthier.
The Cure of Fear
Personally I did try to get rid of many unnecessary fears that I had. To get rid of the fear of losing job, I even once put my papers without having a job in hand, to make the long story short I finally got rid of the fear. And it did help me become a better and courageous professional; I could focuses on doing the right thing in the job, and become more relaxed on the job.
However most of the time this method doesn’t work and it is not practical too. In many occasions this method can backfire and can strengthen the fear. I have derived better method to deal with fears. That is of taking the energy away from the fear.
In this method one have to stop fighting against the fear. You will have to practice to not think about the fear at all. And focus on everything in the life that you already have that gives a feeling opposite to that of the fear. Those are the things that give you a feeling of empowerment, and joy. This is a method that works always. It gradually takes away the energy from the fear. The positive side of your life at the same time grows bigger and more vibrant, and making the fear insignificant and small.
It is easier said than done. Many of our fears are not our fear alone, but those are the fear of the society that we live in. Even if we stop thinking about them, they do appear in front of us in various forms, like in the form of news blown out of proportion, exaggerated gossip etc.. I would suggest in such situations just turn around and look the other way. You don’t have to participate in a talk whose entire basis is on an uncanny fear. You have better things to do in life. Life has many good things to enjoy.
Another way of getting rid of fear is staying in touch with positive and fearless peoples, being among people who are void of fear. It does help a lot to get rid of fear of your life and live a fulfilled life. An acute fear/phobia should be left to be dealt with by a professional psychiatric.

You Can't Be Brave Unless You Are Afraid

The brighter and more imaginative you are the more fearful you will be.

We get more fearful as we get older because we become more experienced.

We find out that there are more things to be frightened of. We discover that the world isn't always entirely fair. And we discover that things do, sometimes, go wrong.



You can only be brave if you have fears. Bravery is the act of overcoming those fears. The more fears you have - and the bigger they are - the greater your bravery.

The wise old soldier who deliberately walks out into gunfire to save his friend is brave. But the young soldier who has no idea what death means is not being brave when he rushes towards the enemy. He is reckless. Stupid, even. But not brave.

By and large the young do not fear death, partly because they are still innocent and arrogant enough to believe that they are immortal, partly because they have not yet seen death and do not realise just how real and final it truly is, and partly because they have not lived enough to know the value of life.


Conquer Your Fear And Regain Your Freedom

Mental illness is commoner now than it has ever been. Anxiety, sleeplessness and depression are endemic.

The turmoil, the agony, the mental distress, the rage - most of these things come not from what others do to us but from what we do to ourselves.

Understanding this simple truth does not make life any easier but it does make a little clearer what we must do to protect ourselves.

The two bitter sweet emotions which rule our lives are love and fear.

Love (the sweet) gives us pleasure and makes us feel good - whether the love is for another person, an animal, a type of food, a particular place or some material object.

And fear (the bitter) is the fundamental killer.

Most people think that fear is a minor problem: an irritation.

It isn't.

Negative emotions drive us harder than positive emotions and you have to be at peace with your negative emotions - and that means your primal fears - before you can love properly.


Varieties Of Fear

There are many different types of fear.

We fear being alone; being a social outcast, an oddity.
We fear bereavement because we will be left alone.
We fear pain.
We fear loss of freedom or liberty.
We fear losing control of our lives.
We fear hunger.
We fear death. (And the fear of dying gets worse with age because we know that the fear is steadily becoming more realistic.)
We fear the unknown.
We fear humiliation, embarrassment and shame.
We are frightened of feeling inadequate. We fear losing face. And we fear ridicule.
We fear being different. (And we fear being perceived as being different).
We fear failure. And we fear success because we aren't sure that we will deserve it, or be able to cope with it if it comes.
We fear the things we know and understand because we know how dangerous they can be. And we fear the things we do not know or understand simply because they are different and unknown and we do not know how dangerous they can be.


Fear Is Everywhere

Fear is the single underlying force which lies behind loneliness, sadness, greed, resentment, bitterness, anxiety, jealousy and hate.

(We are, for example, jealous because we are afraid that we may lose the person we love.)

Fear is the power behind those negative forces which cause stress, mental and physical disease and which are usually treated (quite wrongly) as though they are primary problems.

The workaholic, who destroys his/her health through a searing, unquenchable ambition, is driven by a fear of inadequacy.

Even sex addiction (that 21st century favourite of the tabloids) is a result of fear. The individual who is frightened that he/she has lost his/her attractiveness to the opposite sex, and is frightened of being left alone, will keep acquiring new partners in a constant search for reassurance - and freedom from fear.

When fear goes out of control we demonise it still further by calling it a phobia.


Fear Creates Anger

Fear is also the basic force behind anger.

Psychiatrists and psychologists get things wrong as often as weather forecasters.

They regard agoraphobia as a fear of open spaces. This is phooey. Most agoraphobics aren't really frightened of going out of doors. They're frightened of meeting people.

And the so-called experts regard anger as a primary emotion. As a result anger therapy is enormously popular these days - particularly among the self-indulgent.

But if you think about it you will, I suspect, agree with me that long-term anger (the destructive variety) is not a primary problem.

Anger develops because it is caused by fear. Fear causes anger and anger, in turn, creates more fear.

And until you know exactly what you are afraid of you won't be able to do anything about your anger.

It's a vicious, nasty, destructive circle.


Humbled And Humiliated

When we are afraid we feel humbled and humiliated. And when we are humiliated through fear we feel resentful and angry. Eventually the hatred builds up and creates insecurity and a feeling of worthlessness. That in turn all makes us ever more vulnerable to fear. And so it goes on.

The worst and most powerful and most destructive hatred is that which we feel towards ourselves for being afraid.

Fear is the under-rated, unacknowledged basic force which wrecks millions of lives.

Many of our most destructive emotions are often treated as though they are primary problems. But they are frequently secondary to a deeper problem - fear.

Fear is a primary force in our lives: it is the most fundamental cause of pain and distress. It is, perhaps, the most powerful and most fundamental force of all. It is the father of a whole range of destructive and damaging emotions.

Whichever of your fears is the greatest will determine the twists and turns your life follows.

And the most fundamental fear of all is fear itself.


Where Does All This Fear Come From? (And Why Are We So Afraid)

`The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation', wrote Henry David Thoreau.

He was right, of course.

And the desperation comes out of fear.

Why are we so much more afraid than our ancestors? Our ancestors lived in a world about which they understood very little. They should have been consumed by fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of being eaten alive. Fear of starvation. Fear of death and illness.

We, by contrast, should lead relatively fear-free lives.

But, all the evidence suggests that fear now plays a bigger part in our lives than it ever played in our ancestors' lives.

Why?

One word.

Change.

We fear change.,br>
We fear anything new because it is different and we don't know how it will affect our lives or how we will react to it. We have far more things to be frightened of than our ancestors ever had. They were afraid of hunger, cold and sabre-toothed tigers. We have 1001 things to be afraid of every single day of our lives. All different.

New technology constantly creates new fears.

We worry about whether we will be able to cope. We worry about whether we will be able to understand how to use the technology. We worry about whether we can afford to keep up with the latest technology. And we know that long before we have learned how to use a new piece of software it will be out-of-date.

And then there is the fact that our society needs us to be frightened.

Fear is a powerful driving force which helps to push us forwards. Fear encourages us to spend money, to accept progress and to treat those around us with contempt and disrespect. Fear helps to keep us weak but it helps to keep our society strong. Fear divides us and cripples us, but gives our social structures strength. Today we are never allowed to forget our fears for an instant.

It is no accident that industries, advertising agencies, politicians, experts and television commentators all contribute to our daily ration of fear.

Fear is one of the most potent forces used to control us and to manipulate our emotions. It is fear which often leads us to change our habits - to the advantage of some part of our society. It is fear which justifies progress.


Our Fears Are Manipulated

Fear is everywhere and is constantly used by people who want our support.

Politicians make us frightened of street violence in order to encourage us to allow them (and the social structures which they operate) to have more power. Police chiefs recommend stronger policing. Prison officers recommend better prisons.

Politicians make us frightened of our enemies abroad (even if our enemies abroad are no real threat to us) because by making us frightened they can win more power for themselves. Fear wins elections.

Fear is a potent weapon and the availability of television and radio mean that we can be frightened more speedily and more effectively than ever before.

Every representative of every social structure uses fear to manipulate us. Fear helps our society to sustain itself and to increase its power over us.

This is exactly what ive been talkin about! This is also what the movies ive mention talk about. If people live in fear the earth will reflect it, the earth being an organism of sorts, if its cells and systems ( animals plants, and waters air and such), are polluted, and defiled, how can the organism live? IF we treated out bodies ( lots of people do i belive) the same way we treat the planet, imagine how short our life is.

i also belive that fear is a natural part of our lives and being), fear creates stress in ourselves, which we all know how bad stress is. We shouldnt be stressing about work, or wheather the end is near, but we should worry about, our health and happiness. One of peoples biggest fear is himself. We fear inner selves and our inner deamons so much, that we lash out in many different ways ( violence, bad choices ( in all of the facets of our lives) We shouldnt blame anything else, becasue as a people, we did it to ourselves in many ways. We elected the leaders, we decided to accept laws and everything that has happend so far. This also means we can choose where to go.

HelloKitty (JR)...LOL : )

We are surviving on this earth
so good, bad, ugly will be around us
and we get to have fun delegating
what goes where....

FEAR makes my cat bite me
FEAR makes me kill a tiny spider or gnat
FEAR ruins my life (makes me sick and dangerous)
while I run through a gamut of knives (metaphorically)
FEAR is the unknown and we calm when we learn more.....

When there is time to mastermind then FEAR is used to
control (manipulate) whomever chooses to be caught...
You know people give in just to be with each other...

FEAR is a natural instinct unless we can't feel emotions
or understand what they are in the first place.

FEAR is a man-made word for a feeling and behavior
WHO IS MAN AND WHY?

Interesting spark,

Hello and to you!

I feel that much of humanity has become so accustomed to blaming an outside influence on fear, and has thus disempowered themselves as a result.

It takes great strength to quit blaming others for the presence of our fear. So many people are capable of buying into death, money, shadow governments, sinister elites, terrifying agendas, disease, aliens, ghosties, etcetc.. forgive me, I come from a forum that runs rampant with conspiracy theorists.. but people really DO buy into this. We read about all the nastiness that plagues our world, then we begin bleating this exact message that has been conveyed to us. We become part of the problem. We create a snowball effect. Many of us do not recognize that power we carry – and it is very possible that we have been using this power to spread fear ourselves.. not some sinister entity out there, plaguing our thoughts. We are so alienated from the human mind that we begin to think it is a separate entity, instead of something we create for ourselves. We don't realize what our fear can do to our society. It is contagious, as every emotion is.

We are powerful creatures. We are creators. We have a choice. It is our choice. We can choose between love and fear, but we must first take responsibility for our own mind and consciousness. If we can steer our minds into a positive world filled with light, we will recognize this breathtaking positive world filled with light. It is our choice.

I understand
it's true
LIFE is different in the LIGHT
BETTER!