Resist: It's Time

In the last two weeks, a lot of things have happened which are making a lot of people a lot of scared, and justifiably so. I'm not pretending that my personal situation is more dire than anyone else's. While some of the things going on do directly threaten my family, they're still currently at arm's length.

Someone was talking to me tonight about being scared, and I had some thoughts that might be useful.

Fear is what makes you focus and pay attention, and react to immediate threats. Humans evolved in an environment which is far more immediately dangerous than what we enjoy today. I think that fear is simply part of being human, and that when our brains don't get to experience dangers, we have to compensate for a lack of fear.

Now that there are "real" things to be afraid of, and we're so conditioned by personal experience to not be afraid, and we're still compensating for not being afraid ... while being afraid ... well, that's disorienting.

What I have done, what seems to be working for me, goes back to why I started this place here to begin with. Don't be worried, be prepared.

Worry is one thing, fear is another, of course. For me, I am adding Don't be afraid, pay attention and act accordingly. Again, I think that fear is what makes us focus and pay attention. Once you're paying attention, then you can better assess what the actual danger level is, and what your response (if any) should be.

This can be practiced in everyday situations. Example: I was driving the other day, and found myself at a stoplight. Cars in front of me, next to me, behind me. A curb and a steep slope down to my right. I didn't have an exit path for my car; if something "stupid" had happened at that moment, I would have had to abandon my car and take off on foot.

I wasn't afraid in that moment, but it came into my head to "look for an exit." What would it be? It would be running. I estimated that the likelihood that I would need to hoof it before the light changed was insignificant, but I was just a little more prepared than I was moments before.

I feel better thinking about fear as an important and necessary aspect of being human, and instead of trying to avoid it entirely, feeding little pieces to my brain consistently, and then consuming that fear with attention and planning.

Again, there are plenty more people in plenty more dire circumstances than I'm in right now, and I'm not trying to portray myself as some kind of superhero. But I'm finding that this way of addressing my own fears seems to be working for me, and if it works for me, it might work for someone else, too. We're all going to need a lot of endurance, and figuring out how to keep fear from taking away from that is a good thing.