<ul>
<li>Most people are in the dark about their fears. The unknown, random and unwanted scenarios or events that could happen in the future, forms the general anxiety known as fear. This can include a fear of losing one’s job, getting sick with a virus, or getting old.</li>
<li>Some fears are in our deep, subconscious minds, and include the fear of not being in control, of not being good enough, and even some collective fears passed on from our ancestors.</li>
</ul>

About Fear

Fear has the tendency to divide and isolate us, to shrink us to a tiny version of ourselves. Other negative emotions like jealousy, resentment, anger, bitterness and self-pity also have their roots in fear.
Some fear is good, like staying away from things or activities that can endanger us, but most fear is psychological and a false shadow inside our heads.

The Colours Of Fear

“Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.”

We try to attribute our fears to outside circumstances and falsely believe that by changing things we can get rid of our fears. Fear is just a belief inside our heads, a mindset that has gone in the darkness.
Like with all beliefs, we can retrain our mind and remove our fears.

Fear Is A Belief

<figure><img alt="JpegPhotographer/ Shutterstock" src="https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/shutterstock_1433239235.jpg" srcset="https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/shutterstock_1433239235.jpg?w=480 480w, https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/shutterstock_1433239235.jpg?w=600 600w, https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/shutterstock_1433239235.jpg?w=900 900w, https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/shutterstock_1433239235.jpg?w=1180 1180w, https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/shutterstock_1433239235.jpg?w=1550 1550w" width="785" height="523"><figcaption dir="auto">JpegPhotographer/ Shutterstock</figcaption></figure>“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” —President Franklin Delano RooseveltThe first step in correcting anything is identifying the source. For instance, if we have water pooling in our house, we have to find the source of the leak. The same process applies to fear. Once we determine where it is coming from, we can find a solution.The issue with fear is that it often masks itself really well. Some people don’t realize they are in fear and just feel a general uneasiness. For others of us, we know it’s fear, but even in these cases, we often identify fear with something outside of us. This can take many forms such as fear over losing our job, not having enough money, getting older, and losing our health in general or through exposure to a pandemic. It can include fear over failed relationships or not finding a significant other, not keeping up with the neighbors, or something like being bombed by another country. As we will discuss more extensively in a later chapter, our fears are almost always tied to something in the future and based on a random and often illogical assumption that a certain scenario or event could happen.&nbsp;What we often miss is the fear that comes up from our subconscious and is created by our belief system, and these types of fears are interlinked with and underpin the more obvious outer ones above. Some of these fears can include fear of the unknown, not being in control, not being lovable, not being good enough, and not living up to other’s or our own expectations. Many of us hold a subconscious fear of being judged or ridiculed — we have a fear of what others might think about us. There is also a powerful fear of a higher power and what will happen when death comes. Additionally, many collective and family fears are likely inherited from our ancestors. For instance, studies of descendants of Holocaust and Civil War survivors have pointed to intergenerational trauma being passed down through the DNA.&nbsp;Some fears are unique to us, while others are held by a large majority. Collective fear is what we experience together as part of one humanity, like the fear of dying. The coronavirus crisis has brought fear of the unknown to the forefront for all of us because we don’t know what the future will look like.As opposed to love and gratitude, fear is divisive and contracting, and there are often other negative beliefs around it such as jealousy, resentment, bitterness, self-pity, anger, and pride. Fear makes us not trust our fellow human beings or any kind of higher power.&nbsp;When we are in fear, we try to control people and situations. Fear causes people to act in ways that are completely counter to their true nature such as misuse of power, overaccumulation of wealth and resources, subjugation of Mother Nature, being a rude and non-empathetic person, and traits such as impatience. This is why we have the world you see today.&nbsp;There is nothing wrong with us when we have fear. It’s something that virtually everyone in a human body has to face. Sometimes fear is good. It warns us not to do something that could endanger us, like walking fast on ice, jumping off a bridge into a river on a dare, or taking a hallucinogenic drug. But most of the time the fear is coming up as a pointer to tell us what’s false within us that needs addressing.&nbsp;As the FDR quote hints at, most of us live in fear of our fear. It is our running from and stuffing and being scared of the fear that is the problem. Anything in us that we try to ignore or push away only becomes stronger as we have an innate drive to return to a recognition that we are whole and complete. Our fear is just knocking at our inner door to get our attention, just as a friend would knock on our door if he saw that our house were ablaze.&nbsp;All fear stems from attaching our identity to something false. This is why we can’t get rid of the fear by changing the outer circumstances. Thus, we don’t alleviate fear through the same mechanism that created it. For instance, if we are in a company that has had major layoffs and we fear that this will happen to us, we can take another job, but this only appears to alleviate our fear. The same thing can happen in the new company.&nbsp;A Japanese proverb states, “Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.” We can only address and release the fear at the level at which it’s being created, which is in the subconscious and our belief system. Fortunately, our beliefs are malleable. Unfortunately, many of us in great fear hold on to our beliefs as if we would experience a thousand small deaths if we let them evolve — which at some level we would. However, this is how we grow and what we are being offered an opportunity to do during this powerful time.&nbsp;Since fear is a belief, our next few chapters explore how both our individual and collective belief systems were created. Once we understand why we do the things we do and react as we do, we can choose to change our beliefs to better reflect who we are and who we want to be. Then we can release fear for good.Main Takeaway: Fear is a belief, and like all beliefs, it can be changed.&nbsp;What do you fear the most? What belief did that fear spring from?&nbsp;<figure><img src="https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/A-Book-on-Fear-Cover.jpg?w=683" srcset="https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/A-Book-on-Fear-Cover.jpg 1801w, https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/A-Book-on-Fear-Cover.jpg?resize=200%2C300 200w, https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/A-Book-on-Fear-Cover.jpg?resize=768%2C1152 768w, https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/A-Book-on-Fear-Cover.jpg?resize=683%2C1024 683w, https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/A-Book-on-Fear-Cover.jpg?resize=1024%2C1536 1024w, https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/A-Book-on-Fear-Cover.jpg?resize=1366%2C2048 1366w, https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/A-Book-on-Fear-Cover.jpg?resize=1080%2C1620 1080w" width="657" height="986"><figcaption dir="ltr">Excerpted from <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08B14Q3M5" dir="ltr">A Book On Fear: Feeling Safe In A Challenging World</a>, published June 9th, 2020. </figcaption></figure>Follow us&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/thriveglbl/" dir="ltr">here</a>&nbsp;and subscribe&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thriveglobal.com/newsletter/?utm_source=Recirc&amp;utm_medium=Thrive" dir="ltr">here</a>&nbsp;for all the latest news on how you can keep Thriving.Stay up to date or catch-up on all our podcasts with Arianna Huffington&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thriveglobal.com/categories/thrive-podcasts/?utm_source=Recirc&amp;utm_medium=Thrive" dir="ltr">here</a>.<div><time>— Published on June 15, 2020</time></div><img src="https://content.thriveglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Screen-Shot-2020-06-15-at-11.35.31-AM.png?quality=60&amp;resize=60,60" alt="" width="60" height="60"><h3><a to="https://thriveglobal.com/authors/lawrence-doochin/" href="https://thriveglobal.com/authors/lawrence-doochin/">Lawrence Doochin</a></h3>Lawrence Doochin in an author, entrepreneur, and devoted husband and father. He has traveled a long journey of emotional and spiritual healing, processing and releasing a large amount of fear along the way. This has given him an in-depth understanding of how our beliefs create our reality, and he seeks to help others awaken to a greater understanding of the nature of life and their role in it.Lawrence is also active in the business world, having worked for or been associated with enterprises big and small, and he is the cofounder of HUSO sound therapy, which is providing powerful benefits to people worldwide. In everything he does, Lawrence strives to serve a higher good.Please visit him at&nbsp;<a href="http://lawrencedoochin.com/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://lawrencedoochin.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1592321428191000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEZ9WKHJs3tfq0Th_qZW9AC_G9Xlg" rel="noopener nofollow" dir="ltr">lawrencedoochin.com</a>&nbsp;to learn more.<div dir="ltr">Share your comments below. Please read our <a href="https://thriveglobal.com/stories/commenting-guidelines/" dir="ltr">commenting guidelines</a> before posting. If you have a concern about a comment, report it <a href="mailto:communityhelp@thriveglobal.com" dir="ltr">here</a>.
</div>

When we realize our fears are created by our internal belief systems, we can tap into our power to change them.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

health

Health

problemsolving

Problem Solving

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” —President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The first step in correcting anything is identifying the source. For instance, if we have water pooling in our house, we have to find the source of the leak. The same process applies to fear. Once we determine where it is coming from, we can find a solution.

The issue with fear is that it often masks itself really well. Some people don’t realize they are in fear and just feel a general uneasiness. For others of us, we know it’s fear, but even in these cases, we often identify fear with something outside of us. This can take many forms such as fear over losing our job, not having enough money, getting older, and losing our health in general or through exposure to a pandemic. It can include fear over failed relationships or not finding a significant other, not keeping up with the neighbors, or something like being bombed by another country. As we will discuss more extensively in a later chapter, our fears are almost always tied to something in the future and based on a random and often illogical assumption that a certain scenario or event could happen.

What we often miss is the fear that comes up from our subconscious and is created by our belief system, and these types of fears are interlinked with and underpin the more obvious outer ones above. Some of these fears can include fear of the unknown, not being in control, not being lovable, not being good enough, and not living up to other’s or our own expectations. Many of us hold a subconscious fear of being judged or ridiculed — we have a fear of what others might think about us. There is also a powerful fear of a higher power and what will happen when death comes. Additionally, many collective and family fears are likely inherited from our ancestors. For instance, studies of descendants of Holocaust and Civil War survivors have pointed to intergenerational trauma being passed down through the DNA.

Some fears are unique to us, while others are held by a large majority. Collective fear is what we experience together as part of one humanity, like the fear of dying. The coronavirus crisis has brought fear of the unknown to the forefront for all of us because we don’t know what the future will look like.

As opposed to love and gratitude, fear is divisive and contracting, and there are often other negative beliefs around it such as jealousy, resentment, bitterness, self-pity, anger, and pride. Fear makes us not trust our fellow human beings or any kind of higher power.

When we are in fear, we try to control people and situations. Fear causes people to act in ways that are completely counter to their true nature such as misuse of power, overaccumulation of wealth and resources, subjugation of Mother Nature, being a rude and non-empathetic person, and traits such as impatience. This is why we have the world you see today.

There is nothing wrong with us when we have fear. It’s something that virtually everyone in a human body has to face. Sometimes fear is good. It warns us not to do something that could endanger us, like walking fast on ice, jumping off a bridge into a river on a dare, or taking a hallucinogenic drug. But most of the time the fear is coming up as a pointer to tell us what’s false within us that needs addressing.

As the FDR quote hints at, most of us live in fear of our fear. It is our running from and stuffing and being scared of the fear that is the problem. Anything in us that we try to ignore or push away only becomes stronger as we have an innate drive to return to a recognition that we are whole and complete. Our fear is just knocking at our inner door to get our attention, just as a friend would knock on our door if he saw that our house were ablaze.

All fear stems from attaching our identity to something false. This is why we can’t get rid of the fear by changing the outer circumstances. Thus, we don’t alleviate fear through the same mechanism that created it. For instance, if we are in a company that has had major layoffs and we fear that this will happen to us, we can take another job, but this only appears to alleviate our fear. The same thing can happen in the new company.

A Japanese proverb states, “Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.” We can only address and release the fear at the level at which it’s being created, which is in the subconscious and our belief system. Fortunately, our beliefs are malleable. Unfortunately, many of us in great fear hold on to our beliefs as if we would experience a thousand small deaths if we let them evolve — which at some level we would. However, this is how we grow and what we are being offered an opportunity to do during this powerful time.

Since fear is a belief, our next few chapters explore how both our individual and collective belief systems were created. Once we understand why we do the things we do and react as we do, we can choose to change our beliefs to better reflect who we are and who we want to be. Then we can release fear for good.

Main Takeaway : Fear is a belief, and like all beliefs, it can be changed.

What do you fear the most? What belief did that fear spring from?

<a dir="ltr" href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08B14Q3M5">A Book On Fear: Feeling Safe In A Challenging World </a>

Follow us <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.facebook.com/thriveglbl/">here </a> and subscribe <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.thriveglobal.com/newsletter/?utm_source=Recirc&amp;utm_medium=Thrive">here </a> for all the latest news on how you can keep Thriving.

Stay up to date or catch-up on all our podcasts with Arianna Huffington <a dir="ltr" href="https://www.thriveglobal.com/categories/thrive-podcasts/?utm_source=Recirc&amp;utm_medium=Thrive">here </a>.

Lawrence Doochin in an author, entrepreneur, and devoted husband and father. He has traveled a long journey of emotional and spiritual healing, processing and releasing a large amount of fear along the way. This has given him an in-depth understanding of how our beliefs create our reality, and he seeks to help others awaken to a greater understanding of the nature of life and their role in it.

Lawrence is also active in the business world, having worked for or been associated with enterprises big and small, and he is the cofounder of HUSO sound therapy, which is providing powerful benefits to people worldwide. In everything he does, Lawrence strives to serve a higher good.

Please visit him at <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://lawrencedoochin.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1592321428191000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEZ9WKHJs3tfq0Th_qZW9AC_G9Xlg" dir="ltr" href="http://lawrencedoochin.com/" rel="noopener nofollow">lawrencedoochin.com </a> to learn more.

Here's How to Harness the Power of Fear for Good

About Fear

The Colours Of Fear

JAPANESE PROVERB

Fear Is A Belief

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