DON'T BE AFRAID

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It's another lovely week and a precious one for that matter because the edition one topic is so interesting and timely. Every human being has the tendency to be afraid but the big question is what do you when you are afraid or when fears comes? How can you face your fears?How do you overcome fear? What actually causes fear? What's fear ? Some life experiences. These and many more questions are what I intend to share in this post.

what's fear?

I could remember vividly the explanation of fear by one of my spiritual father. He tried to capture it as an acronym which stands for False Evidence Appears Real. Fears is an emotional state where an individual is afraid or lacks the confidence or ability to confront an obstacle. Fear is a situation where an individual can't face a challenge either internally or externally. Fears begins from the mind before it's apparently seen on the outside. Fear can kill and fear can also cause a positive impact in the life of an individual.

There are two kinds of fears. The first dimension of fear is a positive one which entails ascribing reverence to God as supreme and creator of everything. This kind of fear circumnavigate on the premise of respect for God and possibly respect for elders. The second dimension of fear is what I called a negative fear. This is the fulcrum of this discussion and the concern of this edition. This type of fear comes with intimidation. It's normally conceived from the heart. I can call this dimension of fear also as being coward, afraid, intimidated, inferiority complex etc. When not properly managed its resultant effect is bad.

What causes fear?

There are millions of factors that causes fear and these factors are dependent on individuals whereas there are some that have a conventional impact. Some reasons or factors that causes fear includes; Hunger, bad leadership system like what is being practiced in Nigeria today, death, poverty, examination from school, lack of job opportunities, peer pressure, societal norms and values, people's perspective, selfishness, ego etc. Fear could be caused within which is internally generated as a result of mindset, lack of confidence, inferiority complex etc whereas fear could also be caused by without factors which are externally generated. These includes peer group, society etc.

My experience

Some of the aforementioned things might sound archive and unrealistic but truly they play out virtually every day. Let me an experience that just occurred about two weeks now. I lost my uncle who was a professor of clinical psychology on 31-3-2024. As we are mourning over his death, on Tuesday morning the younger brother to the deceased who is my uncle lost his wife on 2-4-2024 after a devotion she slumped and died. The most shocking thing for me was her first daughter wedding was just in a week time. This is the Genesis of my fear. Hmmm would the wedding be postponed? How would my cousin sister cope up?

These questions kept running through my heart and later the family schedule the two burials for Monday and Tuesday so that the traditional wedding will be on Thursday while white on Saturday. I was thinking she would cry all through but she was excited and danced through the traditional till white wedding. My fears were gone and it was an amazing moment.

How to overcome fear?

There are so many ways to overcome fears because of our peculiarities however I will still share some measures that I felt very significant.
Read books about fear and how to over come it. The experience of others would help a lot.
Summoned courage from the inside and face all your fears deliberately.
You can engage the weapon of prayer and fasting for grace to stand firm.
Have a mentor.
Have courage.

You can face your fears. Don't be afraid because there is no any champion without a challenge. Fears are sometimes channels for promotion because once you overcome, you gain ascendency. Don't blame anyone for your failures because you are afraid of taking that step. Cheer up because you can do it. The fears you refused to face today might be a stumble block tomorrow. Thanks.