WHY DO WE SCARE OURSELVES by Pennie Hunt

My mom was terribly afraid of tornadoes. It didn’t matter if it was a tornado watch or warning, or if she just thought the sky looked like a potential tornado; she would panic. When I was young, we didn’t have a basement in our home, so at any sign or thought of a tornado, she would take my siblings and me across the street to the neighbors who did have a basement, so we could have appropriate shelter.

When was the last time you were afraid? Were you afraid of storms, spiders, darkness? What caused your fear? Did a spider cause your fear? Did a dark night cause your fear? Did a tornado cause my mom’s fear? No. No. And no.

When you think about it, most of the time we scare ourselves. My mom was never in a tornado. You probably have never been attacked by a spider. And has the dark of night ever caused you harm? These things do not cause our fear. We cause our fear.

Our brains are continually scanning for threats and overestimating the risk of danger. When we do this enough times, it becomes a habit. We become very good at visualizing the worst possible outcome. We become very good at creating imagined monsters under our beds.

When we do this, our adrenaline rises, our anxiety fills us, and our fight or flight response is on high defense. And, we have done it all to ourselves.

Yes, we need to look both ways when we cross the street, and it probably isn’t a good idea to walk alone in a dark alley. We need to pay attention to real weather warnings, and don’t pick up a snake or try to pet a buffalo. Logical caution is a skill we need to learn. But giving our brain the freedom to create the worst-case scenario in our mind is not the way we should approach life.

Our thoughts create our reality, and we control our thoughts. When the sky turns dark and clouds look frightening, refocus your thoughts. Instead of visualizing the roof flying off your house and your house turning into a pile of rubble, focus on the present moment. Right now, you are safe. Right now, it looks like a storm, so take appropriate precautions, but do not create a hysterical panic.

If you see a spider, instead of visualizing it attacking you, focus on the present moment. The spider is small and several feet away. You can turn around, leaving the spider to his happy life, and you can walk away… no harm done.

In every moment and every situation, we have the power to refocus and choose fear or faith. As creative beings, we can conjure up the most amazing frightening situations in our mind that can induce hysterical stress in our bodies. Or… we can focus our thoughts on the present and have faith that our situation is stable, safe, and we have the capacity to handle it calmly.

Given this choice, why would we intentionally scare ourselves when we can live every moment in calm observation of our lives?  
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                                                     Pennie’s Life Lesson:
                   Instead of allowing your thoughts to create irrational fear,
                               use logical caution, and train your thoughts to
​                              stay in the present moment of calm observation.
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(*It is important that I mention that past traumas cause many people fears that are difficult to manage. PTSD is 100% real. I continue to struggle with driving in traffic after I was involved in a terrible accident years ago. In these cases, it is not self-inflicted but caused by a life-threatening or traumatic event. PTSD is not a case of scaring ourselves. This is not the fear I am referring to in this column.)  

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YOUR TURN...        
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