At day break today in our garden, I noticed a squirrel moving along the stem of a tree , probably on its way to the feeding station n our garden. Suddenly it became still and the three serial photographs above show how subdued it looked and stayed frozen.
That is when I heard the bird call of a Bulbul in the terrace wall of our cottage that was perched facing the squirrel
The squirrel moved forward only after the Bulbul flew away.
The social equation between squirrels and Bulbuls is not cordial. The squirrels avoid the feeding station when Bulbuls are feeding.
Bulbul evokes fear in a squirrel !
That ignited me into ruminating over fear prone situations I encounter in life.
Every time I have to reverse the car, I loose the composure that I have with regular driving. I bumped car three times while reversing in the early season of my driving history. Although, that was forty years ago, I still had a trace of anxiety, even when we had cars which had sensors in the rear bumper. Our current car has even a rear view camera. Even then my comfort level is disturbed when I have to reverse the car.
The psychology of fear is worth looking at to find the provocative trigger for any sate of discomfort when we face a particular situation.
In my case, fear is on account of the memory of the three instances when the bumper of the car was damaged.
A negative experience or hurting event or a traumatic encounter leave thoughts of guilt, self accusation or self pity!
One needs to move away from these imprisoning thoughts. The roots of these thoughts are deep in the subconscious level. When we give consent to such thoughts and act under the shadow of restraining thoughts we feed the memories to stay.
Contrary to that, the a self affirming attitude is what would displace the fear prone beliefs.
Every time I have to reverse the car in a congested area, Anna would say, follow the camera. That approach made a difference. The fear has a disabling effect on us. But the belief to be able to do what one is called to do upbuilds trust.
There are multiple fear evoking situations. We need to counter each of that by trusting our resources as our strength and face the challenging situation through the optic of readiness to go through the experience.
Fear is not an emotion alone. It is a subtle belief system which our mind holds on to when we strengthen it by our avoidance behaviour. Every time we engage the fear within and go through an experience which was difficult earlier, the mind gets reeducated to a new level of memory of competency !
The fear of danger and the cautious behaviour associated with that approach is healthy and worth cultivating! That protects us from miscalculating risk and landing in vulnerable situations due to lack of discernment. The electrician working on live wire would always wear gloves in the hand and wear special boots. That is the way we can be proactive knowing the risk associated, by taking precautions. That is responsible behaviour! A mountaineer will wear his safety gear while climbing to protect himself. Knowing the risk, he takes protective steps for safety.
Fear ought to have positive effects on us.
Surrendering to fear is accepting our weakness.
That is why, taming our fear is essential for personal development !
I know of a child who was fearful of lizard. He overcame his fear by playing with toys of reptiles! He diffused his fear and displaced his earlier belief ! He no more screamed when he saw a lizard on the wall. I know of many young purple who overcame their fear of dogs, some even going on to have a pet dog at home!
The first step is to demystify fear and downgrade the status we offer to fear which inhibits us in our consciousness!
M.C.Mathew (text and photo)
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