This week, my students and I talked about fear. This word has been defined in all forms.
Within the confines of creation, Liz Gilbert equates it to perfectionism.
To Deepak Chopra, fear is a passing emotion.
Eckhart Tolle says it appears in many forms: unease, worry, anxiety, nervousness, tension, dread.
Tim Ferriss uses a method called fear-setting to map out which decisions and steps to avoid or work on at present to avoid them from happening in the future.
It's also fear that has helped our species survive - we hunted food, made fire, and ruthlessly defended ourselves and our countries through wars.
The fears of teenagers
Almost like an experiment, I chatted with my students and found out that they fear:
1. their parents
2. low marks in their tests because that means a bad future
3. ghosts that they see on TV and Youtube
4. homework and exams
Do you notice how their fears are the same with ours?
In adult terms
These are the things we fear: power and authority. a depressing future, stories of threat and danger, responsibility and commitment.
Though years and events have been added, our fears stay the same. They just earned better-sounding titles.
Mitigate, not eliminate.
This life is not about removing these fears. It's about riding through the waves with these fears holding onto us - loosely or not.
The question is...do we hold it back?
At the end of the lesson, I asked my students to write down the ways to handle their biggest fear. Some of them said they will stop watching horror films and make more time for studying at home. Less time for video games, more time for sleep.
I like how actionable these are.
I learn from my students so much they have no idea.
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