A Mason's Work

So taking a more sort of mental functional approach to a lot of the kind of mechanics internally

in the mind.

Last episode we talked about desire.

Today I want to talk a little bit about fear.

Fear is a thing that we talk a lot about, again in the negative context, but fear is outrageously

useful.

So let's talk today a little bit about what fear is, what it does, why it's important

and when to let it sort of have the wheel and when to not.

So if you sit with fear for a few minutes, you'll begin to realize that fear does some

really interesting things when you sit with it.

When you're afraid, your awareness, your cognitive process goes on high alert.

You obsess, you think fear executes things like anxiety as a function, it executes things

like alertness as a function, that sort of vigilance as a function.

Fear wakes up a lot of other sort of biological routines that essentially put the entire operation

on high alert.

Being in fear and using that sort of high speed process, right?

So being fearful is a very rapid sort of process.

You're thinking about it, you're going over and over your hand, you're gastrising potentially,

your anxiety level is increasing.

All of that happens.

It's a very, very fast way of thinking.

In a lot of situations, biologically, we would use this to escape, right?

We would use it to fight or flight.

Fear is the mechanism that either gets you swinging or gets you running.

So when you look at it as a function, as a defensive function, it is essentially putting

the organism on high alert and alerting you to, you know, the look at the surroundings

to evaluate for threats.

We don't often activate this on purpose.

We activate this as a response to the sort of current environment.

When you start to look at this in a meaningful way, you can essentially start to activate

fear as a lens by which you look at a given situation.

What here could come and get me later?

What am I doing here that could bite me in the ass long term?

Same thing is true when you need to turn it off.

You look at the long term consequences.

If I indulge this situation or if I endure this situation, what's the worst case scenario

that's going to happen?

You can use this kind of apparatus, this cognitive trick to essentially work with fear,

so you can either neutralize it and eliminate it where it's not helpful or activate it

and use it's strengths where it's appropriate to help you solve problems.

But again, the important thing is not to just demonize it.

It's to understand when you have to allow it to do what it does and when you can disregard

it.

Now, there's lots of other places where, you know, it's easier said than done to be

quite candid, right?

Being in a state of high fear is uncomfortable, which is why it activates the fight or flight.

You either kick butt or get out.

When you can sit with it and allow fear to be there and continue doing what you're doing,

that's we've sort of socially given that the label of being courageous, right?

It's not about ignoring it.

It's about understanding that you are afraid and you will persevere.

But understanding essentially how it works and what those mechanics are should give you

a better insight on how to use the function of fear to help you achieve your objectives,

whatever they might be.

And the same way, when fear does arise, understand that the vigilance you're feeling, that the

hyper alertness that you're feeling, you've given that label and that is all essentially

in service to the fear function inside your brain.

Now you can operate on it if you see fit and move forward.

Or you can essentially say, listen, I'm going to, I recognize them, I'm afraid right now,

I'm going to continue to work through that and continue to move my initiatives forward

or my directives forward or whatever it might be and not let not be derailed but not ignore

that awareness as well.

And again, that's embracing the courage of being able to respond to the environment or

in a situation without essentially letting it control you.

So that's what you need to know at least the high level about fear.