Fear is a response we’ve been designed with for our health, safety, and protection. It is a strong emotion triggered by a perceived threat. When we experience fear of an imminent danger, it helps to ignite and propel our bodies into swift and immediate action. Functions of the body not needed for immediate survival slow or shut down. Other functions that may help us to survive can become sharpened and heightened including heart rate, blood flow to muscles, and eyesight. The flow of hormones to the brain increases increasing focus and helping store the experience in our memory to be able to avoid a similar threat in the future.
Fear can save lives.
Fear experienced outside the bounds of a true and imminent threat is damaging and can wreak absolute havoc on our minds, bodies, and relationships. Living in a state of prolonged or chronic fear has lasting effects on the body. Many receptors and hormones including cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine are involved with a fear response and when they are out of balance for long periods of time, it impacts many systems.
Fear can harm.
Some documented effects of chronic fear include:
🔸 impaired immune function
🔸 GI disfunction
🔸 cardiovascular damage
🔸 memory loss
🔸 fertility issues
🔸 difficulty taking action
🔸 ability to process emotions
🔸 sensory overload
🔸 accelerated aging
🔸 irritability
🔸 fatigue
🔸 anxiety
🔸 depression
🔸 PTSD
🔸 and others…
Some ways to begin to eliminate chronic fear that is not serving us:
Feel. Deal. Heal.
✨ feel your feelings and deal with them to be able to begin to heal from and through them
✨ becoming aware that chronic fear is causing problems
✨ seeking truth
✨ replace fears with facts
✨ gratitude
✨ prayer
✨ counseling or therapy
✨ get to the root cause(s)
✨ recognizing triggers and avoiding or eliminating them while working to overcome the response to those triggers
✨ tackle inflammation. Healing the body from broken and imbalanced responses is much harder to do when inflamed.
✨ real food, clean water, exercise, sunshine, fresh air, feet on the earth, get out in nature…
✨ turn off the news
✨ establish healthy boundaries
✨ breathe
✨ laugh
✨ serve others
Truth > Fear
Love > Fear
Freedom > Fear