Fear makes us gullible.
Fear is a normal human emotion. And it does serve a purpose. It can alert us to danger and harm, helping us stay safe and healthy.
This was perhaps most useful when we were living and hunter gatherers. Rockslides, charging game prey, poisonous snakes all set off our spidey senses then, allowing us to evade risk.
That’s not to say there is no risk in our organized societies. But it likely is less present on a daily basis.
And yet, fear is still hard-wired into our brains. Our fear responses have a biochemical signature, one we can find addictive. So when there is nothing we currently need fear, we may mentally manufacture risk to feed our need for the accustomed biochemical response.
This type of thought patter can lead us to worry and fret about things that mostly will never come to pass. We experience the trauma of a posited event in advance, when it probably never will actually happen. And we may call the situation into reality by focusing our energy on it and manifesting it.
Fear also provides a lever by which we can be manipulated. Many of our institutions are designed to keep us doing what we’re supposed to do by use of negative consequences.
We have laws and punishments for breaking them. We may be censured in our careers if we don’t act and speak as expected. If we’ve experienced hardship or trauma in the past, the memory can leave us vulnerable to manipulation by others when their words and actions evoke that memory.
In its many flavors and sources, fear can cause us to believe in things that aren’t and may never be real. It can paralyze and trap us, leaving us feeling like victims.
We may cover this sense of vulnerability with anger, because being incensed, outraged, polarized, or full of hatred allows us to feel some semblance of power in the situation.
A frosting of anger over fear helps us feel righteous and solidifies our belief in circumstances that may never become real. It’s a heady biochemical brew and one that our body may wish to experience over and over again.
Today’s message suggests I may wish to step back emotionally and assess when I feel fearful or justifiably angry. It’s very possible I may be fooling myself, repeating a biochemical pattern, or being subject to thought conditioning by others. I can take a breath and choose what I wish to feel and experience.