# fear....Thoughts?



## KempoGuy06 (Mar 13, 2009)

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. - Yoda

Had to throw that in there!

Anyway fear is a big part of our lives whether they are little fears or large fears. From death to spiders (me right here. seriously 6'4" 245lbs if i see a spider i will run away screaming like a 7 year old girl). 

when is fear a good thing? when is it a bad thing? When is there a point that lack of fear leads to overconfidence? How does fear affect our training? Or how can it affect our skills on the street if we are forced to use them?

I was talking about this to the BB (there is only one so far) at the dojo and he had some pretty interesting ideas. So i thought i would bring the subject up with the good people here

B


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## Bill Mattocks (Mar 13, 2009)

Fear is a primal instinct; perhaps the oldest one there is, tied to the prime directive of all life - to survive.

Fear, as a physical response, causes changes to the human body and mind which trigger the_ 'flight or fight'_ response.  Heart rate increases, breathing increases, and muscles become tensioned.  Chemicals are released which heighten strength, shorten nerve response time, and cause the brain to begin to disregard signals regarded as unimportant to the immediate needs of survival.  Pupils dilate, veins in skin contract, blood glucose levels rise, digestion and immune systems shut down to draw less energy from the body, thought is concentrated on only the issue at hand.

Fear is also a psychological response, sometimes classed as an emotion.  Fear in this sense, is often described as the _'mind killer'_.  In my opinion, this is because we are no longer animals, we no longer face life-threatening dangers on a daily basis.  The fear response is supposed to provoke behavior, but for too many of us, that response is a blank look of terror, the _'deer in the headlights'_ look before we are mowed down.  That is because the portion of our minds that would normally be reverting to prior experience has none to draw on.  This is why the military and self-defense training all say the same thing - in an emergency, you revert to your training.  The mind is not fast enough on a conscious level to deal with the threat - the subconscious must take over and direct the response.  If there is no training in place, there is nothing there - no captain of the ship.

Fear is also a warning.  Depending on the circumstances, fear can be experienced as a gradually-increasing level of danger, which signal the conscious mind to _'pay attention, something is going on'_!

In my own opinion, fear is my friend.  Fear protects me and prepares me.  I have no fear, as they say, of fear.

What I must concentrate upon is not letting fear rule me, and I must make sure that the appropriate training is there and fresh and my body is physically able to respond when called upon to do so.


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## KempoGuy06 (Mar 13, 2009)

wow that was a good *** response

B


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## Xue Sheng (Mar 13, 2009)

fear can be a teacher, if you listen


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## zDom (Mar 13, 2009)

"Fear is nothing more than a feeling: you feel hot, you feel hungry, you feel angry, you feel afraid. Fear can never kill you."  Chiun


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## morph4me (Mar 13, 2009)

Bill Mattocks said:


> Fear is a primal instinct; perhaps the oldest one there is, tied to the prime directive of all life - to survive.
> 
> Fear, as a physical response, causes changes to the human body and mind which trigger the_ 'flight or fight'_ response. Heart rate increases, breathing increases, and muscles become tensioned. Chemicals are released which heighten strength, shorten nerve response time, and cause the brain to begin to disregard signals regarded as unimportant to the immediate needs of survival. Pupils dilate, veins in skin contract, blood glucose levels rise, digestion and immune systems shut down to draw less energy from the body, thought is concentrated on only the issue at hand.
> 
> ...


 

Can't give you a better answer than this.

Fear is a response to a stimuli, how you will respond is really the issue.


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