Our Deepest Fears

The term or word "fear" can be disconcerting. Most of us feel that fear is bad. On the contrary, fear should be welcomed and owned by all. We all have fears. I mean, they say it's only the fool that doesn't have fears. Our fears keep us on alert, our fears keep us prepared and our fears keep us ready. The more fearful we are, the more ready and aware we are. As we are here to talk about fear, it would be good for us to explore types of fear if there are any.

TYPES OF FEAR

In my opinion, there are two kinds of fear. There is this one I call the Destructive fear and there is the other I call the Constructive fear. How we react in the face of a threat reveals the kind of fear we have. It is either your fear is constructive or destructive. There is no sane person that lives without fear.

The most powerful countries in the world are the most fearful. That military officer you see that has so kicked up in his or her action gear is more fearful. The difference between their fear and the other person's own is its constructiveness. Now let's talk about the types of fear and how we react to them in the face of a threat.

CONSTRUCTIVE FEAR

When someone or someplace has a constructive fear, that fear will make the person or group of people sit down and plan oh how to defend himself or themselves when a threat shows up. In some cases, they will not even wait for the threat to show up. When once they forecast a looming threat in the near future, since they have prepared themselves already, they would be the ones to attack first instead of waiting for them to be on the defending side when they are attacked.

A single person who is fearful but constructively, would be calculative when walking on a lonely road. This person may even take some self-defence lessons just so they can defend themselves professionally.

A person with constructive fear would have thought a lot about how to protect himself or herself when robbers come attacking him either at home or on the street. Constructive fear gets you ready for the worse when it comes. It doesn't mean that you would always overcome, but at least you were more ready for what is to come than who's fear is not constructive.

This explains why the military always trains its personnel. Converting their fear into being constructive. This also applies to other individuals like those who gym, those who work out, those who keep fit and so on. Converting their fear into a constructive one.

DESTRUCTIVE FEAR

Destructive fear on the other hand is this type of fear that lets you surrender everything to the attacker in the face of a threat. This person was not constructive enough to have thought about a possible occurrence of what happened and because of this, he or she had no time to get prepared for what might come and this rendered this person more vulnerable in the face of any threat. Destructive fear kills you before you die for real.

PEOPLE WITHOUT FEAR

People without fear are people insane. Countries without fear are the poorest. A people without a viable plan for a viable means of a sustained livelihood.

OUR DEEPEST FEARS

Our deepest fears are first personal and positive that external and negative. Everyone is first of all selfish and first in a positive light than otherwise. For example, those who commit suicide commit suicide first because they love themselves so much to see them go through what they are going through at the moment. So they resorted to ending it before they suffer any further.

This I believe was one of the reasons why Marianne Williamson coined one of his famous quotes "Our Deepest Fear"

Marianne Williamson wrote and I quote 

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same"

Here is a video clip of Marianne Williamson's Our deepest fear quote as spoken by the character Akeelah Anderson in the movie Akeelah and the Bee.

Our deepest fear is first about us than of others and how we go about expressing this fear tells what kind of fear is ruling in our lives. Whether it is constructive or destructive.

Here is another paraphrased version of Marianne Williamson's Our Deepest Fear Quote and it reads 

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightened us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others"

The above quote was aired in a movie titled Coach Carter and here is the movie clip below.

No matter what it seems, our fears are not supposed to destroy us. They are not supposed to make us shrink ourselves or to make us surrender to what is constantly seeking and trying to kill us. They are not supposed to make us less accommodating. They are not supposed to make us unreasonable but rather more reasonable. Our fears, whether we choose to call them deepest fears are supposed to make us bolder, stronger, more accommodating, and shine brighter.

What is your deepest fear? My deepest or greatest fear as I titled it when I wrote it and later updated it in 2018 is nothing compared to the one of Marianne Williamson but at least I've identified my greatest fear and the identification of it is helping me navigate through life's storm rather with less outright worry. What is your greatest fear? Think about it, identify it and plan on how to manage it for the greater good of us all.