Fear as Invasive Species
El miedo como especie invasora
A student describes how fear rapidly colonizes every aspect of daily life, and the teacher reframes this heightened exposure as a hidden opportunity.
Fear as Invasive Species
A student describes how fear rapidly colonizes every aspect of daily life, and the teacher reframes this heightened exposure as a hidden opportunity.
For me, fear is the big boogeyman because it has a habit of colonizing all aspects of my life. If I leave ten dishes in the sink, I'll come back and dread them the next day. I know everybody experiences dread, anxiety, and fear, but for me it's like an invasive species that moves really fast. In every direction, if I move even a little bit, I've got fear to clear out. It's ugly. And then I catch myself thinking, "Oh well, I can do this later," but it just keeps pulling me back in.
I want to reframe that for you, because there is actually a silver lining here. You have a constant exposure to anxiety and fear, and that is an opportunity. A lot of people don't have the conscious experience of meeting fear all the time. For them, it's very suppressed, and they are functioning completely on automatic. Because you have this kind of constant exposure, you have something to work with that many people never even see.
The hidden advantage of visible fear
I never would have thought of it that way. My brothers and my dad, I would say they might be in the category you described. That's a totally foreign story to me. I can't even conceive of it.
A lot of people are in that category. A lot of people.