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“Fear is the mind killer.”—Gandhi
“We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments, under the most perfect conditions, under conditions of greatest courage, we enjoy and even thrill to the god-like possibilities we see in ourselves at such peak moments, and yet, simultaneously, shiver with weakness, awe and fear before the same possibilities.”—Abraham Moslow
Fear is a constant companion for most people, especially in today’s urban environment where violence and confrontation are the norm. Out of all the emotions one can have, most people know fear the best, simply because it has such a powerful influence on us. To have a life without fear in it is almost impossible for most people to imagine and indeed it is not really one you should try to imagine for fear is a constant of the human condition; it’s as much a part of us as any other emotion and to try and rid yourself permanently of it is a fruitless endeavour.
That’s the thing about fear- it never goes away!
But rather than let this fact get you down you should simply start to see fear as a necessary emotion and one which you should learn to utilize to your own advantage rather than let it impact you in a negative way. Fear is a powerful tool that will aid us in our response to confrontation and as martial artists we should make the effort to get to know it so we can better channel its energy into positive action.
That’s what this article will aim to show you, how to turn an emotion that most people see as negative into something that is positive and useful to us as martial artists and people in general. Before we do that however, let us first get clear on what exactly fear is and the impact it can have on us.
What is Fear?
The English dictionary tells us that fear is: “An unpleasant, often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger.”
When the brain senses danger it triggers adrenalin which in turn triggers what is known as the fight or flight response, a massive dump of adrenaline that can be felt in the pit of the stomach and which urges us to react either way to the perceived danger- you either stay and confront it (fight) or you run away from it (flight). The problem with this reaction is that it often causes terror immobilization or the “freeze syndrome” in people. You literally end up rooted to the spot, unable to move or make any clear decisions as to what to do next. This is why so many people view fear as a negative response, because of the debilitating effect it has on them.
The effect is only debilitating if you let it be, though. By releasing so much adrenaline from the adrenal gland into the system your body is actually trying to help you. For a short time your whole body will become turbo charged and ready for action. You will feel stronger, faster and your body will be partially anesthetized to pain, making you better able to handle a violent confrontation.
So if the fight or flight reaction is helpful to us in certain situations why do so many of us view it as being bad? The reason for that is because people have not trained themselves to react positively to the response and end up falling into a state of panic, caused when the reasoning process mistakes adrenalin for fear. This leaves a person drained of all that good energy and often frozen in fear in the face of the ensuing danger.
Adrenalin can also be released into the body in different ways, depending on the circumstances, the two most important of which for our purposes are slow release and immediate release.
A slow release of adrenalin occurs when you anticipate confrontation and the adrenaline can be released very slowly, sometimes over months, with the result that you end up feeling constant anxiety and what you perceive to be as fear over the anticipated event which can be an upcoming grading, for example, or a competition fight.
An immediate or fast release of adrenalin occurs when anticipation is not present or a situation escalates unexpectedly fast, causing an adrenal dump, as psychologists like to call it. The feeling is often so intense that a person will freeze in the face of confrontation because they mistake the feeling for sheer terror.
Within that there are also secondary occurrences of adrenalin that happen in a situation when things are not going to plan or you start to anticipate the consequences of a situation. Again, your body is just trying to help you along by doing this, not immobilise you with fear.
The sooner you start to recognize and acknowledge the adrenal response for what it is -a means to help you- the sooner you can start to deal with your fear.
Let’s now look at how you can use your brain to conquer fear.
How to Confront Your Fears
The first step in the process of confronting your fears is self-honesty. You have to really look inside yourself and decide what your fears are and why you think you have them. Many people never get passed this initial first step because they are too often embarrassed or afraid to admit their supposed failings, maybe because they see it as weak to admit such things, which is ridiculous because we all have fears of some description. By admitting to them you are taking a major step in the right direction in conquering them.
As Geoff Thompson wrote in his excellent book, Fear
Here’s an excerpt from Geoff’s book that eloquently illustrates this excuse syndrome very well and the extremely negative and debilitating effect it can have on you.
“As a younger person I would often convince myself that ‘I’m not afraid of Karate competitions, I’m just not interested in competing’. If that was the case it would have been fine. In reality I found even the thought of competing nerve wracking and would experience slow release adrenaline up to a couple of months before the contest. This long term anticipation would cause me sleepless nights and lessen my appetite. Lack of good food and sleep caused weight loss and depression. All of a sudden I was on a negative downward spiral, anticipation triggering many negative bodily reactions. The fact that I wasn’t sleeping and eating would make me feel worse because, as I saw it, if I wasn’t sleeping and eating then I must really have a problem. The lack of food and sleep would also make me very tired, being constantly tired lowered my defenses, leaving me at the mercy of the Voice, my inner opponent, who constantly told me how weak I was and how I couldn’t handle it (the situation). Eventually I would get so down about the whole thing I would ring up my instructor and make up some silly excuse as to why I couldn’t enter the competition.”
So we have to be honest with ourselves if we are to overcome our fears and give ourselves the chance at reaching our full potential, as martial artists or otherwise. To do this we first have to make a list.
The Fear List
First take a piece of paper and write down whatever fears you think you may have. Remember, be honest with yourself. The whole world is not going to see your list, only you, so you have no reason to lie to yourself. If you have a fear of hitting or getting hit, then write those down. If your fear is competitions or facing of against someone with a knife, then write those down as well. Just be brutally honest, for that is the only way you can help yourself.
Now that you have your list of fears you now need to decide which one to work on first. It is advisable to choose the least of your fears first, the one you think will be easiest to conquer. Ordering your fears in this way means you can build on each success so that by the time you get to your biggest fear you have the confidence and will power to tackle it.
One way of ordering your fears is to do as Geoff Thompson suggests and create a Fear Triangle, as he calls it. You put your smallest fear at the base of the triangle and then your next biggest fear after that and so on until you get to the tip of the triangle were your biggest fear will go. You then start at the bottom of the triangle and work your way up. This method allows for a steady progression and a gradual build up of confidence over time.
The next step then is to tackle that first fear.
Fear Exposure
In order to overcome any fear you have to be prepared to tackle it head on. There is no other way around this unfortunately. Facing your fears is something you can’t hide from if you really want to conquer them.
So start with the smallest fear on your list, whatever that may be. As an example we will use a fear of public speaking, something many martial artists who are required to teach often have. The plan here is to expose yourself to the thing that makes you fearful, but to do so by degrees rather than just jumping in feet first.
If your fear is speaking in public then you would probably begin by speaking in front of just one person, perhaps teaching them a technique or explaining something to them. You would do this for as long as it takes for you to feel comfortable doing so. Once you feel comfortable enough talking to one person then you would move on to talking in front of two or maybe three or four people. The trick with this type of exposure training is to step just outside of your comfort zone but not so far that you end up freezing with fear again.
After a while you will start to feel comfortable speaking in front of a few people. Now it is time to increase that number to whatever you can think you can handle next. You will keep doing this over whatever time is necessary. You shouldn’t push yourself too hard or you will end up loosing confidence. Eventually, if you continue with this method you should be able to speak comfortably in front of many people, be it in the dojo or at a seminar or whatever.
Once you feel that public speaking is no longer a major issue for you then are ready to move on and tackle your next fear, thus working your way up the triangle until you get to the top where your biggest fear resides. Hopefully by the time you reach the top your confidence will have increased enough that you now have the bottle to deal with that fear.
And that’s basically it, that’s how you deal with fear. There is no secret to it or overly complicated process to follow. It’s just a case of being honest with yourself and not allowing adrenaline to slowly poison you over time. If you really want to succeed in martial arts or your life in general then you must make an effort at over coming the things that are holding you back from doing that with the methods described above. You must, to use a borrowed phrase, feel the fear and do it anyway. Take a leap of faith and trust that you will fly rather than fall.
We have been conditioned, both by ourselves and by other people over the years to accept fear as something that is there to hold us back and stop us from doing the things we want to do, when in fact fear exists to help us do the things we want to do because it readies our bodies and minds for action. This is especially true in the case of street self defense when we think we are feeling terror but it’s just the process of our bodies becoming primed to deal with the situation. Bodyguards don’t call the adrenal dump the “wow factor” for nothing. They know it’s just the juice they need to carry them through a dangerous situation.
You should look at fear in the same way. Condition yourself to recognize the signs, to expect them and then to use them in the way that they are supposed to be used. Don’t think of fear as fear, think of it as super-fuel that turbo-charges you into action. It’s there for a reason and there isn’t another substance on the planet that will so effectively help you in this way. Why should you be afraid when you have such powerful resources at your disposal?
“The feeling of fear [adrenalin] is as natural as the feelings of hunger and thirst or the feeling of wanting to use the toilet. When you feel hungry you don’t panic, you eat, when you feel thirst you drink. So it is with fear. Don’t panic, act.”– Cus Dimatio
That’s all for this part of the mind training series. Next time we’ll be examining how to deal with the hardest opponent of all, our inner-opponent.
Further and Recommended Reading:
Hunting the Shadow: How to Turn Fear into Massive Success
Animal Day: Pressure Testing the Martial Arts
