What are you afraid of? Identifying your fears.

What are you afraid of? Identifying your fears

Courage is not the same thing as fearlessness. While a fearless person might take a big leap without fear, a courageous person takes the same leap despite their fear.

Almost everyone has fear, and that is not a bad thing! Fear is a complex emotional response that occurs at both micro and macro levels. Fear can be adaptive, in that it helps us recognize danger and elicits a defensive response, therefore encouraging our survival. That fearful feeling of increased heart rate, heightened vigilance, and tension is actually an adaptive behavior and perceptual response that gets our body ready to act defensively to protect ourselves from threat or danger (Rosen & Schulkin, 1998). We want to be fearful of dangerous things so we know to stay away, but too much or too strong fears may have negative consequences.

Source:Rosen & Schulkin, 1998

When our fears are too strong, they can hold us back.

Since fear is so connected with courage, an important step to developing courage may be reflecting on our fears - big and small.

Challenge

Before you move on to the next step, try identifying your fears

• Try listing 3 of your fears below - a small fear, a bigger fear, and a large fear.

You can write your thoughts in your journal or in the text box below.