By: Arthur Anderson
Fear can be a very useful emotion. It is meant to keep us in a state of heightened awareness by increasing adrenaline and raising our cortisol levels, among other things. This heightened awareness can save us in unsafe situations or help us when something unexpected happens.
The problem is that fear has become a bigger part of our lives than it should be. We have developed fears for things that we cannot directly control. Fear of North Korea shooting a nuclear missile at us, fear of global warming, fear of ISIS and so on. Why do we continually fear about things we cannot directly control? Because the “media” tells us we should. When I say “media” I’m referring to news networks, every blogger who has something to say, a Facebook follower, or the other so-called news sources that exist on the Internet. Truthfully, I don’t know how young people stay sane with this massive bombardment of information. When I was a kid our news sources were limited to the TV networks and newspapers. Nothing was ever so constant and/or one sided to keep us in a constant state of fear.
Negative news and fear is what drives these news sources. By continually keeping you in that state of fear you will continue to tune in and feed your state of fear. If you find yourself reading news that is making you afraid of something you cannot control – STOP. Look at things that are within your control, things that you can do for yourself and your friends and your community that will give you satisfaction and safety. There is a lot we can do close to home to make us a stronger, more confident person and help make a stronger community. Don’t let a heightened level of fear manifest itself into another unwanted emotion like hate.
Hate is a word that should be removed from the English language. It has never produced anything to help people improve their lives. Hate has a tendency to cultivate itself into unhealthy life choices. The hate that Germany cultivated towards the Jews led to World War II. The hate that al-Qaeda and ISIS cultivated towards the West has led to unprecedented terrorism. And where do these levels of hate come from that lead to such an extreme outcome? From someone convincing you to hate a person, an ideal or an object. There wasn’t an all of a sudden, aha moment where thousands of people just starting hating Jews or the West, someone convinced them that they hated these things.
So, when you find yourself using the word Hate, or thinking it, ask yourself why. Is the reason I hate this thing because someone has convinced me I should? If that is the case then you are letting yourself be directed to an unhealthy outcome. Always question Hate.
Tying this all into your health. Prolonged periods of fear, stress and hate will lead to prolonged periods of elevated adrenaline and cortisol levels. And this will lead to inflammation in the body which damages tissues and organs. Find ways to remove unfounded fear and hate from your life, you will find that life becomes much brighter.