FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real
FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real
the scariest thing can be our own thoughts
While waiting in line for a magic show on a dark and chilly October night, something suddenly caught my attention. Off to my right and just slightly behind me, something lunged at me! Jumping away from the cause of my terror, a scream ripped from my body. My sudden and loud actions set off a chain reaction in others around me, causing them to do the same.
What was the cause of my terror? A large doll with spiky hair that bobbled from riding on someone’s hip. Or so I thought….
Recognizing the silliness of my actions for jumping and screaming because of a doll, I burst out laughing.
When others identified the source of fear and heard me laughing, they did the same.
The thing is, it wasn’t really the doll that caused me to jump on the terror train. I was already on it. THAT’s why I jumped and screamed like I did. The past few hours had already exposed me to circumstances that had primed me to react in these specific ways to literally anything that suddenly moved toward me, even a doll.
I was at one of Southern California’s largest and most immersive Halloween experiences — a theme park completely transformed into a bedlam of roaming monsters, fear-inducing mazes and spine-tingling scare zones. I had willingly handed over my money with glee and walked through the gates of terror. I was willing to do it because of the thrill, the rush, the excitement of “jump scares”.
In what is now jokingly referred to as “The Doll of Doom Incident”, I had allowed F.E.A.R. – False Evidence Appearing Real, to bypass rational response and dictate how I reacted.
“I had allowed F.E.A.R. – False Evidence Appearing Real, to bypass rational response and dictate how I reacted.”
Although I knew that all of the fear-provoking occurrences throughout the night weren’t real, my mind and body didn’t.
Our brains are great at organizing and generating ideas, as well as helping to protect us when facing situations that produce real fear.
Because of responses hardwired into neurological connections in our brains, our brains aren’t so great at differentiating between real danger and imagined danger from a false alarm or false evidence appearing real
The thing about fear is that it can be either a protective mechanism, preventing us from being harmed, or it can be a self-delusion, preventing us from reaching our true potential.
Fear can be either a protective mechanism, preventing us from being harmed, or it can be a self-delusion, preventing us from reaching our true potential.
Whether real or imagined, our brain and bodies respond to fear in the same ways. When a “threat” is perceived, our amygdala, the brain’s fear response area, gets activated. The release of stress hormones, like adrenaline and cortisol, is triggered and these hormones begin pumping through our bodies, triggering our fight or flight response to kick in and causing us to feel “jumpy” or tense.
Our heart rate and blood pressure then increase, helping oxygen and nutrients move to our major muscle groups and away from “non-essential” functions like digestion (which is why people often experience or complain of stomachache when feeling stressed or anxious). Our hands and feet get cold or clammy as blood flow is also redirected to major muscle groups like our legs or arms to enhance our ability to fight or flee. Our pupils dilate, taking in more light so that we can see better. Our senses are heightened as we are looking and listening for things that could be dangerous. We’re on edge, poised to spring.
Basically, our bodies prioritize, using all of our energy for our most crucial priority – survival. This in turn puts things like emotional regulation (our ability to respond rather than react), creativity to most effectively problem solve, and seeing the big picture rather than getting stuck in the weeds, all on the back burner.
Fear can either protect our lives or throw us into chaos needlessly, especially if we believe that False Evidence Appearing Real is actually authentic. It can be a natural response to physical danger or self-created. Unfortunately, too many of us are caught in the web, allowing self-created fear to wreak havoc in our lives.
And we all have fears. Maybe it’s fear of failure, of being out of control, of being different, of being rejected. Fear of the unknown, fear of not being enough, fear of sharing our thoughts and appearing foolish, fear of making mistakes, fear of trusting ourselves, fear of trusting others.
Instead of letting fear get the best of us, of letting fear stunt our potential, of letting fear hurt our relationships, of letting fear get in the way of our wellbeing and happiness, it’s time to call out fear for what it is: False Evidence Appearing Real.
Trying to run away from, stop, or ignore fear, will only increase the tension, the stress, the distress.
So, what can you do?
Train your brain for success rather than defeat.
In his evidence-based research for “Positive Intelligence”, Shirzad Chamine used factor analysis to discover the root cause of what fears are really getting in the way of our success, our wellbeing and our relationships. From the research conducted with over 500,000 participants in 50 countries, ten main ways in which we self-sabotage, or give in to F.E.A.R. (False Evidence Appearing Real) were identified. And we all have our own special concoction.
Fear can only be transformed when we can turn around and face it, seeing it for what it really is. After all, we can’t defeat a foe that we don’t see or that we believe is our friend.
Take the first stop toward exposing the lies generated by False Evidence Appearing Real in your life so that you can stop allowing it to get in your way.
Take this free 5-minute assessment and unmask your top accomplice saboteurs: https://rachelmohrcoaching.com/pq-saboteurs-assessment/
What are you afraid of?
