What is Fear?

Fear is probably one of the most misunderstood concepts on the planet, so let’s first clarify what I mean by fear. Fear isn’t just a feeling. Fear is a belief system, formed in early childhood, when your subconscious mind stored all the ‘scary things’ that happened around you as a child — fright, drama, negativity, etc.

Your subconscious then compiled all those experiences into a deeply subconscious, fear-based belief system about yourself, the world, people, and life — to keep you ‘safe’ from any aspect of that you couldn’t cope with. It’s basically a set of agreements you made with yourself — something like, “This scary or upsetting thing happened. It made me feel bad. I never want it to happen again. So I will avoid it at all costs”.

As a child, that made perfect sense. The problem is, that program never updated. It still thinks you’re that same child, and it’s still trying to keep you ‘safe’ from feeling bad, as if you’re still that same child — even though you are now an adult. In other words, fear is trying to protect you — in case you’re ever 0 to 7 years old again! That’s why it’s so irrational.

Because let’s be clear here. When I talk about “fear”, I am not talking about your normal survival fears such as your fear of snakes, fear of heights, fear of suspicious characters (especially if they’re carrying a snake!). They’re trying to keep you safe, and need to be respected.

What I am talking about here are your irrational personal fears such as the fear of change, fear of criticism, fear of failure, fear of rejection, and so on. Those are the fears that limit almost everything you do in life, and suppress every aspect of who you are as a person.

Strangely enough, nobody seems to be aware fear is even doing that to them. They just feel bad, and don’t know why. That’s because fear is subconscious — meaning it operates automatically in the background of your mind, beneath your conscious awareness and without your conscious consent. The average person has no idea their fears even exist, let alone what they do to them — or their purpose.

It’s the biggest problem most people don’t even know they have!

Here are just a few of the more common symptoms of subconscious fear: